Sometime on or before Jan. 3rd, 2021, two Calhoun County (MI) Sheriff’s deputies were called in on a report of a black man canvassing a neighborhood (with his kids) as a suspicious person. The video begins at some point after the original approach of the deputies just as they reach the “Do you have an ID?” portion of the contact. When asked why they needed his ID, they suggest that the man was “soliciting without a permit”, to which the man states that he was not soliciting. After a bit of back and forth, the man rightly states that he was not asking for money and so was not soliciting. A bit later he even states that he was collecting signatures for a petition, after which he was arrested for “hindering and opposing” even though petitioning is a protected right.
The original uploaded video was listed as “age restricted” by the video’s owner, which restricts embedding completely, and viewing only to users that are logged in, so I was only able to get the whole video from Junkyard News. The original video is linked below the video on the JN YouTube page.
The reason for the restriction is fairly evident as, while placing the handcuffed man in his cruiser, the deputy body-slams the man into the back seat after (it appears) he slipped on the snow and almost fell. The deputy apparently took this as resisting and then proceeds to slam the man’s feet in the door multiple times (trigger warning). All this as his kids were watching.
If both these “officers” don’t get fired outright, there’s surely something very wrong in Calhoun.
Expect this will go quickly viral, and rightly so.
Calhoun County Sheriff — www.calhouncountymi.gov/...