Cell phone footage of Minneapolis police tasing and arresting a Black man, Chris Lollie, for sitting in a skyway in January has gone viral on YouTube.
The clip shows Lollie walking with an inquiring officer in Downtown St. Paul’s First National Bank Building. Apparently, someone had dialed 911 to call in a report of a man loitering in the area. Lollie was sitting in the skyway waiting to pick up his kids from the New Horizon Academy school and had just gotten off work at 9 a.m.
“I wanna find out who you are, and what the problem was back there,” the officer says.
“There is no problem,” Lollie calmly responds, “that’s the thing.” The officer then asks to know who he is.
“Why do I have to let you know who I am?” Lollie says back.
“Because that’s what police do when they get called,” she says.
Lollie then reminds her that he knows his rights and then explains that he broke no laws waiting for his children.
“That’s a public area, and if there’s no sign that [says], ‘This is a private area, you can’t sit here,’ no one can tell me I can’t sit there,” Lollie tells her.
When the officer tries to tell Lollie what the problem is, he instantly cuts her off. “The problem is I’m Black. That’s the problem.”
A male officer soon approaches the two and the situation escalates. When Lollie attempts to kindly greet Officer Bruce Schmidt, he doesn’t get that in return.
“You’re going to jail,” Schmidt replies. “You’re not my brother.” Then, the officers attempt to force Lollie’s hands behind his back. He drops the camera during the struggle and it blacks out, leaving us to hear the rest.
“Can somebody help me?” he frantically screams. “That’s my kids right there, my kids are right there!” A taser can also be heard during the struggle.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Friday, August 29th 2014 at 10:19PM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
