JACKSON, Miss (AP) — An incident involving a white Mississippi Freeway Patrol officer and three Black males is below investigation after a viral video confirmed the officer placing a handcuffed man right into a chokehold and wrestling him right into a ditch.
The video, captured Friday in McComb by a person named Packer Lewis, sparked outrage over the officer’s conduct.
The video exhibits certainly one of Lewis’ brothers, Eugene Lewis, standing on the street in handcuffs as Packer Lewis and one other brother, Darius Lewis, yell that they're recording the incident. Abruptly, the officer grabs Eugene Lewis by the neck and pulls him throughout the road, tackling him to the bottom. At one level, the officer seems to make use of his knee to pin him down.
“That’s how George Floyd died,” Packer Lewis yelled whereas recording a livestream on Fb, referring to the 2020 homicide of Floyd, a Black man who was pinned below a Minneapolis police officer’s knee for greater than 9 minutes.
Packer Lewis stated the Mississippi officer grew to become aggressive after he instructed the Lewis brothers to depart the scene.
“He stated y’all want to depart. It’s not y’all enterprise. We stated it’s our enterprise as a result of it’s our brother,” Lewis instructed The Related Press on Monday.
After detaining Eugene Lewis in a police automotive, the officer then walked towards the opposite two brothers and pointed a weapon at certainly one of them. After one other officer arrived, Packer and Darius Lewis have been then arrested.
Public officers stated an investigation is underway. Authorities haven't recognized the officer concerned nor stated what prompted Eugene Lewis to be positioned in handcuffs. Packer Lewis stated his brother was pulled over for allegedly dashing after which was arrested for having an expired license.
“The Mississippi Division of Public Security was made conscious of an incident involving a Mississippi Freeway Patrolman conducting an arrest on a topic in McComb, MS,” stated Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the Mississippi Division of Public Security. “This incident is being reviewed internally by the Division of Public Security. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation can be conducting an inquiry.”
McComb Mayor Quordiniah Lockley urged persistence as an investigation unfolds.
“I do know that a lot of you want myself, have seen the video of the Mississippi Freeway Patrol Officer and Mr. Eugene Lewis. I'm alarmed in addition to disturbed over it,” Lockley stated. “I ask that you just enable the investigation to be accomplished however on the similar time let your voice be heard.”
Lockley stated he contacted State Consultant Daryl Porter Jr. and requested him to intervene on behalf of the Metropolis of McComb because it concerned Mississippi Freeway Patrol, which is the state’s jurisdiction.
In an announcement, Porter, Jr., a Democrat from Summit, stated the commissioner of public security instructed him the incident is being investigated by the Inside Affairs and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
Packer Lewis stated his brothers have been launched from jail Friday night time, however he was stored up till Sunday night time due to a previous cost on his legal file. He stated he's dealing with eight fees associated to the incident, together with obstruction of justice. He's nonetheless processing Friday’s occasions a number of days later.
“I used to be form of shocked as a result of I’ve seen any such exercise on TV. However I by no means thought I’d be hands-on with it. I by no means thought I’d be part of one thing like this.”
The incident occurred lower than a month after the firing of the police chief in Lexington, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of McComb. The Mississippi Heart For Investigative Reporting stated the Lexington police chief was caught on tape utilizing racial slurs and speaking about how many individuals he killed within the line of obligation.
Howard Henderson, the director of the Heart for Justice Analysis at Texas Southern College and a senior fellow on the Brookings Establishment, stated Lewis’ video displayed “unhealthy policing 101.”
“He appears to clearly have misplaced management of himself, and he nearly seemed like he was afraid of the gentleman recording. And due to that, he overreacted within the second,” Henderson stated.
Henderson stated police departments ought to rent extra Black law enforcement officials as they carry a unique perspective to the job than their white colleagues.
A 2017 Pew Analysis survey of law enforcement officials discovered that 72% of white law enforcement officials however fewer than half of all Black officers view police killings of Black individuals as “remoted incidents,” as a substitute of “indicators of a broader downside between.”
These disparities beget mistrust, and mistrust begets poor policing, Henderson stated.
“Belief locally is prime to profitable policing. And solely via police conduct can you enhance group interactions and promote a shared accountability for addressing crime and dysfunction,” Henderson stated. “When that belief is damaged down, you destroy the power of a police division to be efficient at doing the job society has stated it must do.”
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