Kenosha, Wi. already had a crappy reputation for being the place where Jacob Blake was shot and injured and also where Kyle Rittenhouse shot three people at a Black Lives Matter protest. Now, the city’s police department is under scrutiny after disturbing a man’s endless appetizers to arrest him for a crime he didn’t commit.
On July 20, a hit-and-run car crash was reported and the police said witnesses identified a Black man and woman with a child flee to an Applebee’s restaurant, per ABC7 Chicago. Once police arrived at the restaurant, an employee directed them to a few “suspicious people” they considered to be suspects, which happened to be a Black couple with a baby.
The officers approached the table, tried to take the child away from the man, Jermelle English Jr., and place him under arrest. Despite his screams insisting he was not the man they were looking for, a bystander video shows English being tackled onto the ground and punched repeatedly in the face. During the dispute, the baby hit its head against the wall.
After all the chaos, the police realized they ran up on the wrong family. In fact, the real family in question was hiding in the bathroom. Authorities say the suspect was charged but apparently, so was Mr. English.
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Kenosha police also say the man seen in the video is facing misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting and obstructing an officer. The woman he was with is facing the same charges, along with possession of marijuana. A day after the incident, 17-year-old Jamonte Wright was charged with one felony count of hit and run, involving injury.
A spokesperson for Kenosha police says that once the investigation is over, they will be more than happy to hand over dash camera and body camera video. And if need be, disciplinary action will be made against the officers, as well as education to the force and public.
Wright posted his $500 cash bond in July. He returns to court on Aug. 31 for a status conference. If convicted, Wright faces a maximum of nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The weeks-old incident threw the public into a frenzy when a bystander’s video recently resurfaced. Applebee’s manager, Jennifer Harris, told CBS58 she juggled trying to secure the baby, deescalate the arrest and protecting her employees from the pepper spray that was deployed. However, upon the publicity, she was fired from the restaurant.
It’s unclear if the four cops involved have been apprehended. The Kenosha Police Department said they are investigating the incident to “dictate whether the officers acted appropriately or not” as well as decided on any disciplinary action.
Of course the cops aren’t going to admit if race was a factor in why they jumped on the first Black couple with a baby they spotted. However, the implications of racial profiling are obvious. The Sentencing Project found in a 2021 report that Wisconsin has the highest incarceration rate in the country. One in 36 Black people are jailed while making up only six percent of the state’s population.
English almost became just another number.