This is painful and difficult to watch. Yet I’m going to ask you do just that.
A local activist group, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (ICCI), obtained and published police recordings showing a textbook example of racial bias by Des Moines Senior Police Officer Kyle Thies.
Thies apparently pulled over the young man, Montray Little, for…well, driving while black.
Little is berated, taken into custody, and then constantly pushed by Officer Thies to confess something that he didn’t do. Meanwhile, Thies implies that the young man was on drugs and stole the car he was driving. He is also convinced that his passenger was hiding a gun.
None of it was true.
“Your buddy's giving me the idea that maybe he's got a gun, you know what I mean," the officer says. "That's what I think."
"How?" the passenger asks.
"Just the way you're holding yourself, man. That's why we're nervous, man.”
Even though Little had done nothing wrong, Thies takes him out of the car, handcuffs him, pulls down his pants (which was extremely inappropriate and not police procedure), and escorts him to his patrol car. Thies proceeds to conduct a warrantless search of the car.
Sadly, ICCI has made complaints against Officer Thies before, according to KCCI Channel 8 in Des Moines.
Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a Des Moines-based social justice organization, released dashcam video and alleged that one of the officers, Kyle Thies, has a history of targeting those in the African-American community—an instance that sheds light on the issue of racial profiling.
Watch the great pains Little takes to de-escalate the situation. (BTW, as a former cop, I can tell you that it is typically the job of the police officer, not the suspect, to de-escalate.)
Notice even after Thies finds nothing, Little is still interrogated and threatened with a citation if he doesn’t confess to drug use.
Also, notice the very last thing Thies says at the end. He is still convinced they were guilty.
“I feel like I was missing something”.
Yeah, you did miss something. Anti-bias training.
The mother of the passenger, Jarad Clinton, is speaking out:
"I'm horrified. I've been saying this for years that our kids are barely making it out of routine traffic stops," Laural Clinton said.
"We've been lulled into some kind of security, thinking that, 'Oh, at least you didn't get killed or go to jail,' as some prize for being harassed."
She said her son was hassled by Des Moines police a week prior to this video, because her son “fit the description” of a suspect.
Des Moines police stated that they are “disappointed”—with the group that is accusing them of racial profiling.
Des Moines police are vehemently refuting allegations that racial profiling is a problem within the department after video surfaced Wednesday showing an officer berating a black man during a July traffic stop.
Neither officer is currently facing any discipline from the incident.
I have absolutely zero empathy for cops who can’t—or won’t—do their jobs correctly. I was trained to handle stress, recognize bias, identify probable cause, and most importantly, know when to use deadly force. The job is tough, and it’s not for everyone. If you can’t do it, there are plenty of those who can. People like Thies make a mockery of an honorable profession, and police departments like Des Moines, who stick their collective head in the sand, make it easier for bad ones to thrive. This is why Officer Thies is a “senior” officer.
I have little doubt that if this young man showed the slightest aggravation, the video could have ended tragically. Instead, he showed remarkable composure. He was trained well.
I wish I could say the same for Officer Thies.