A black Amazon delivery driver has been thrown to the ground and hauled off after a minor parking violation in Warren, Michigan.
The driver who had been delivering a package in the neighbourhood had apparently parked in the wrong direction, a common occurrence for delivery drivers who seek to deliver packages as quickly as possible. When approached by an officer he was thrown to the ground for not showing his license quickly enough. The cop then phones for back-up and the driver was detained.
The incident was videotaped and put online by a neighbour who witnessed the incident. Witnesses say the driver simply delivered a package and then made his way back to his delivery vehicle.
Neighbour Geri Cheatham who was a witness to the incident said:
“It was ridiculous for one little kid … And he was so polite to my neighbour, he offered to put it on the chair for her because it was heavy.”
Another witness, Amondeuz Graham also recalled the scene:
“One of the ladies who lived at the residence came out and tried to explain to the cop, ‘that’s my friend’s house, he was just delivering a package’, like ‘I don’t what’s going on here, he’s just delivering a package.’”
The recipient of the parcel claimed that neighbours began to plead with the officer and berate him for his over-aggressive stance, Michaels continued:
“We, several of the neighbours, spoke with the officer saying the kid hasn’t done anything and the cop was like well, ‘He was parked the wrong way.’”
Given the current climate and protests over police brutality the incident brought a very large degree of interest on social-media and has since gone viral. The actions of the officer over what was such a small trivial parking violation were widely condemned online and has added to the long-list of incidents of police brutality caught on film over the last few weeks.
The incident caused such a furore that even the Mayor has weighed in. Warren Mayor Jim Fouts wrote on Facebook:
“There was an outrageous and unacceptable physical altercation with a Warren police officer involving a young African American delivery man for Amazon to a Warren home today. I have spoken with Police Commissioner Bill Dwyer and have ordered that this officer be terminated immediately. I have zero tolerance for this disgusting act against an innocent person. If the last two weeks have brought up anything, it is that bad behaviour by ANY police officer will not be tolerated. And I’m calling on the Macomb County Prosecutor to look into this situation to see if either charges should be brought against this individual and the U.S. attorney if this was a civil rights violation. The policy of the warren police department and the training provided to every officer is to deescalate every situation. This officer did not follow policy or his training and is not fit to serve the citizens in Warren. BLACK LIVES MATTER.”
However, the post has since been removed for legal reasons.
The officer has apparently been placed on paid leave and is now subject to an investigation by Internal Affairs. Amazon, the driver’s employer, has also demanded answers – the company itself has in recent weeks declared its support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
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