Though our legal system doesn't always follow suit, we thankfully now live in a world wherein recording the baffling behavior of law enforcement officials is a beautiful foregone conclusion. Such is the case with the overzealous Cleveland Regional Transit Authority police officer in the clip above, pepper-spraying the crowd during a #BlackLivesMatter summit in Cleveland, Ohio. According to reports, transit officers were attempting to arrest a 14-year-old boy believed to be intoxicated.
Intoxicated or not, arresting a 14-year-old while pepper-spraying a purportedly peaceful crowd is simply not a good look — especially for the profoundly troubled city of Cleveland. In November 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was murdered by patrolman Timothy Loehmann for supposedly carrying a toy gun. Officer Michael Brelo was acquitted of manslaughter following the murder of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, during which Brelo and his fellow officers fired a total of 137 shots into Russell and Williams' stationary vehicle.
On Monday, the Cleveland RTA released a statement on the pepper-spray incident — sadly continuing a narrative of dangerous aloofness. In short, if you think that displaying even minute levels of police brutality during an event meant to draw attention to the prevalence of such brutality in your city (and all across the country) — then you're very much part of the problem.
