A 50-year-old Black man in Covington, Kentucky, has twice been frisked and searched in recent months during stops for minor traffic violations: riding a bike at night without a light, and jaywalking. For the latter he was also arrested and taken to jail, it turns out, by one of city’s more aggressive, recently disciplined cops.
Incensed, he obtained and uploaded police body cam and dashboard video of the stops, which shed little light on why Covington police officers decided to detain and search him.
In the first incident, around 6 am on Sept. 25, police video shows a man sitting on a bike in a dark shopping center parking lot. An officer shouts that his light isn’t on, and the bike light then goes on. Asked his name, the man twice identifies himself as Martel Hunter, and says he has no ID. He explains that he was on his way to buy some cigarettes and that his light “shorts out” sometimes.
One officer tells Hunter to sit down on the ground, “so I can ID you.”…