Black pastor arrested while watering neighbor’s flowers in Alabama | USA TODAY
Pastor Michael Jennings is suing an Alabama police department after he said he was unlawfully arrested while watering his neighbor’s flowers.
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A Black pastor in Alabama says police unlawfully arrested him in May 2022 while he was watering his neighbor’s flowers.
Attorneys for Michael Jennings, a longtime pastor at Vision of Abundant Life Church in Sylacauga, Alabama, have released police body cam video of his arrest and say legal action against the Childersburg Police Department is forthcoming.
“This video makes it clear that these officers decided they were going to arrest Pastor Jennings less than five minutes after pulling up and then tried to rewrite history claiming he hadn’t identified himself when that was the first thing he did,” said Harry Daniels, an Atlanta attorney representing Jennings, in a statement. “This was not only an unlawful arrest. It’s kidnapping.”
Childersburg police arrested Jennings on May 22 and charged him with obstructing government operations, according to a criminal complaint. A municipal judge dismissed the case in June, according to court documents provided to USA TODAY by Jennings’ attorneys.
The arrest and charge were “irrational, irresponsible and illegal,” Daniels said in the statement.
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There’s a difference between racial profiling and just plain profiling, I so wish people understood the difference.
If they rode down the street and said hi let’s go target random race of ppl that’s racial profiling.
Cops doing their job by receiving a dispatch of a suspect on someones property and they are told the suspect is a black male, how the hell is that profiling on the cops.
Just because you’re a pastor doesn’t mean you get special treatment, his lawyer is correct you don’t have to show an officer your identification. However a cop does have a right to arrest you and hold you for up to 72 hrs to figure out who you are, that part seemed to be left out when making claims of profiling.