Videos raise racial concerns about Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office interactions with public
Anne Schinder First Coast News
Two new Jacksonville videos raise questions about police interactions with black residents as cities across the country grapple with mounting concerns over police violence in the wake of killings in Kentucky, Georgia and Minnesota.
In one Jacksonville video shared this month, [Brittany Chrishawn] called 911 asking for assistance after an officer parked in her driveway for a nearby police matter and wouldn’t leave.
“Why can’t he pull off my yard? Why can’t he leave my yard?” she asks an officer, who is white and she is black. After her repeated questions, he tried to grab her, and though the video didn’t show what happened next, her screams lasted 15 seconds before the video cut out. Subsequent photos showed her teeth were broken during an arrest.
In another video, shared Wednesday, another white officer is seen chasing after a black man on the Northside, shouting “I’m going to shoot you, mother f—–!”
In Jacksonville there have been 10 police shootings this year, surpassing all the police shootings in 2019. The last year with more shootings was in 2015 when 15 people were shot by police.
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These incidents come in the wake of the South Georgia killing of Ahmaud Arbery by a former police officer, the Louisville police killing of Breonna Taylor and the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.
Over the last few years in Jacksonville, recorded interactions between police have played a central role in exposing tensions between law enforcement and communities: the viral video of a young man threatened with jail time for jaywalking, an officer who punching civilians who he claimed spat at him and the police arrests of five anti-war protesters in Hemming Park.
During a Thursday evening event, Sheriff’s Office Investigations Chief T.K. Waters said that something like what happened in Minneapolis couldn’t happen here, and he told people that if they encounter an officer doing something wrong, they should call 911 to resolve the situation.
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But Brittany Chrishawn Williams’ video presents a different story.
On May 13 a Jacksonville officer parked his car in Brittany’s driveway.
Brittany Chrishawn, a 29-year-old graduate of the Paxon School for Advanced Studies and the University of Central Florida, walked out of her house and asked the officer if she could help him.
She then called 911, asking for another officer to help her because he wouldn’t leave.
The video shared on social media shows her pleading with the officers to leave her property.
“I want him to leave,” she told the officer. “… When I asked him, `Why are you here? Police officer, please leave,’ he started yelling at me. Do you think he has this kind of power, this kind of authority?”
She then repeats, “Why are you here, and why are y’all smirking?”
Then the video shows the second officer seeming to grab her as she runs backward into the house screaming.
Her husband’s voice is heard begging the officer to stop as the phone is dropped.
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READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/local/2020/05/29/videos-raise-racial-concerns-about-jacksonville-sheriffrsquos-office-interactions-with-public/41750393/