Angry over being accused of racial profiling, a Texas cop stormed up to a man who had been criticizing him arresting his friend, forcing him to lay flat on his face so he could place his knee on his back.
Baytown police said the cop only did that because the man had used profanity but even that is protected speech. And it appears as if he was only using profanity on a personal phone call. The video shows the cop was just annoyed at anybody trying to hold him accountable for his actions.
“Cause he’ black, huh?” one of the men said in reference to the arrest of their friend. “They pulled him over because he’s black.”
Police say they were actually arresting 23-year-old Jostin Moore for “traffic violations and an outstanding warrant” when his friends pulled up and began recording. The video show the cop who is only known at “Officer Brown” at this time stormed up to Skylar Gilmore, 24, and grabbed his wrist to take him down. After forcing Gilmore to lie facedown with his hands behind his back, the cop turned to his friend, Isaiah Phillips, grabbing his arm and shoving him against a car.
“If you don’t get back, I’m going to break your shit,” Brown tells Isaiah Benavides, the man with the camera.
According to the Baytown Sun:
Benavides, who made a video of the encounter and was not arrested, said, “We were just videotaping to make sure it was a normal traffic stop, to make sure they didn’t violate his rights or anything, and they ended up getting mad at us, I guess because we didn’t let them bully him.”
Gilmore pulled out his phone and called Mitchell, who arrived a couple minutes later, he said. While the arrest was taking place at the store’s fuel island, Gilmore and Benavides appear to be observing from behind their truck on the other side of the parking lot.
After being handcuffed, Moore waited in front of the patrol car while the officer was inside the car. Moore exchanged some comments with his friends who were standing by.
The video then shows one of the officers walking across the parking lot to Gilmore and appearing to grab for his phone. Gilmore says, “What, I didn’t do nothing.”
The officer responds, “You’re cussing in public, put your hands behind your back.” He then pushes Gilmore against the wall, pushes him to the ground and puts his knee on Gilmores back. Gilmore puts his hands behind his back and is handcuffed.
“They were trying to say he was cursing at the officer, Mitchell said in an interview Wednesday, but he was on the phone with me; he just so happened to be using curse words.”
The video went viral and Baytown police issued the following statement in an attempt to protect Brown who has obvious anger management issues and likely has multiple complaints filed against him, not that police ever take those complaints seriously.
“On June 2nd our officers conducted a traffic stop of a vehicle in the parking lot of the Baytown Market Convenience Store located in the 2900 block of Market Street. During that stop the driver of the vehicle, 23-year-old Jostin Moore of Baytown, was arrested for traffic violations and an outstanding warrant out of Deer Park. During the course of the stop, a small crowd made up of several of Mr. Moore’s associates began to gather outside the store. Two members of that group, 24-year-old Skylar Gilmore and 23-year-old Isaiah Phillips both of Baytown, were subsequently arrested as well for Disorderly Conduct-Language for their public use of profanities during the incident. Mr. Gilmore was also charged with Interfering with Public Duties through the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for his actions during his arrest. Baytown Police Chief Dougherty has referred the incident to our Internal Affairs Division to conduct a complete and thorough review of the incident.”
The above clip has been cut to show the arrest. The video below is the entire clip that leads to the arrest.
