There’s outrage from Polk County Activists, calling for two Lakeland officers to face consequences after an encounter with a 16-year-old was captured on video, in which the officers can be seen striking the teen in the face before using a taser. The department confirmed it’s reviewing the case.
It’s the latest incident involving Lakeland police where they’re reviewing the use of force.
Police were called to a Memorial Day pool party on Monday and the teen was told to leave for trespassing. That encounter escalated.
The arrest affidavit says the 375-pound teen punched an officer in the face first before the video started recording.
“There needs to be not only a termination of these officers but there needs to be immediate criminal action, criminal charges against these officers,” said Minister Carl Soto with Black Lives Matter Restoration of Polk County.
Criminal defense attorney Anthony Rickman said the video is hard to watch, but it is only a 20-second clip. He said you have to consider what happened before the camera started rolling and what isn’t captured on video.
“They have weapons on them. If this officer’s engaged in his defender trying to arrest him, and someone comes from behind and takes that firearm from the officer, which has happened, and uses that firearm against the officers themselves, we’re talking about two cops who are potentially murdered,” said Rickman.
Rickman is not involved in the case but analyzed the video. He said there’s more to consider.
“There is a shock factor to what you see. But when you analyze it and look at it in terms of what law enforcement is trained to do and how they’re trained to use force, and that continuum that they use, the continuum was properly followed by these two officers, as ugly as it looks on TV,” said Rickman.
That continuum is the department’s use of force policy, which he said the officers appear to follow, as they continue to be hit by the teenager who is resisting arrest.
Rickman said the video clearly shows the teen fighting back and in going frame by frame, he sees mostly justifiable uses of force, except for one.
“What, in my opinion, is really ugly, is what this secondary officer does next. He moves directly from crowd control to turning around and giving these individual strikes to the face, and that’s what I could see being problematic for these officers,” said Rickman.
He said there also appears to be a moment where the teen is reaching around the officer’s waist as if he’s trying to grab his gun. Rickman said all of that will be considered when Lakeland PD reviews the case.
If the state attorney reviews it, they’ll look at whether the response was reasonable based on the circumstances and perceived threats.
Rickman doesn’t see this rising to the level of criminal charges for the officers.
“It’s apparent in this video, these officers lost control of the situation. They lost control of a defendant. They couldn’t control a 16-year-old. At the end of the day, if that 16-year-old puts his hands up, complies with law enforcement, leaves the pool, we are not here today,” said Rickman.
Black Lives Matter Restoration of Polk County said Lakeland PD has a systemic issue and the video also shows the need for more diversity and de-escalation training.
“We’ve never been for defunding the police. We’ve always been. The police need more, more training, and more tactics. It needs more resources so it’s able to efficiently do its job,” said Jarvis Washington, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Restoration in Polk County.