Broken Justice:
The AllowedViolations of Black Citizens & Business Owners Civil Rights
by The City of Brookhaven.

At approximately 2:10 P.M., a Doctor & Business owner attempted to flag down a Brookhaven Police squad car, driven by Officer James MacArthur (Badge #1752), to report an incident. Despite the Doctor initially being over 50 feet away, Officer Mac Artur responded in a highly alarming manner.

 

Upon stopping his vehicle, Officer Mac Arthur fully rolled down the passenger side window. As the Doctor approached empty handed, dressed in a short sleeve shirt, cargo pants, and Crocs, Officer Bade unholstered the top of his weapon and positioned himself as if to discharge it. This action caused the Doctor immediate fear and concern for his safety  prompting him to began recording the incident.​

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A request for a supervisor was made, however Officer MacArthur departed before the Supervisor could arrive. At approximately 2:30 P.M., Brookhaven Police Supervisor Sgt. Jay Smith (Badge #1808) arrived at the scene. Unfortunately, Sgt. Smith’s recorded demeanor was combative and unprofessional, appearing his only concern was defending the unnecessary and potentially deadly actions of  Officer MacArthur. When the Doctor inquired if Sgt. Smith was aware that a young Black Woman and Mother named SONYA MASSEY was shot in the head and executed just days before this incident, he responded,

" No, I only care about what goes on in Brookhaven".

Feeling uncomfortable, the Doctor chose not to proceed with filing a formal report and instead requested several times that the body camera footage be used in lieu of a formal report under the circumstances. Despite this, Sgt. Smith demanded a formal report and identification from the Doctor, when he again declined to proceed to formally document the incident, Sgt. Smith chose to write down the license plate number of the Doctor's vehicle parked legally in a designated tenant loading zone.

The incident was further exacerbated when Sgt. Smith responded dismissively to repeated requests for his business card by walking away and responding, "have a nice day". Before finally providing the Doctor with his business card, he witnessed Sgt, Smith open the laptop inside his cruiser and appear to enter the License plate number of the Doctor's vehicle. The Doctor informed the Sgt, 'if he ran his license plate without cause or in the commission of a crime being investigated, he would contact his attorney for violating his rights...'. Sgt. Smith responded to the Doctor by fabricating a vehicle infraction and now his vehicle was "illegally parked"—a claim that ignored the fact that Doctor's vehicle was being used in accordance with tenant rights for unloading purposes at his business' backdoor.