Two police officers from the Kenosha Police Department were suspended after body camera footage of them wrongfully arresting and beating a Black man holding a baby was released.
Jermelle English Jr. and Shayna Boyd were wrongfully arrested in an Applebee’s in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on July 20.
Footage captured the police officers beating English as he held the baby after he tried to take his son to the bathroom and change his diaper. The police mistook the couple for hit-and-run suspects who were hiding in the Applebee’s restroom following an accident near Highway 31 and Highway 50.
Kenosha is the same city where Jacob Blake was shot in the back by a police officer seven times at a traffic stop and paralyzed, which led to the protest where Kyle Rittenhouse killed two BLM protestors.
The video footage also captured one of the officers pepper-spraying Boyd. The footage was released on Nov. 17, and Kenosha police chief Patrick Patton justified the officer’s actions in the video by blaming English and Boyd for “disorderly conduct.”
“At 11:11 p.m., an employee called Kenosha police to advise that a group of individuals matching the description of those who fled the scene had entered the restaurant and quote ‘appeared very nervous,’ ” Patton said on the video before it cut to Boyd and English walking into the Applebee’s looking calm and relaxed.
The 911 call was played over the video of a woman saying a couple with a baby looked nervous. “Those were the caller’s words,” added Patton.
The video shows the police officers arrive at the Applebee’s, and the staff directed them to English and Boyd as they calmly sat at their booth. Patton admitted on the video that the officers accused the couple of a hit-and-run.
“Officers reasonably believed that both individuals could have been involved in the crash,” he continued. “Officers approached them and began to ask them questions,” adding that they…
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