Source: Christian Petersen / Getty
A Black man in Phoenix, Arizona, is suing the Phoenix Police Department after its officers arrested him just because he asked questions about why he was stopped. The man’s federal lawsuit is backed by recorded evidence that an officer ordered him to be placed in handcuffs just to teach him a lesson about, well, bruising a cop’s little blue ego if we’re being honest.
According to ABC 15 Arizona , on February 6, 2024, officers were conducting an “intensive” operation in west Phoenix. They were surveilling a man at a bus stop just south of 83rd Avenue and Camelback Road when another man, William Kitchen, ran across the street to get to the bus stop and obstructed a thoroughfare, or at least that’s what the officers claim. Either way, officers responded to Kitchen crossing the street and allegedly obstructing the road by swarming the bus stop, handcuffing him, and searching him as if he had committed a crime much more serious than somewhat recklessly running to get to a bus stop.
But it’s the conversation William Kitchen had with an officer after he was released that exposes the sheer fragility of police officers and their willingness to take a citizen’s freedom away just because they felt their authority was being challenged.
From ABC:…