(UPDATED 11:26 p.m. ET)
On Monday night, Edina Mayor Jim Hovland said the citation issued to the man will be dismissed, according to KMSP. The mayor issued this statement:
“Just before noon Oct. 12, an Edina Police Officer observed and stopped Larnie Thomas, who was walking in the lane of traffic on a busy city street. Thomas was detained at the scene. People across the country are expressing concern about how he was treated by the Edina Police. Thomas was not taken to jail. He was driven to a local shopping mall at his request and released. The citation issued to Thomas will be dismissed. The officer involved was following established protocol. However, under the circumstances, the City will review that protocol and determine how to better approach this type of incident with greater sensitivity in the future. We will work with the Edina community and invite other organizations to participate in this very important conversation. There are lessons we should and will learn from this experience.”
Original story below:
A widely seen cell phone video of a black man in Minnesota being arrested by a white police officer for allegedly walking in the street has drawn the ire of people and organizations, including the NAACP. The video brings focus back to the public’s uneasy relationship with police one month after the killings of Terence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott.
In the video posted Wednesday on YouTube, an unidentified but visibly frustrated black man is grabbed by the back of his coat by a white Edina police officer. During the seven-minute-long video, the officer, while grabbing the man by the back of his jacket, tells the man he’s walking in the middle of the street. The man repeatedly says he was walking on the white line, meaning on the shoulder of the road. As the city of Edina confirmed in a Facebook post addressing the incident, there was indeed sidewalk construction and a paved shoulder where the man was walking.
“You can’t just put your hands on me like that!” the man yells at the officer, who was still grabbing the man by the coat while walking him over to a squad car. The man incredulously asked the officer if he was going to be taken to jail for obstructing traffic. When the man asks why the officer still has his hands on him, there is no response.
The video was shot by a woman the NAACP later identified as Janet Rowles. She can be heard in the video suggesting the officer tell the man where to walk instead of detaining him. The NAACP released a statement in which Rowles said: “There was absolutely no reason for the officer to stop him from walking. I easily passed him in my vehicle because he was hugging the right side next to the construction, literally walking on the white line that marks the shoulder. I have no interest in vilifying the police, but obviously I got out of my car in the first place because I perceive the pedestrian might not get treated fairly because of his ethnicity.” Rowles also repeated the suggestions she made on the video, saying, “The officer could have slowed to warn him he might be in danger by being on the white line and suggesting a better place for him to walk, but stopping to try to exert control over him was overzealous.”
A statement released by the city of Edina alleged the man was “defiant” when the officer tried to get him to move over from the traffic lane where he was allegedly walking. The statement also said a breathalyzer confirmed the presence of alcohol on the man. The NAACP is asking for an investigation of the incident and for the police officer involved to be suspended without pay.
