18-year-old Jason Goolsby was standing outside of a Citibank with two friends in D.C. when his session was abruptly cancelled, he lingered outside trying to decide whether or not he still needed to withdraw money right then.
As he was making this decision, a white woman pushing a baby stroller approached the bank and Goolsby held the door open for her. The young men say that she did not utter a word to them, but just a few moments later, D.C. police were coming towards them, so Goolsby ran.
Goolsby, who is a freshman studying music at the University of D.C., was approached by two white officers after they caught up to him near Barracks Row.
They began forcing their weight onto his back. He was screaming out in agony as the officers tried pinning his arms behind his back as if he had just done something horrible with his hands.
(Gabrielle Union shares Tweets on the incident)
Goolsby’s account of everything was that, “[The officers] threw me on the ground. They never read me my rights after they handcuffed me. . . . They never apologized.”
In the video clip, you can hear the officers demanding that Goolsby stop resisting arrest, but he didn’t even commit a crime! You can hear the frustration in his voice as he retorts, “I’m not resisting!” and his cameraman-friend yelling “He didn’t do nothin’!”
Next, the friend gets threatened to turn the camera off by a third cop and it cuts off just as we see the cop aggressively approach him. If you’d like to see the clip, you can view it here. The initial call was for a different robbery that happened in the area, so the boys were not charged with any crimes (duh).
The Washington post is reporting that Goolsby is just angry because he and his friends know that the white woman had called the cops on them since she was the one who felt “uncomfortable.” He even said the whole situation is making his “head spin,” I mean, who would ever think this would be happening to them? The Twitterverse began tweeting their disapproval of the cop who terrorized this young man and started organizing protests yesterday to get justice for Jason. You can follow the hashtag #JusticeForJason. People are still marching right now!
TSR Intern: Talia O. @theclosetratchet on Instagram & @tallyohhh on Twitter!
Source Cited:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/detention-of-black-teens-by-police-outside-dc-bank-sparks-protests/2015/10/13/055203d6-71c1-11e5-9cbb-790369643cf9_story.html
