March 25, 2015
Here we go again…
Watch the videos at the bottom…
According to reports in the Detroit Free Press and Channel 4 News. On January 28, a police dash cam captured an incident involving the police and another human…being… beaten into submission. The activities took place in Inkster, Michigan.
According to reports the police officers began following the vehicle that night after seeing it stop at the Motown Inn, an area they claim has high drug trafficking. The driver later identified as Floyd Dent, who worked for Ford for 37 years with no criminal record says he stopped to visit a friend on the way home and took the friend a bottle of alcohol.
After pulling him over the two officers approached with their guns drawn. As Dent opened the door, they pulled him out and shoved him to the ground.
Dent did not appear in the video to be resisting arrest.
While on the ground, a police officer later identified as William Melendez had him in a choke hold, and was repeatedly punching him in the face and head while another officer is attempted to handcuff him…but Dent had his right arm up, trying to protect his face and head against Melendez. Another officer arrived and kicked him, and then for good measures another officer allegedly tasers Dent as he is handcuffed. Dent said he was hospitalized for two days for the injuries.
Police initially charged him with assault, resisting arrest, and possession of cocaine, insisting they found cocaine beneath the passenger seat of his Cadillac. Dent says police planted the drugs at the time of his arrest. Dent said a blood test revealed he didn’t have any drugs in his system.
An Inkster district court judge, after reviewing the tape, tossed the assault and resisting charges, but Dent faces an April 1 hearing on the drug charge.
But his attorney, Gregory Rohl, said that a close review of portions of the video show police planting the drugs.
The video appears to contradict official police reports of the incident.
According to police reports, Dent, who had a suspended license, ran a stop sign and they turn on their overhead lights, but he drove a few more blocks before he pulled over. Dent opened the driver’s door, then turned his body toward the interior of the car and appeared to be reaching for something in the console. The police said they demanded to see his hands, but he just turned to them with a “blank stare as if on a form of narcotic” and then said, “I’ll kill you.”
But the video shows the police officers walking up to the open door, then one immediately shoving the gun at Dent, then dragging him out onto the pavement. There is no audio. Not one of the many officers there was equipped with a microphone – or turned one on..
Dent says the police officer yelled, “Get out of the car! I’ll blow your head off!”
The police officer doing the choking claims Dent was biting him, although in police reports he acknowledges there were no bite marks and says that was due to several layers of clothing he was wearing.
One of the officers involved, William Melendez, has been accused of misconduct before, during his time with the Detroit Police Department. In 2004, Melendez was among eight Detroit Police officers acquitted in a federal trial for civil rights abuses, including planting evidence on criminal suspects. Hmmm…
Dent is still facing possession of cocaine charges. He was offered a plea deal that included probation and expunging his record after six months, but he turned it down. He said he won’t plead guilty to something he didn’t do.
Would you take that? If it all wasn’t caught on video he would be facing much more, paying all the costs, fines, fees, jail time, probation, driver responsibilty fees, license suspension, reinstatement fees, lawyer fees, victim restitution fees, etc…
Save your judgement till the facts are all in…The Michigan State Police are investigating the incident.
Inkster Police Beating An Alleged Suspect On The Ground
Alleged Suspect – Back Of Car
