Shutterstock
The Grand Rapids Police Department is accused of racial discrimination in two separate cases.
A 59-year-old Black man has filed a federal lawsuit against the Farmington Hills Police Department, alleging cops brutalized him in front of his children after falsely arresting him in front of his home.
The confrontation occurred after David Hurley came outside his Farmington Hills home when he spotted someone run in the bushes on the side of his house in October 2021.
Police were looking for a teenage girl’s boyfriend when Hurley was the first Black man they spotted, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
Having been in his house working, Hurley didn’t have his identification on him. While he pleaded with police to allow him to get his kids to retrieve his ID, the officers tackled him.
One of the officers placed his knees on the back of Hurley’s neck and back while he shouted, “I can’t breathe.”
Hurley’s children were hysterical as they watched.
Hurley thought he was about to become another statistic like George Floyd and Eric Garner, who both died at the hands of police.
“I thought I was going to die,” Hurley said in a statement.
The lawsuit was filed several months after the revelation that Farmington Hills police were using images of Black people for target practice.
"Farmington Hills Police Chief Jeff King keeps apologizing for their actions; the light now shines even brighter on their blatant racial disparities,” said attorney Dionne Webster-Cox, who filed the lawsuit on Hurley’s behalf. “But unfortunately, this systemic bias is much deeper in the City of Farmington Hills than many might have thought."
Stay connected with Detroit Metro Times. Subscribe to our newsletters, and follow us on Google News, Apple News, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, or TikTok.
