Shocking video from Monday.
This video has been making the rounds on social media. It shows 23 year old Jostin Moore, who is black, being pulled over and arrested by police.
Three of the young man’s friends saw what was happening, so they stood near, recording the incident. Then one of the cops, Officer Nathaniel Brown, walking over to the group and told one of them he was being arrested for cussing.
Yes, cussing.
The young man, later identified as Skylar Gilmore, was like, “wait, cussing, are you serious?”
Then Brown shoved Gilmore against the wall. In the meanwhile, the second officer, Officer Jimenez, stood by in between the incident and Isaiah Phillips. Phillips was trying to ask Brown what he was doing as he watched Brown grab Gilmore by the shirt and throw him to the ground with such force that he ripped his clothes off.
Then in a moment which has gotten much too common, while Gilmore sat on the ground, not defending himself, Officer Brown kneed Gilmore in the face with all of his might.
Phillips, obviously upset on what he just witnessed, he asked the two officers question after question. Once Gilmore was cuffed and in the car, Officer Brown turned his sights to him.
Did I say he was cussing?
The two officers, then grabbed Phillips, each an arm, and SLAMMED him into the hood of a nearby truck.
After they finished cuffing Phillips, Officer Brown cussed at the cameraman.
Both Gilmore and Phillips were booked on using profanity in public. Seriously. Gilmore got an extra charge of interfering with police duties.
Why does Baytown sound familiar?
If you live in another part of Texas, you may be unfamiliar with this tiny Houston suburb. Or maybe it sounds familiar? That’s because a little over a year ago Baytown was in the national news because a police officer was caught on tape murdering a black woman.
Pamela Turner was only 44 years old.
The officer, Juan Delacruz was paid on three-day administrative and then returned to work. Officer Delacruz is still working as a police officer. You may specifically remember this once viral video because just moments before she was murdered she yelled out she was pregnant.
As details emerged about this case, we learned that Delacruz had previously profiled her and had been harassing her. Pamela Turner suffered from a mental illness and Delacruz was aware of this and also knew the procedural ways to deal with her.
Recently, we also learned that the taser, which Delacruz said Turner was trying to grab before he shot her, was not able to fire again and he was aware of this.
The Texas Rangers concluded their investigation and handed it to the District Attorney’s office. According to the District Attorney, as of last month, the DA says it is still under independent review and hasn’t been presented to the grand jury yet.
A Peaceful Protest
Here is video of a peaceful rally held in Pamela Turner’s honor.
This was over a year ago. Still, Pamela Turner’s murderer is free.
This case didn’t seem to phase the Baytown police department. Judging by the video with Skylar Gimlore and Isiah Phillips just 13 months later, Baytown police have not had any type of deescalation training.
13 months? The next major incident which made national news with the Baytown police department was only 3 months after they murdered Pamela Turner.
Kedrick Crawford
In July of 2019, Kedrick Crawford, a black man was stopped and questioned by a Baytown police officer for looking suspicious.
Kedrick Crawford was slammed on the hood of the car, tased multiple times, and received extensive injuries to his face, chest, right eye, head, and hands.
According to the Baytown police department, the case was handed to Internal Affairs, the same thing that they said about the video from this week.
Earlier in 2019.
Before Pamela Turner in May, 2019 and Kendrick Crawford in July, 2019, there was another incident with a black man named, Raphael White.
In the following video you will see an officer sicking his dog on Raphael White, as White screams out in pain and pleads with the officer to cuff him, because he wasn’t fighting. Yet, the officer kept letting the dog attack.
The officer in this video was Nathaniel Brown. Yes, the same Nathaniel Brown in video seen this week.
Local community activist Quanell X, said back then in February, 2019, Officer Brown repeatedly targeted African-American men and women and that he often threatened and intimidated them when they come to Baytown police headquarters to file complaints.
There was 16 months time between the video with Raphael White and the video of the three friends harassed and assaulted this week.
A bad barrel.
Is Nathaniel Brown a bad apple? Absolutely. But the video with Raphael White shows several other officers there witnessing the incident, as Jimenez was there this week, and Delacruz was briefly put on administrative leave, but allowed to come back.
Nathaniel Brown wasn’t fired or charged with a crime. No, he was nominated for the Baytown Public Safety Award of Excellence. Although he didn’t win it that year, Brown had won the same award in years prior.
As I am writing this I just learned Brown has been placed on leave for this week’s incident, pending investigation. This all leaves us to wonder, if this video hadn’t gone viral, would he even have been reprimanded? Or, perhaps he’d be giving fellow apples high-fives on his knee kick back at the police station.
More apples, more assault.
This next video you see is a news clip which talks about a lawsuit being planned after an off duty Baytown police officer, Christopher Fields, beat 19 year old Jeff Sprecaher.
Also, in 2019 Lorraine Solis encountered a Baytown police officer, who physically assaulted her, throwing her on the hood and then onto the ground. Lorraine Solis is suing the Baytown police department, that lawsuit is still pending.
In this next video, you can see police beating and then sicking a dog on 59 year old James LaBeardo.
The Baytown police said that the officer did that because LaBeardo threw hot coffee on him. If you watch the clip, it’s hard to really tell. The way it looks to me is that James LaBeardo was trying to leave the store and the cop grabbed his arm, causing him to smash the coffee cup on the door, which then splashed back on the officer.
Regardless, the beating and dog attack that LaBeardo received after that was definitely excessive.
They shoot, too.
Just a few months ago they shot a 25 year old man who was running away from them. They said that they were shot at, too and and the man fleeing had a gun. But, I suppose when you work for a police department so corrupt, that it has dozens of reports of brutality, you can say just about whatever you want.
This next video you see talks about how police shot another man, who was on a crime spree. Apparently, they were in some type of stand off, the “suspect,” shot at police and missed, then police shot him. They didn’t miss.
I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that all of the criminals in Baytown couldn’t shoot the side of a barn, but Baytown police seem to be full of sharp shooters.
A drug sting in 2018 executed by police officers, ended in bloodshed when Baytown police said that suspect shot at them, so then police proceeded to shoot all six suspects, killing two.
Also in 2018, Baytown police shot a woman trying to flee the scene. The officers reasoning is one we’ve all heard way too often, he said as the woman was fleeing, she almost hit him.
Some of these incidents stretch way back.
In 2014, Oliver Jerrod Gergoire was killed by Baytown police after being tased multiple times.
The video to the right is also from 2014. Police went to break up a family gathering which had got loud and wound up tasing a 54 year old grandmother and pepper spraying children. During this incident, police also used multiple racial slurs when talking to this Hispanic family.
Another video, in 2014, shows a woman, her son, and son’s friend being pulled over by police. Apparently, they were at IHOP and had some type of run in with none other, Officer Nathaniel Brown. I don’t know the details of what transpired.
But, the group left, and shortly afterwords was pulled over by Sargent Freeman who wanted her to step out of the car and tell him what happened with Brown. She did not, and the incident was over, but once again Brown’s name comes up.
The video on the right, you will see Baytown police following a Hispanic man who is walking away from them. Then when he reaches the car, polices tase him multiple times.
Aside from this police department being corrupt and abusive, the amount of incidents where they used their tasers unjustifiably is incomprehensible.
More incidents of profanity and brutality
In a viral video from 2018, a group of friends were having a disagreement in a parking lot when police approached them. One of the young ladies were using cuss words, so they arrested her.
In the video you then can see officers take the phone away from another young lady, slam it on the ground and then slam her on the car.
When the third friend, a young man, went to pick up the phone from the ground, police then assaulted and arrested him as well.
Yet another incident caught on video in 2016, shows Baytown police trespassing on a man’s property without a warrant, then attempting to arrest him for using profanity. In the same incident, they aimed their guns at the man and shut off electricity to get the man to come out.
It isn’t just police brutality which shows how corrupt this department is.
In 2014, a young gay teen was beaten for who he was, and despite repeated attempts by the teen’s family, Baytown police wouldn’t take the incident seriously or investigate it.
In 2017, Baytown police officer, Michael Coppock was indicted on bribery charges when it was discovered he was asking young ladies to exchange nude photos, for him to not give them a ticket.
Some incidents of police corruption, brutality, and racism stretch way back.
- In 2010, officers perused a suspect on a motorcycle. The motorcycle crashed and the driver was pinned under a vehicle. While pinned a Baytown police officer punched him in the head and slammed his head on the ground.
- In 2004 Baytown police shot 35 year old Shawna Felder, after she allegedly assaulted them.
- When Baytown police encountered 59 year old Naomi Autin in 2003, they used excessive force and tased her, resulting in another lawsuit against the department. According to the article, this incident happened only weeks after Baytown police beat another woman so bad she had to get 17 stitches.
- 2003 resulted in at least three lawsuits against the Baytown police department for use of excessive force with tasers.
- Also in 2003, it was discovered that the Baytown police were having contests on who could give out the most tickets, the winner would get tickets to a baseball game.
- In 2002, when Luis Torres died in police custody, coroners ruled it a homicide. Then when IA said the police didn’t do anything wrong, the family of Luis Torres sued several Baytown police officers. The city wound up paying the Torres family $350,000 in a wrongful death suit.
Baytown Police didn’t even have an Internal Affairs department until the 90s.
While it was desperately needed, report after report indicate that the IA department of the Baytown Police are just as corrupt as the officers that work there.
Of course, the 90s were a different time. No one had a video camera in their pocket, and the only stories about Baytown police which made the news were about how an officer molested children or their crackdown on porn.
Back then problems of racism in Baytown schools made the paper, while problems of racism in police departments rarely did.
The problems with the Baytown Police department are well known in the community, and have been ongoing for decades.
The issues reach so far back, that in 2002 the League of United Latin American Citizens deemed Baytown one of the most unfriendly and feared cities in Texas with minorities.
Yet, for decades, incident after incident IA and the Justice Department found no wrongdoings by the Baytown police department.
In fact, last night when Baytown police put this statement on their Facebook page, the community response was astounding.
Check out the responses on Baytown’s Facebook statement:
It’s not just one bad apple.
From my research, I learned that over the years Officer Brown has had dozens of complaints launched against him, as have many other officers in in the Baytown police officers, yet it is rare for them to be found of wrongdoing. And allegations of official complaints are often lost or never filed.
Every Baytown police officer who covers for the depravity of others is culpable as well. By remaining silent, they have allowed Officer Brown to continue his abuse and harassment towards the black and Hispanic community completely unchecked.
Those officers took a oath to uphold the law, however they continuously violate that oath by turning a blind eye to the crimes committed by Officer Brown. They should all be fired and likely many of them should be prosecuted for accessory or failure to report a crime.
How deep does this go?
While it has been widely publicized that both the KKK and the Aryan Brotherhood has a presence, lives in, and operates in Baytown; there is no proof yet that they have infiltrated Baytown Police Department.
However, many of us who have been paying attention over the last 20 years remember the FBI reports and news coverage back in 2005 regarding white supremacists being a major domestic terrorist risk and how they had already in years prior been trying to infiltrate police departments.
In 2016, PBS did a follow up story, “FBI warned of white supremacists in law enforcement 10 years ago. Has anything changed?“
The answer to that question was no. Here we are 4 years later in 2020 and the answer to that question is still no.
Another good read on this topic is from the Intercept in 2017, “FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacists Infiltration of Law Enforcement.” The conclusion of this article is that with Trump’s election, it gave them a sign that they were on the path they wanted.
Of course, then in an investigation published in 2019 by the Center for Investigative Reporting found that hundreds of active-duty and retired law enforcement officers are members of Confederate-sympathizing, anti-Islam, or anti-government militia groups on Facebook. Within these private groups, members often are openly racist. Police officers have also been linked to groups like the Oath Keepers and Three Percenters, who believe in defending white Americans from “enslavement” and are actively hostile to immigrants.
But what about the Baytown Police?
In 2014, the New York Time found that while only 39% of Baytown’s population was white, their police was a whopping 82% white.
Of course, we all know that many baby-boomer Trump supporters still haven’t figured out how to use their privacy settings on Facebook, so it was incredibly easy to find people who work for Baytown Police Department and are saturated in white supremacist beliefs.
Not only that, but many of them fetishize guns, killing, and the military to such an extreme that alarm bells should be going off around every corner of that department and city government.
Like Chris McDonald, who isn’t only a Lieutenant of the Baytown Police Department, but he also keeps company with Three Percenters.
Chris McDonald loves Donald Trump, hopes he gets reelected, and attends Tea Party meetings on his free time.
Then there is Kenneth Dew, who’s not only openly racist, but he openly works for the Baytown Police Department.
If you look at Kenneth Dew’s Facebook page you will find how absolutely stupid he is and that he not only believes, but also repeats far right wing and racist conspiracies about Black Lives Matter and George Soros.
In this Facebook post, he was referring to the video of when black protesters were throwing rocks at the man who tried to attack them with a machete.
Yes, he was referring to shooting black people who were defending themselves.
There’s more.
While Stan Harrington no longer works at Baytown Police, he is a perfect representation of their culture.
Yes, Stan Harrington is also a Trump supporter.
What now?
While it’s obvious that Officer Brown should be permanently fired and brought up on charges, the officers who covered for him or turned a blind eye on the Baytown Police Department should also be held responsible.
That likely includes the police chief, the district attorney, and the entire internal affairs department.
Now only should the mayor and city council be looking into this, but the FBI should start a civil rights investigation of the entire department.
The local FBI office’s phone number is (713) 693-5000. I would encourage all citizens to call and ask for an investigation of the entire Baytown Police Department and their practices over the last several decades.
Call your congressperson!
It is time for them to implement bills that stop police abuse, police brutality, and stop terrorizing black and brown communities.
To find out who your representatives are, go HERE!
Make sure you’re registered to vote!
Are you registered to vote? Not sure, find out HERE!