Georgia Cops Beat Up Black Guy For Reasons Police Union Will Probably Come Up With Later
Roderick Walker, his girlfriend, and his son had returned a rental car Friday and were on their way home in a ride share when an unmarked Clayton County, Georgia, patrol car pulled over the driver for a broken tail light. The broken tail light is a reliable revenue driver for the police.
The deputies reportedly asked Walker for his ID, even though he was only a passenger in the car. Walker didn't know why that was necessary when he wasn't driving and the car wasn't his so he wasn't responsible for the broken tail light. The cops didn't like someone challenging them with basic questions about his constitutional rights, so they dragged him from the car and proceeded to beat the crap out of him in front of his family.
Another close-up video captures the violent interaction in Clayton Cty, Georgia. After the sheriffs finally pull th… https://t.co/x4zLjpg02t— Kristen Clarke (@Kristen Clarke) 1599940974.0
We understand if you don't have the stomach to watch another one of these clips. Suffice it to say, that must've been a seriously broken tail light.
They probably don't teach this in Sociopath 101, but if two grown men put the full force of their bodies on another human being, that person will usually instinctively resist ... well ... dying. It's why people are different from mattresses. “Stop resisting!" is the police version of the bully's taunt “stop hitting yourself."
While pressing Walker's face into the pavement, one officer is heard saying, "He bit my hand," presumably after scraping his knuckles on Walker's teeth during the beatdown. But that's enough to arrest him for assault. He has two other officers as objective witnesses. A cop also ordered the woman filming to back away and return to the car, because we suppose they didn't want video evidence that would contradict their stories later.
From Atlanta's 11Alive:
A wider shot of the arrest shows the second deputy punching the man in the midsection multiple times. After that, the deputy pinning him appears to say, "He's biting my hand," and a woman recording the closer-shot video says, "Don't bite him, don't bite him." A short moment later both videos can show the deputy punching him up around his head.
In an especially unsettling moment, in the close-shot video the man can be heard saying, "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die. I can't breathe."
The distraught woman can be heard screaming, "No! Don't kill him! He said he can't breathe!"
Just after that, his leg appears to shake uncontrollably and his arm goes limp. That video then shows the deputies getting off the man, who appears to have lost consciousness and is bleeding from his nose.
The police will probably blame the leg twitching on drugs. That's their go-to. The cops rolled Walker over on his stomach and handcuffed him, though he obviously wasn't going anywhere in his condition. When they lift him up, you can see that his face is a bloody mess. This is what Donald Trump claims antifa soldiers will do to suburban whites in “Joe Biden's America." This dystopian fantasy is already reality for Black folks just out for a drive.
Seriously, it was a broken tail light. It should not have escalated to this point, but it seems cops are only trained to de-escalate Black people into unconsciousness or death. Walker at least won the unconscious lottery, but his son was traumatized, crying out “Daddy!" while his father was assaulted before his eyes.
So it goes.
Walker's family released photos of him in custody Saturday. He looks like someone who should be in the hospital not jail. His lawyer, Shean Williams, claims Walker lost consciousness at least twice during the beating and might've suffered a brain injury. It's unclear if he received medical attention.
After the cell phone video went viral on social media, the Clayton County Sheriff's office announced it was launching an internal investigation into Walker's pummeling. Sunday, the deputy who did most of the ass kicking was fired for excessive force. This will likely frustrate "Blue Lives Matter" types who believe it's impossible safely enforce the law without brutalizing Black people.
If Walker's “lucky," he won't face charges for assaulting a police officer and end up doing serious time. Let's keep our fingers crossed for him because history isn't on his side.
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Stephen Robinson is a writer and social kibbitzer based in Portland, Oregon. He writes make believe for Cafe Nordo, an immersive theatre space in Seattle. Once, he wrote a novel called “Mahogany Slade,” which you should read or at least buy. He's also on the board of the Portland Playhouse theatre. His son describes him as a “play typer guy."
