A day after Chris LeDay helped the first video of police officers shooting Alton Sterling to death in Baton Rouge, La. go viral, he was arrested himself in what he believes was retaliation by police officers.
LeDay, who lives in Atlanta, didn't film the shooting himself, but was the first person online to help it spread to a wider audience when he posted it to his Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts that all have large followings. His post was then shared widely by media outlets and the New York Daily News's Shaun King.
According to LeDay's own account of the arrest on Facebook, he was going to his job as a technician at Dobbins Air Reserve Base when he was suddenly detained by both military and civilian police officers.
LeDay later told the blog Photography Is Not a Crime that the officers had reason to believe he fit the description of someone wanted for battery. He was reportedly cuffed and shackled, but at the police station he was informed that he'd been arrested due to unpaid traffic tickets. He spent the night in jail and was released after paying $1,231 in fines. LeDay admitted to not paying the tickets because he couldn't afford them. His license was suspended, but, he told the blog, he uses Uber to get to work.
LeDay told Photography Is Not a Crime that even though the charges were minor, he believes the police made a big spectacle out of arresting him at work as a way to get back at him for posting the video.
