Black preacher arrested while watering flowers sues police

[ificandream]

Source: Associated Press

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A Black pastor who was arrested by white police officers while watering the flowers of a neighbor who was out of town filed a federal lawsuit alleging the ordeal violated his constitutional rights and caused lingering problems including emotional distress and anxiety.

Michael Jennings filed the lawsuit Friday night against three officers and the central Alabama town of Childersburg requesting a jury trial and seeking an unspecified amount of money.

Jennings’ lawyers held a news conference outside the Birmingham federal courthouse on Saturday to discuss the lawsuit, and the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, and other groups planned a rally afterward at a downtown park.

(snip)

The suit alleged the actions of Officers Christopher Smith and Justin Gable, Sgt. Jeremy Brooks and the city violated rights protecting against unlawful arrest and guaranteeing free speech. He cited multiple continuing problems including post traumatic stress disorder and humiliation.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/alabama-arrests-lawsuits-birmingham-9856e809e710ae75dbad37c80be639e8?utm_source=homepage&utm_medium=TopNews&utm_campaign=position_6

---

[SallyHemmings]

1. Good!

[TigressDem]

2. K&R K& R K&R K&R K& R K&R K&R K& R K&R

Well, follow the tRump path, sue the bastards until they can't see straight.

Might wind up having to THINK FIRST, violate people's civil rights less.

Couldn't hurt, might help.

[Novara]

3. There is nothing black folks can do without getting arrested, it seems.

Walking While Black

Driving While Black

Jogging While Black

Shopping While Black

And now Watering While Black.

[ancianita]

9. I'd love to see that meme that lists all the "while black" arrests that have been made.Can't find it

I've got a SIL who is right now claiming that everything blacks suffer, whites suffer, too. Wish I could find the darn thing.

[Novara]

16. I just want to throat-punch people like her

Absolute willful blindness. She must not have black friends and/or talk to black folks. It's pretty straightforward: just talk to a black male. And LISTEN.

[ancianita]

22. I hear you. Mindless of her white presumed privilege of treating a non-white like a threat rather

than a human being. She only admits her error once she sees and finally THINKs about the suffering her selfish mindlessness caused. This is what whites have to change -- mindless fear of difference as a threat.

[ancianita]

25. It all went public with the Right Wing culture of trifling outrage over Obama.

Followed up by the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates for opening the doors of his own home.





This racist toxicity is so fear based, that any white person calling police due to calling some innocuous activity "suspicious" by anyone Black, should be forced to take 60 hours of personal therapy, not community service.

[Novara]

26. Half the country lost its goddamn mind when we elected a black president.

And we're living in the backlash.

[ancianita]

27. Yep.

Because snowflakes gotta snowflake. All they show is white fragility.

[Novara]

29. Imagine the backlash after the first female president

What will they do? Strip us of our right to vote? To have our own bank accounts? To have property in our names? Take our driver's licenses away? Make us wear burkas?

I shudder to think what form that backlash will take.

[peppertree]

31. That - and if anything happens, it'll be because "she's weak!!"

Hell - they've been using that trope against Biden.

"Putin wouldn't have dared invade anyone if Trump were still in office."

"You realize he called Putin a 'savvy genius' even after he did so, right?"

"Fake news!!!"

[ancianita]

34. Ever since even the THREAT of a first female president,

they have already been working to cripple women's standing in the public arena. Start with what ends women's bodily autonomy, and the rest will follow.

My theory of human history is that the first war was men against women, and that it will also be the last war. It's been waged in hard and soft form for centuries with no letup. We've hit a rough patch unworthy of the basis of democracy
-- equality and equal protection under rule of law.

Whether there are male allies or not in the future battle is still hard to tell. We'll see how many men run on restoring abortion rights and bodily autonomy rights of women and girls. Love is as love does. That's what the women in their families need to remember. We'll see how many women run on the token status they've been allowed under patriarchal power structures, and how they deliver in the interests of male domination.

[Novara]

41. IMO, we've been living in a feminist backlash since Roe was decided in 1973.

I remember being flabbergasted in Reagan's America (remember kids, Reagan Ruined Everything) that sexist tropes, dress, and attitudes flourished after seeing so much progress in the 70s. Remember music videos and how ubiquitous they were in the 80s? And how incredibly sexist they had gotten in the 80s? We went from women wearing short hair and the first power suits to fluffy, permed hair, sexualized clothing, and ruffles (like the clothing manufacturers couldn't make up their minds whether we were madonnas or whores).

I see the 80's backlash as a cultural backlash to the gains women made through the 60s and 70s, and most importantly, it had to start as a cultural backlash because legally, women finally had some rights after Roe was passed in 1973. We were free to make our own decisions about our own bodies and it was perfectly okay not to carry a pregnancy you didn't want. We were no longer trapped into motherhood. We were free to compete in the workplace. We didn't have to have children holding us back if we chose. We went to colleges in larger numbers, we started working in traditionally male-dominated fields.

Remember the Year of the Woman in 1992 when a record number of women were elected to the Senate after the Clarence Thomas hearings? And again in 2018. Women were gaining political power. A woman ran for president. A woman IS our vice president. That scares the troglodytes half to death.

As most backlashes start, this one started culturally. It has waxed and waned since the 80s, but NOW has it taken that deadly legal step of stripping women of the right to their own bodies. It took that long, but it has been coming since Roe. It took a sexist, illegitimate SCOTUS to "put women in their place."

As to your second paragraph (and I'll probably get a lot of flak for this), I see a lot of men currently running for office on a platform of restoring women's bodily autonomy as carpetbaggers. I suspect that WHEN women get our rights back and when we insist on full equality, like passing the ERA and having an equal pay law, men will once again push back. I suspect some men currently running for office really do have their hearts in it and are genuine advocates, but I'm old enough to know that when women get "too powerful" (i.e. equal to men), the backlash will hit hard. No group in power willingly gives that power up. So in the future, this will see-saw again. As it ever was.

[ancianita]

43. We have a similar perspective on anti-abortion history.

Re your last paragraph, we're also in agreement.

[SilasSouleII]

24. Sleeping

come to mind

[electric_blue68]

40. Oh, yeah I've seen that long list. Shameful

[question everything]

45. And banking while black

https://democraticunderground.com/100217133575

[Diamond_Dog]

4. And right wingers insist

there’s no systemic racism in this country ….

[peppertree]

30. And if there's any, it's REVERSE racism.

"It's gettin' so where I can't talk with my friends anymore, without some lib'rul giving me dirty looks!"

"Well - what were you saying?"

"See - that's none of your bidness!"

[underpants]

5. It was outrageous. A white person even came up and vouched for him.

I mean, WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE????

[The Jungle 1]

6. End qualified immunity.

I want the cop to pay

[ancianita]

23. The person who called the cop should be sued for defamation -- by the preacher, even by the police.

[cstanleytech]

7. For the actual lawyers here I am wondering what in your opinion are the

odds of his proving his case to a jury assuming it's not thrown out of court or the parties do not decide to settle.

[irisblue]

8. From another source, Amanda who called the cops, made statements to media

https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/alabama-pastor-arrested-while-watering-neighbors-flowers-video-shows/

snip"A call from a neighbor, Amanda, whose last name is not listed in the arrest report, prompted the encounter. She had reported “suspicious activity” at the home, according to Daniels. "

snip-" Earlier this year, Amanda had invited Jennings to her son’s graduation party, Jennings said. But she appeared to not recognize him that day as he watered the flowers.

After Jennings was put in the back of a police car, the body camera footage shows Amanda telling the officers that he lives in the neighborhood and that it was normal for him to be watering flowers at that time.

“This is probably my fault,” she tells officers."
{No shit Amanda- my addition.}

more at source

[SunSeeker]

17. OMG They STILL took him to the station after she told them she made a mistake?!

[electric_blue68]

37. Yeah, really?! Those effing racist cops, they truly could of let him go after what Amanda said after

And she didn't recognize him at first.

Still - he was watering flowers for Christ sakes and seen him before doing that!



Arrrggg. Hope he Wins his case!

[tblue37]

50. They were asserting dominance because they were angry that he dared to argue with

them and defy them.

[TexasBushwhacker]

32. The problem had 2 sides

That she reported "flower watering while black" as "suspicious" and that the cops decided that it was worthy of arrest.

[usonian]

10. What kind of (Karen) neighbor reports watering plants as "suspicious activity"?

That's what started all this. It is disgraceful and racist.
And who has to carry identification to go across the street to water plants? A Black person. WRONG.

I am so sick and tired of racism.

Yeah, showing a home is suspicious activity. Breathing is suspicious activity.

RACISM IS TAUGHT. IT IS NOT INHERENT.

STOP FUCKING TEACHING IT, EVERYONE.

[LeftInTX]

11. The people on next door! Gosh, they get worked up every time someone sneezes!

https://the1a.org/segments/nextdoor-karen-problem/

The also film everyone and post it.

Your car is parked funny...It's filmed and posted
Someone litters. It's filmed and posted...It's all posted along with your plate number...

[usonian]

15. Only critter cams up here in the woods.

Still, I think that people move to the country ( in CA ) to avoid people entirely. It is kind of creepy.

I'll miss it if I get an asshole neighbor in the future.

But that app is an invitation to trouble. Like most other "social" apps. Because one little fart smells up a whole room.

[Novara]

18. I use NextDoor to find people who can do odd jobs

I'd rather toss a neighbor a handyman job than to pay an impersonal company.

I live in a very mixed area and our moderators are really on top of things. People know they can't get away with posting racist shit. But in less than well-moderated neighborhoods, I have heard of a lot of nastiness. Mostly people here post about lost pets and odd jobs and rummage sales.

I am glad I live in a mixed-race neighborhood in a mixed city. And it's a really friendly neighborhood as well. Neighbors chat on their front lawns, people wave to each other when passing. I grew up in a white, racist community and you guys are right - racism is learned. Thus, it can be unlearned. I overcame that racist upbringing, and I know I'm not unique.

[LeftInTX]

19. I also live in a very mixed area, but it doesn't stop

Mexicans against everyone lol

Mexicans tend to be helicopter parents.

They also fight amongst themselves.
One time a neighbor had tree limb cut and thrown in her yard. It turns out it was nothing but an ongoing epic feud between two next door neighbors. It was kinda fun to watch in real time. They all started posting pictures of each other's yards. "You did this", "You threw your garbage here" etc..Someone commented: I just knew this day would happen on this app!

[LakeArenal]

28. "They" call it grooming.

[whistler162]

44. Her name is Amanda

but that you prefer to not use her proper name is not surprising! Take your own advice!

[iluvtennis]

12. Awesome news! n/t

[AverageOldGuy]

13. Clearly the good Reverend was guilty of . . .

WFWB. Watering Flowers While Black.

In the same category as DWB (Driving While Black), JWB (Jogging While Black), and MMOBWB (Minding My Own Business While Black) -- all are felonies.

[mahina]

14. That arrest was crazy wrongful abuse of power.

[ancianita]

20. But he got his legal remedy -- he had to PAY to get basic justice to be protected from prejudice.

[bluboid]

21. outrageous stuff like this makes me sick -

glad he has good representation & community support!

[Martin68]

33. A new one for the list, "watering while Black." They're just skirting around the issue. What they

really mean is, "just being black." I think that's what we used to call racism.

[electric_blue68]

38. Living while black 😔 Nothing new, but at least more white people are listening, and believe what..

black people are saying, reporting their experiences.

[Joinfortmill]

35. Good. He should.

[Brainfodder]

36. Is the first thing out of the persons mouth: THIS IS MY HOUSE YOU WANT TO SEE MY MATCHING ID?

If not, then right there you give wiggle room, keep your GD tempers in check!

TLDR, that is just my take, every time this BS happens.

Safety first, that should end it, unless they are actually there to rob you?

[SunSeeker]

39. It wasn't his house, it was his neighbor's house. So his ID would not match.

He lives down the street and his neighbor had asked him to water the plants while they were away, something he had done many times before. But showing an ID would not have proven that he belonged at that house.

The real question is why would anyone think an elderly man watering plants is "suspicious activity"? What robber stops to water plants? He had no legal duty to show his ID. He was not doing anything wrong. Being angry that you're being racially profiled is not grounds for arrest. What the cops did was wrong, on so many levels.

[twodogsbarking]

42. We need backup. He has a watering can.

[DFW]

46. And a big caliber watering can at that.

I know it will never happen, but my fondest wish would be for each of the arresting(offending) "officers" to be arrested at their homes, handcuffed, and perp-marched down to a holding cell in the station where they used to work.

It's time "equal justice under law" became more of a practice, and less of a slogan with no more backing than "Arbeit Macht Frei." I'll bet that not one cop or judge in that town could tell you where "Equal Justice Under Law" is engraved.

[ck4829]

47. K&R

[867-5309.]

48. Can the cops require him to produce ID?

They get a call of a suspicious person at an address. They arrive to find a person not acting suspiciously at all, just watering flowers. Can they demand you ID yourself? Sure hope not.

[tblue37]

49. Good! I was hoping he would.

[NH Ethylene]

51. Watering neighbor's flowers while Black.

The police will now have to cross this off their list of 'crimes'. It's too bad they can't generalize and realize that they can't get away with this type of harassment anymore.