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The Dayton Police Department’s Professional Standards Office is investigating the arrest of a black man with paraplegia after he was allegedly dragged out of his car during a traffic stop in Ohio City last month.
Why is this important: Recently released body camera footage shows Clifford Owensby having his hair pulled out as he got out of his car during his arrest on September 30. He could be heard moments earlier saying to a policeman: “I cannot get out of the car, sir. I am a paraplegic”, adding that he had received assistance to get into the vehicle.
- The 39-year-old politely declined an officer’s offer to help him out of the vehicle, requesting the presence of a supervisor.
- An officer tells him he “can cooperate and get out of this car” or the police will “drag” him out. He yells for help as he got out of the car, “I’m a paraplegic, brother, you can hurt me!” before he was handcuffed.
To note : “Dayton Police were already under surveillance after Jack Runser, a deaf and mute man with cerebral palsy, sued the department, claiming he was injured and abused by police during a 2020 arrest, ” the Washington Post notes.
Driving the news: Police said at a briefing on Friday that they had arrested Owensby after seeing his car leave a suspected drug house and that she wanted to take an “open-air sniffer” test.
- They allege that a bag containing $ 22,450 in cash was found on the front floor.
- Police said Owensby had an unbelted 3-year-old in the back seat, so officers cited him for transporting a child without a car seat and for tinted glass.
What to watch: Dayton Unit NAACP chairman Derrick Foward confirmed to WashPost on Saturday night that Owensby had filed a complaint with the civil rights group, which was working “hand in hand” with his lawyer.
- “To pull this man out of the car by the hair – a paraplegic – is totally unacceptable, inhumane and throws a bad light on our great city of Dayton, Ohio,” Foward told WashPost.
What they say : Acting Dayton Police Chief Matt Carper said in a report that “the next training for all Dayton police officers and supervisors will include diversity, equity and inclusion, de-escalation, unbiased policing and procedural justice.”
- “We have to do better,” Carper adds. “And this can be done by further developing the mutual respect and responsibility necessary to make our city safer.”
- Jerome Dix, chairman of Dayton Fraternal Order of Police Lodge, told the Dayton Daily News that the officers involved followed the law, adding: “Sometimes arresting non-compliant individuals is not pretty, but is a part necessary for law enforcement to maintain public safety. “
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