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A Kentucky man says he was hit by cops while filming an arrest.
Joe Bennett of Jeffersontown was on his way home from work last week when he saw police cars circling a vehicle. He decided to pull over and film a video of the incident with his phone – about 15 meters away.
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The Facebook livestream, which was linked to on Twitter, shows the arrest unfolding.
“I just wanted to watch, so I tried to give them some distance,” Bennett told local station Spectrum1.
Bennett can be heard on his livestream saying he was doing his “due diligence as a citizen” documenting the arrest, adding at one point: “This is perhaps the most boring live video of all. time.”
That is, up to three minutes later, when the cops realized they were being filmed.
The video shows two officers approaching Bennett. When asked to see his ID, Bennett refuses and asks why, to which the officer responds, “You are filming a crime scene investigation … and you are involved.”
After Bennett again refuses to produce ID, the officer grabs the phone and hits Bennett. The livestream ends shortly after.
Bennett received a citation for threatening and resisting arrest which described the blow as an “empty strike” – a claim Bennett refutes, claiming he was hit with a “solid left hook” and that he had to be checked by paramedics at the scene and a doctor a day later.
Lt. Col. Steve Schmidt of the Jeffersontown Police Department told Spectrum that “officers were in the area to investigate and make arrests related to a thwarted check fraud scheme at Citizens Union Bank across from the McDonalds.
Bennett was named by a suspect as a driver involved in the alleged crime, authorities said, although police later concluded that was not the case.
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Bennett said he was considering hiring a lawyer.
“They should have approached me slowly,” he said of the police. “I wasn’t going anywhere, I wasn’t in my vehicle, I wasn’t going to run away. They sure shouldn’t have hit me first and questioned me later.”
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