College Student Gets Thrown On The Ground And A Gun Pointed At His Head For Committing The Crime Of 'Taking A Selfie While Black'
from the lots-of-power,-zero-impulse-control dept
The latest crime to result in civil litigation is “taking a selfie while black.” Doing so in Illinois gets your face pushed in the snow, a knee in your back, and a gun held to your head. (via Simple Justice)
Jaylan Butler was traveling back from a swim meet in South Dakota with the EIU swim team. During a break at an East Moline rest stop, the bus driver suggested Butler take a selfie in front of the “BUCKLE UP, IT’S THE LAW” sign at the rest stop.
This somehow prompted all law enforcement hell to break loose. From Butler’s lawsuit [PDF]:
Mr. Butler took a photo of himself smiling in front of the sign, and then began walking back toward the bus.
[…]
After only a few steps, several law enforcement vehicles with flashing lights suddenly pulled up in front of him.
[…]
When Mr. Butler saw the law enforcement vehicles pull up, he was surprised and confused, but knew what to do. He instantly stopped, put his hands up, dropped the cell phone that was in his hand, and dropped to his knees.
[…]
Defendants exited the vehicles with their firearms pointed at Mr. Butler. At least one Defendant was carrying what appeared to be a rifle.
Defendants shouted at Mr. Butler: “Get down!” and “Don’t fucking move! Stay right there!” Mr. Butler kept his hands up and complied with Defendants’ orders.
Defendants forced Mr. Butler to lie face down on the snowy ground.
On information and belief, Defendants Staes, Asquini, Pena, and additional Defendants held Mr. Butler down while Defendant Bush handcuffed his arms behind his back.
At least one Defendant had his knee pressed into Mr. Butler’s back, and at least one Defendant was pressing down on Mr. Butler’s neck.
Another Defendant was squatting down in front of Mr. Butler. He put his handgun against Mr. Butler’s forehead and said, “If you keep moving, I’m going to blow your fucking head off.”
This impromptu show of force somehow involved officers from three different law enforcement agencies. The whole thing played out in front of several witnesses and no officer bothered to explain why they suspected a student in an EIU jacket to be worthy of guns-out force deployment while standing a few feet away from an EIU bus manned by an EIU bus driver.
In the absence of any explanations from the involved agencies, this appears to be intra-agency cooperation at its worst, where every officer has the same bias towards black males.
Everything about this gets worse when you read Barb Ickes’ article for the Rock Island Dispatch-Argus. (We’ll assume she did not write the unfortunate headline that tries to exonerate everyone currently being sued.) Not a single officer or official can explain what happened or why it happened. There is not a coherent answer to be found in this report.
The Rock Island Sheriff’s Department’s lawyer denies the two Does listed as defendants were involved in this incident. The attorney offered no comment about the two named Rock Island deputies. According to the attorney, the Rock Island officers were called in to assist Henry County Sheriff’s deputies. This assertion was not backed by the Henry County Sheriff.
Henry County Sheriff Kerry Loncka looked up records from Feb. 24 and said no reports were filed by Henry County deputies.
I guess a guns-out stop that results only in Constitutional violations isn’t worth noting. The sheriff speculated it might have had something to do with a report of a driver shooting at another vehicle but the suspect went into Rock Island county before crashing his car and the sheriff had no further details.
The Rock Island Sheriff was also mostly unaware of what happened that night.
Rock Island County Sheriff Gerry Bustos said he knew little about the incident but said he was not, as the officers who arrested Butler are said to have claimed, responding to an active-shooter event that night.
The only thing even close to an “active shooter” on the books that night was a call about a 10-year-old playing with a toy gun down by the railroad tracks, which was resolved by a deputy speaking to the child’s parents.
The Henry County Sheriff also said his deputies asked for Rock Island’s assistance after being asked by the Illinois State Police to assist in whatever it was that no involved agency can clearly state they were combining forces to handle. The State Police have refused to offer any comment on this incident. And it’s now stonewalling requests for information about its involvement in the arrest/assault of Jaylan Butler.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records that would explain what police were responding to when they mistakenly took Butler into custody, a FOIA officer responded that no information could be supplied without the name and date of birth of the person arrested.
Despite objections that the FOIA request sought only incident reports related to the events of Feb. 24, the FOIA officer did not respond. A public information officer for the Illinois State Police said last week that she would try to help provide information “ASAP.” Five days later, no information was provided.
Even if we assume the drive-by shooting that appears to be a post facto rationalization for the treatment of Butler is actually true, it still makes no sense. Why would officers assume a person wearing an EIU jacket standing near an EIU bus full of other students wearing EIU jackets is the shooter they were looking for? Why were they at the rest stop in the first place? This speculation does us no good, but the shittiest part of this is that we shouldn’t need to be engaging in speculation in the first place. The involved agencies should have had an answer for what happened here, but between the three of them, not a single person could explain what happened here, much less why it happened.
We’re not going to get a real answer from these agencies, not even under oath. What it looks like is probably what is, as Scott Greenfield explains.
No matter how you twist this, when the deputy put the one black guy on the ground and uttered the words taught in every police academy everywhere, “If you move, I’ll blow your fucking (expletive added) head off,” there was no excuse, rational or not, credible or not, offered. They couldn’t even be bothered to make up a lie. Maybe, in response to Butler’s suit, they’ll get another chance to come up with something to at least pretend it wasn’t pure, unadulterated racism.
No officer is going to testify that they saw a black male and made their move, presuming they’d find something to justify the stop and use of force later. But, in the deafening absence of any explanation that fits the most minimal definition of the word “credible,” it’s not at all far-fetched to assume the officers think “black” is the same thing as “suspicious.”
Filed Under: east moline, gerry bustos, illinois, jaylan butler, racism, rock island sheriff
Comments on “College Student Gets Thrown On The Ground And A Gun Pointed At His Head For Committing The Crime Of 'Taking A Selfie While Black'”
Damn, that’s some Southern U.S.-level racist policing.
Re: Re:
They think of it as Southern Hospitality, don’t ya know.
/s
Re: Re: Re:
So the OP’s actually about the police just being extra "hospitable" to brown people? /s
Re: Re:
You mean NYC Michael Bloomberg, top of the ticket democrat for president, stop & frisk racist actions!
Re: Re: Re:
Is true. NY has a long history of racist nonsense, including both the twit Bloombergs’ classist horseshit and of course the Trump family circus, going all the way back to Big Daddy Trump getting busted for wilding in white sheets.
For that matter, Washington State has had a nasty chronic Nazi infection, too. The south hardly has a lock on gross lazy tribal bullshit.
Re: Re: Re:
"You mean NYC Michael Bloomberg, top of the ticket democrat for president, stop & frisk racist actions!"
In the ’50’s, right under the implementation of Rooseveldt’s "New Deal" which included programs for racial egality, most of the traditional southern racists left the democrats for the republican party. Most. By no means all.
People tend to forget that just because the GOP is the poster boy of trailer trash racism doesn’t mean the democrats don’t have a hardened core of closeted bigots as well. They just tend to be more trendy and their brand of racism is casual rather than obvious and in your face.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
What a load of CRAP!
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
What was wrong?
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
I think a simple [citation needed] tag would sum it up.
Re: Re: Re:4 Re:
"I think a simple [citation needed] tag would sum it up."
Over what, specifically? The fact that racism used to be the democrat shtick before the New Deal? That’s basically established history.
That the GOP is the poster boy of trailer trash racism today? Eh, for a citation, I refer you to the Trump presidency, and such shining examples as Steve King.
That democrats haven’t managed to rid themselves of closet bigots and racists?
Bloomberg springs to mind with his "stop&frisk" NY police policy and stalwart defense of the same. There are a few other examples – such as Ralph northam’s "first indentured servants" comment on the history of US slavery.
The GOP is just so odiously obvious about their views that democrats come off as being clean as the driven snow in comparison.
Re: Re: Re:
top of the ticket – lol
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Only if standing on a box
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:
Stop apologizing for saving black lives
Re: Re:
"Squirrel!"
'We could tell you, but that wouldn't make us look good so...'
The involved agencies should have had an answer for what happened here, but between the three of them, not a single person could explain what happened here, much less why it happened.
Oh I rather think that it’s not that they can’t, so much as they aren’t honest enough to admit to the why.
‘He was black, therefore he was suspicious and deserved to eat dirt and be threatened with having his head blown off, and not a single one of us sees anything wrong with that’ probably wouldn’t leave them looking very good to the non-reprehensible after all, such that I fully expect that anyone and everyone involved will play dumb, with not a thought in their heads as to what could have possibly happened or why.
In the words of the Blues Brothers: "I hate Illinois Nazis."
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
We have only one perspective, and we have no footage available. Now, only a fool rushes to judgment!
Re:
We have three law enforcement agencies refusing to explain what prompted the need to tackle, assault, and ultimately arrest the only young Black man on a bus full of students coming from a swim meet. We have the perspectives of the victim and, I assume, several of the witnesses to the event. Only a fool takes these facts into account and thinks “maybe we need to hear both sides before we make a judgment”.
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it.
Re: Re: Re:
Just wait for the videos to come out.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
The police already have access to those videos. The only scenario which makes sense of the video exonerating the police but the police not describing what in the videos is exonerating is so weird or so implausible that no one would believe their summary. How likely is that? And even in such a scenario, why didn’t they release the video before the lawsuit? Other police departments have released videos in such situations before any lawsuit.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
All of these officers involved were obviously out looking for new jobs.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Just wait for the videos to come out.
Well, if you read the article referenced it states:
they spent the bulk of Feb. 24, 2019, traveling back to Charleston, Ill., in a rented coach with their school logo plastered on the sides.
It’s been a year. How long should we keep waiting to hear from the "other side" that’s going to somehow make these piece of shit cops look like some kind of heroes?
I’ll postulate that you’re the fool waiting for some kind of miracle explanation.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Look, at least there’s video, and it will come out. In some cases, we’ll just never know, like with Zimmerman. Who knows, nobody knows, people only guess (duh).
Re: Re:
We here aren’t members of a jury trying them, or their bosses who could fire them, or anything similar. If we’re wrong, nothing bad happens to the officers in question, and the worst that happens to us is that we were wrong, which happens to humans all the time.
Re: Re: Re:
If you’re right, nothing bad happens to the officers in question either.
Re: Re:
As ‘look over there!’ excuses go that is just sad. They are actively stonewalling requests for information, any information, on what the hell happened, with multiple parties making statements that are contradictory.
While video would be nice(assuming they not only had bodycams, those cameras didn’t mysteriously ‘malfunction’ as police bodycams tend to do, and they released the video without butchering it to remove anything danming) without that the facts so far are all sorts of damning for the thugs with badges, and their actions are not helping that excepting that silence keeps them from being caught out in more lies.
Re: Re:
"We have only one perspective, and we have no footage available. Now, only a fool rushes to judgment!"
That’s wrong.
We have multiple police officers using force and oppression against a civilian. and not a single one of them has justification for it. They haven’t even tried to give a reason for their actions.
When a person raises his hand against any other person the default legal situation is that either there is a good reason which can be clearly shown – or it’s a felony assault. This is true whether the person raising the hand is a law enforcer or not.
In this case assault is already proven. Justification which would make it a legal action, has not.
So if the police can’t bring a reason to the table then it’s already an open-and-shut case of police brutality. No further questions need to be asked. The facts of their guilt and physical action is already demonstrably proven.
If the police HAVE a reason for the assault then the situation becomes a different one. Until they do that, however, the only evidence we have is that they assaulted a civilian for no reason.
The only fool here is the one trying to invent facts out of whole cloth and wishful thinking.
Considering the lunacy involved. Did they go to his family home and shoot the family dog?
Re: Re:
They’re saving that to respond to the civil suit. There’s a process in place now.
As one of my facebook friends says "99% of cops are giving the rest a bad name". Sadly sometimes I think his estimate is too low.
Illinois police are usually a bit more excessive than their counterparts in surrounding states based on my personal experience.
My little home town’s police are one of the most corrupt things in the area.
Re: Re:
The problem with Illinois is its too close to Ohio.
And then they complain about being referred to as "flyover country".
Damned if you do, damned if you don't
At first reading I wondered why Mr. Butler acted so much like a guilty man. In that situation, I would not gratuitously damage my cell-phone by dropping it. Then I realized– trigger-happy cops, notoriously, get away with killing people holding cell phones, claiming the cell phone looked like a handgun.
But– can someone explain– why did Mr. Butler drop to his knees?
The cops have a reasonable explanation that will become clear when their bodycam footage is shown to the jury. No bodycam footage? The jury may infer that the cops are lying…
Re: Damned if you do, damned if you don't
Why he acted like that is he is trying to be good and inoffensive, and his father had The Talk with him when he was young.
Re: Re: Damned if you do, damned if you don't
For some The Talk is about sex and how not to get pregnant/get someone else pregnant, because that’s likely to be one of if not the most impactful part of their life if they’re not careful.
For others it’s about how to reduce the odds that they’ll be killed on a whim by a goon with a badge so that they’ll actually have a life to live.
Re:
He wanted to stay alive.
Re: Easy answer, but not a happy one
But– can someone explain– why did Mr. Butler drop to his knees?
Pretty sure I can answer that one with a fair degree of accuracy, though it’s not a pleasant answer: Because he’s black and has likely been told/taught that doing so reduces the odds he’ll be murdered on the spot. One needs only to read how he was treated even after acting that way to see that he wasn’t going to be standing anyway, and getting down on his own beforehand was almost certain to be much less painful than having them ‘help’ him do so.
Defendants exited the vehicles with their firearms pointed at Mr. Butler. At least one Defendant was carrying what appeared to be a rifle.
Defendants shouted at Mr. Butler: “Get down!” and “Don’t fucking move! Stay right there!” Mr. Butler kept his hands up and complied with Defendants’ orders.
Defendants forced Mr. Butler to lie face down on the snowy ground.
On information and belief, Defendants Staes, Asquini, Pena, and additional Defendants held Mr. Butler down while Defendant Bush handcuffed his arms behind his back.
Re: Damned if you do, damned if you don't
"But– can someone explain– why did Mr. Butler drop to his knees?"
After Ferguson and the other race riots over police brutality any black man in the US knows damn well by now that if he sees a policeman in action the ONLY way not to get sumarily shot is to make surrender as swift and obvious as possible.
Had Mr. Butler just stood there gawping for a few seconds we would probably be discussing yet another case of white american police officers gunning down a black man for not dropping his cell phone quickly enough.
Re: Damned if you do, damned if you don't
"But– can someone explain– why did Mr. Butler drop to his knees?"
Because he’s got a lifetime of experience of what dealing with police while being black in America involves?
Re: Re: Damned if you do, damned if you don't
"Because he’s got a lifetime of experience of what dealing with police while being black in America involves?"
Possibly not since he’s still alive.
I’m thinking he may have closely followed the obituaries of those whose main crime was Being Brown In Public and was quick at thinking on his feet.
It keeps striking me that had Mr. butler NOT immediately dropped his phone and gotten to his knees we would be reading about his death instead.
You know you have a problem with you police when ...
That is horrific. How are police serving the public when that is what the public are supposed to do when they see police.
What happens afterwards is even worse.
All of these "officers" should be charged with aggravated assault, put in prison for some time and be barred from ever serving as police again.
Re: You know you have a problem with you police when ...
"That is horrific. How are police serving the public when that is what the public are supposed to do when they see police. "
Only the part of the public which is brown, bluntly put.
I’m not sure which is the more horrifying fact – that stuff like this is what we read in the news these days, or that in the past before the internet, the spontaneous race-inspired lynchings would have been conveniently kept out of the public’s eye.
The rot in the US goes deep, and people are still slow to wake up to the fact that the racial divide still goes so deep that casual searches on diversity and inclusion lands you with dozens of major support groups termed "National Association of black artists/accountants/lawyers/doctors/etc etc" because Being Brown is still a killing offense if the wrong sort of cop finds the opportunity.
Wikipedia has an entire page dedicated to "mass racial violence in the united states". It alone serves to paint a picture of a nation in a permanent state of ethnic conflict.
To europeans the words "check your privilege" isn’t as loaded as it is in the US where the color of your skin can mean whether you’ll live or die simply by getting off the bus to take a selfie.
Suspicion had nothing to do with it, dearie
You treat a suspicious person proportionate to the danger he might pose at the moment. Butler had his hands in the air and was on his knees.
Obviously the officers did not equate "black" with "suspicious" but rather with "fair game". Since there was a rifle and inexplicably multiple agencies involved, it’s not at all far-fetched to assume that they were on a leisure trophy hunt and Butler spoilt their kill by putting up a despicable show of being non-threatening. He could not reasonably expect that kind of defiance to go unpunished.
simple realy
bad cops will continue being bad cops because there’s no ACCOUNTABILITY for bad cops
Re: simple realy
Any cop that doesn’t turn over ALL bad cops they encounter is ALSO a bad cop.
simple.
The first problem is...
… trusting a cop. Never, ever, trust a cop. They are NOT there to help you, they are there to help themselves and their masters. They will lie, cheat, steal, maim, and kill anyone, man, woman, child, that gets in their way or threatens their dominion over others.
Re: The first problem is...
So, how do you think he should have dealt with the situation?
Since this happened a year ago:
Have any lawsuits been filed?
If so, any bets on how long before ‘Qualified Immunity’ gets claimed?
Re: Re:
"Have any lawsuits been filed?"
Apart from the one referenced in the article and embedded at the bottom, you mean?
These tyrant pigs are all over the country in every state. The thin blue line GANG. Biggest one in the country. They’re all bad. If you are covering up and protecting the bad ones, You are just as guilty and corrupt. If You are Infestrigating these corrupt tyrant pigs and always find them Innocent and not having done anything WRONG, you are just as bad and they all are.
I’m waiting for one of the departments to essentially say the arrested guy was an N-word and that means is probably a druglord/murderer because "they all are".
Thats the type of evil racist organizations we’re dealing with here.
Also the poor guy is at risk of ‘accidentally’ being brutally assassinated before his day in court.
It’s unbelievable these coward PDs can so easily stonewall utterly reasonable information requests. In a saner world, you could start at the top and jail the chiefs until the information was released.
Now, now, that's not fair...
It takes 100 points to be suspicious, and being black is only worth 80. He got another 20 for being young and 20 more for being male. Let’s be precise here.
Re: Now, now, that's not fair...
You forgot that he was holding something in his hand. That’s an extra few points right there.
Curiously young white males don’t usually have the police pointing guns at them while taking selfies so I can only assume the amount of suspicion points added scale inversely proportional to the albedo of the person in question.
And then they wonder
Why people want to open carry in this nation..
Iv suggested that if the Nation wants Everyone to give up guns, then the COPS have to do it first.
Make the laws Hard enough that shooting/beating a cop will get you in jail along time, and shooting/killing one ???
They are making the police look bad, who ever is training them..really.
They only arrest, they dont decide or Question the situation.
They ran down the road and found the first black kid they saw. Its was the first cop car that made the decision..the rest Followed.
The problem here is WHOOPS…we need to cover/bury this.
White people NEVER have guns pointed at their heads, so obviously this was entirely racist. The fact that they didn’t say something like “move and I’ll blow your ‘black’ head off” is deliberate, and in itself a sign of racism. Racism, racism, racism!
Re: Re:
Do you have another explanation as to why the one black kind on the team was treated differently despite having given no cause to be treated any differently?
Maybe instead of attacking those poorly constructed strawmen you could furnish the thread with your theory?
Re: Re:
"White people NEVER have guns pointed at their heads, so obviously this was entirely racist."
I’m assuming you meant this sarcastically. Sadly, it’s not.
No white person will walk out of a bus, stop to take a selfie, and immediately have a dozen cops storming him with weapons drawn. That’s especially true when not a single officer, when questioned, can produce a single fucking point of suspicion prompting the act.
The facts are as follow: The police assaulted a civilian.
The police are unable to provide a single reason as to why they assaulted him.
It’s either racism or every last officer in this shit-show has just demonstrated that they are liable to assault innocent people at random without due cause.
Take your pick; Are the cops in the OP racist thugs or just thugs? Either way they need to lose their badges and end up on a perpetrator list. That every indication suggests they acted as they did because Mr. Butler was Being Brown In Public is just given.
But hey, it’s a standard republican response where "racism" only applies if the officers put on white hoods and burn a cross in front of Mr. Butler right before lynching him.
Re:
I bet you’re the kind of asshole who believes in kumbaya anti-racism.