Remember Prairie View, Texas? That's the small town where Sandra Bland was arrested during a traffic stop in July. After she was found dead in a jail cell three days later, law enforcement claimed she committed suicide. Many, including Bland's family and friends, weren't so sure. And now Prairie View cops are in the news again, this time for tasing a black city councilman. The
Washington Post reports:
"Bodycam footage from two of the officers involved released Sunday shows the council member, 26-year-old Jonathan Miller, talking with police on Thursday night. Several of his fraternity brothers had just left his house to practice a step routine ahead of homecoming, according to local TV station KHOU, when officers stopped them to question them about drug activity."
According to
KHOU, one of the officers said, "There's been drug activity, little girls and little guys in the car doing whatever, so when we see this, we come investigate."
Councilman Miller came out to ask what was happening to his friends.
"They were at my house," he said. "OK, I don't know that pulling up," Officer Goodie answered. "OK, that's fine, I'm not trying to be combative or anything," said Miller. "OK, I'm not either," replied Officer Goodie.
The other officer then asked Miller to back up because the activity is causing a scene. Miller takes a few steps back, but the officers say it's not enough. See more below.
At one point, an officer says that Miller is "always starting problems." After asking him to back up further, they go to arrest him.
At this point, the officer's body camera falls off. But his friends start shooting video with their cell phones. As the officers attempt to arrest him, Miller holds his hands to his side.
“Okay, he’s gonna have to tase you, you’re not doing like you’re supposed to,” the female officer says.
Then the male officer points a stun gun toward him. There’s a click, and Miller falls forward with a yell of pain. “I live here man, I live here,” he said after being stunned.
Miller was charged with interfering with public duties and resisting arrest and spent a night in jail.
Surely, there will be many who will say that Miller should have simply backed up, should have simply put his hands behind his back. Those same people will say he should not have made a scene.
Your friends walk out of your house and are simply changing their shoes. No one is doing anything illegal. No one is really doing anything at all. But, as if on cue, they're stopped for drugs.
One moment of the video that stands out is when the officer says to Miller that he's always starting problems, indicating that he is familiar with him personally. If he knows Miller is a councilman, presumably has no suspicion of Miller's drug use, and he knows that these are Miller's friends, why does this charade continue? Being a public official doesn't mean you are free from suspicion, of course. In this case, it's immediately clear that these are not random guys in the neighborhood but friends of the resident. Why the continued investigation?
This is how police profile. They bring up vague neighborhood threats—"There's been drug activity, little girls and little guys in the car doing whatever." And then, when the owner of the house in front of which the police and the "suspects" stand wants clarification, he is accused of interfering.
The irony of a resisting arrest charge is that, whether or not your arrest is valid, logical, or legal, simply resisting it makes it legitimate. It's a no-win situation—you're either arrested for a bogus charge, or you're arrested for a bogus charge and resisting arrest for that bogus charge. And really, only the lucky ones are actually arrested. The unlucky ones are shot dead on the spot.
It's likely that part of the reason Miller resisted arrest is because he found the situation outrageous. Because he lived there, and he was simply trying to get answers. Because he is an elected official in the same town and still his friends are looked at as suspects and possible criminals.
But I also imagine that part of the reason he resisted arrest is because he was scared. It wasn't long ago that Sandra Bland was arrested after a routine police interaction. And after a few days in jail, she was dead.
I imagine he resisted arrest because he doesn't want to be the next Sandra Bland.
There is a lesson police are trying to teach here. Don't ask questions. Don't go outside in groups. Don't go outside at all. One suspicious police officer will profile you, humiliate you, force you to account for your time. You will be arrested, tased, jailed despite the fact that you are not doing anything wrong.