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harlem, usa
same-gender-loving contemporary descendant of enslaved africans. community activist, feminist, health educator, independent filmmaker, mentor, playwright, poet & spiritual being. featured at, in & on africana.com, afrikan poetry theatre, angel herald, bejata dot com, bet tonight with tavis smiley, blacklight online, black noir, brooklyn moon cafe, gmhc's barbershop, klmo-fm, lgbt community services center, longmoor productions, nuyorican poets cafe, our corner, poz, pulse, rolling out new york, rush arts gallery, saint veronica's church, schomburg center for research in black culture, sexplorations, the citizen, the new york times, the soundz bar, the trenton times, the village voice, upn news, uzuri, venus, vibe, wbai-fm, wnyc-fm & wqht-fm. volunteered with adodi, bailey house, inc., black men's xchange-new york, colorofchange.org, drug policy alliance, east harlem tutorial program, imagenation film & music festival, presente.org, save darfur coalition, the enough project, the osborne association, the sledge group & your black world. worked on films with maurice jamal & heather murphy. writing student of phil bertelsen & ed bullins. mjt975@msn.com.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Milwaukee Guard Sterling Brown unjustly tasered by Milwaukee Police Officer in January 2018 and the body camera footage was just released

milwaukee police department on wednesday released body camera footage showing one of their officers unjustly tasing milwaukee bucks guard sterling brown. the incident took place in january 2018 when brown, an unarmed black male, was stopped by a white officer for a parking violation.

officers tasered and arrested brown after the arresting officer noticed his car parked across two handicapped parked spaces at a local walgreens. the arresting officer (in his police report) said brown refused repeated requests to step back and became "very aggressive." the officer called for backup and said brown, "physically resisted officers attempts to handcuff him and was taken to the ground in a controlled manner."

milwaukee police chief alonso morales said officers acted "inappropriately," and "were recently disciplined," without providing details. brown, now 23, was booked and received a $200 parking ticket. but after looking at the reports and body camera footage, authorities decided against the arresting officer's request to charge brown with obstructing an officer.

the city's then-police chief, ed flynn, told wisn-tv the department had questions about the officer's tactics - prompting an internal affairs investigation. flynn said, "we wouldn't be conducting an investigation into this if we were 100 percent satisfied with our application of our tactics in this matter. what we want to do is ascertain how a parking ticket turned into a tasing, and so that's what we are going to do." 

flynn retired in february and was suceeded by morales. earlier this week, milwaukee mayor tom barrett expressed concern over the video, which he viewed before the public. barrett said, "it was a disturbing video when i saw it and i know (morales) feels the same way, and i don't know what actions his department is going to take, but it is disconcerting to see some of the actions in that video."

mark thomsen, brown's attorney, says brown plans to file a civil lawsuit against the milwaukee police department as a result of this incident.      

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