423
submitted 1 year ago by geosoco@kbin.social to c/news@lemmy.world

What began as a routine band performance of Talkin' Out the Side of Your Neck by Cameo at an Alabama high school football game ended in a troubling confrontation when a police officer tased the marching band director for refusing to stop the music.

The altercation occurred Thursday around 9 p.m. local time after a game at Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham, Ala.

Minor High School band director Johnny Mims, 39, and his ensemble of 145 students were about a minute away from being done with their final song when a police officer approached the podium. According to both Mims and the Birmingham Police Department, officers asked Mims to stop the performance so they could clear out the stadium. Mims responded that the song was about to end and the performance was agreed on by both schools.

"Nothing we were doing at the time was being a danger to the community, fans or the school," Mims told NPR on Monday. "Everyone was enjoying themselves. That's the part I'm having a hard time grappling with."

As the students finished their performance, officers attempted to arrest Mims for not complying. Police said the band director "refused" to place his hands behind his back and allegedly pushed an arresting officer.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 198 points 1 year ago

arrested not for breaking any law, but for 'not complying' where the office had no real reason to order anyone to do anything... and then charged with resisting.

the usa sucks.

[-] Wrench@lemmy.world 63 points 1 year ago

The officer captured on his own camera that his reason for the arrest was "he was disrespectful"

Yep. Says it all.

[-] jonne@infosec.pub 23 points 1 year ago

Hey now, at least he didn't say uppity. Because you know that's what he wanted to say.

[-] Neato@kbin.social 58 points 1 year ago

I don't think that was a lawful order, anyways. And police have absolutely no authority to command citizens for anything but lawful orders.

[-] Aidinthel@reddthat.com 27 points 1 year ago

Except in the sense that they have weapons and are rarely punished for using them. There's what the law says and then there's the reality that if some cop gives you an order you have to choose between obeying and betting your life he's not going to escalate.

[-] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 year ago

I would think this is a First Amendment violation as well. I hope this guy gets a payday.

[-] klemptor@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

I hope it comes from the police pension fund!

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

It always comes from the city. Police budgets are not effected by payouts.

[-] klemptor@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

I guess I mean I wish it would come from the pension.

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Me too friend. I feel like the only way to make them reform without disbanding and rebuilding them would be to hit them in the capitalism. Right now they don't risk anything. The absolute worst case is getting fired and then just getting a new job in the next suburb over, but usually they just get a paid vacation.

[-] treefrog@lemm.ee 48 points 1 year ago

He was black, in public, and not licking a pigs boot. In Alabama.

Racist cop tazes black teacher. Would have been my pick for a headline.

[-] Th4tGuyII@kbin.social 38 points 1 year ago

Of course he broke the law - he hurt the officer's feelings. That's the worst law you can possibly break! /s

But seriously though. Cops got butthurt, and so they aggravated the situation, and used the fact that the poor man panicked when being manhandled as the reason to arrest him in the first place. What kind of circular reasoning bullshit is that??

[-] originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com 28 points 1 year ago

the poor man panicked when being manhandled as the reason to arrest him in the first place

this is a primary tactic of all police in the united states. all of them.

i would assume its part of the pathetic training they receive which includes things like 'most cops will die on the job, the public is trying to kill you 100% of the time'

[-] Chocrates@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Yeah, cops are trained that they are at war with the public. We need to fix that shit

this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
423 points (98.8% liked)

News

23406 readers
1774 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS