Police departments advise drivers that safety is one of the highest priorities and that if a driver is signaled to pull over in an unsafe location, he should find the nearest safe spot to comply.
That didn’t work out so well for a driver in Shreveport, Louisiana, and now he has filed a lawsuit against the city for excessive force, battery, deprivation of constitutional rights and more.
The driver alleges he was signaled to pull over but was in a location where he felt unsafe, so he drove roughly two minutes to a better location.
However, once there, he was beaten and bludgeoned by officers who claim he was “resisting,” according to the complaint filed by the Rutherford Institute.
John W. Whitehead, Rutherford’s president, said the case makes clear “how easy it is for Americans to be charged with any of the growing number of contempt of cop charges (ranging from resisting arrest and interference to disorderly conduct, obstruction, and failure to obey a police order) that get trotted out anytime a citizen exhibits anything short of total compliance to the police state.”
Rutherford’s Fourth Amendment complaint is on behalf of Gregory V. Tucker, a young African-American man who, “after being stopped by Louisiana police for a broken taillight, was allegedly thrown to the ground, beaten, arrested and hospitalized for severe injuries to his face and arm, all for allegedly ‘resisting arrest’ by driving to a safe, well-lit area before stopping.”
The case names the city and officers C.B.Cisco, W. McIntire, Y. Johnson and T. Kolb.
The complaint alleges the city and its officers violated Tucker’s constitutionally protected rights when he was beaten after being stopped.
“Unfortunately, the price of standing up for one’s constitutional rights – or even attempting to protect oneself against police misconduct – grows more costly by the day, with Americans getting probed, poked, pinched, tasered, tackled, searched, seized, stripped, manhandled, arrested, shot, or killed,” Whitehead said.
“This case is a chilling reminder that in the American police state, ‘we the people’ are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to ‘serve and protect,'” he said.
The incident happened Dec. 1, 2016.
An officer reportedly saw Tucker driving with a taillight that was not working.
He signaled Tucker to stop.
“Because he did not feel safe stopping immediately, Tucker drove calmly and slowly for a few minutes more to a safe, well-lit area in front of his cousin’s house where he parked his car.”
Police immediately placed him under arrest for “resisting,” and when additional officers arrived, they threw him to the ground and “punched numerous times in the head and body.”
He was bleeding with injuries to his face, head and arms when they put him in a police car and he had to be treated by EMTs.
Tucker “suffered severe physical and emotional injuries, including trauma to his head, face and arm, which required treatment at the hospital,” the complaint explains.
“In the course of executing the seizure of plaintiff Tucker the defendant police officers used excessive and unreasonable force which resulted in physical and emotional injuries to plaintiff Greg Tucker, thereby depriving the plaintiff of his rights under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
It accuses the officers and the city of acting “with reckless and callous indifference.”
It seeks compensatory and punitive damages, as well as fees and costs.
