Source: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers / Getty
‘Tis the season to expose the piggy pig police officers who misuse their power and abuse innocent American citizens, particularly those whose skin is rich with melanin. According to CBS News , a 47-year-old Black man named Cedric Cheeley has filed a lawsuit against four Dallas police officers who arrested him in April 2022. During his apprehension, Cheeley was beaten mercilessly with a baton. The body camera shows one officer striking him on the feet 133 times with a metal baton.
Cheeley is a comedy writer and says he has been crafting jokes in an attempt to laugh at his pain, but that pain is not laughing along with him,
“You know, to keep from crying, I tell jokes and laugh at it. I guess I’m still dealing with it.”
He says that the beating has left with him life-changing nerve damage that isn’t likely ever to heal.
Cheeley encountered the Dallas police officers in the early hours of the morning after they had responded to a false alarm about an active shooter in a crowded parking lot. Cheeley can be seen in the body camera footage having a benign conversation with Sgt. Jon Matthew Martinez about the incident and told the officer that he would walk home after Martinez suspected that he was intoxicated. When Cheeley walked away, Martinez told the other officers that people like Cheeley needed to be taught a lesson by being arrested.