5/9/18
By: Abbie Bennett
Source: News & Observer
Waffle House has not responded yet to the violent arrest of a black man by a white police officer in one of the chain’s North Carolina restaurants. But the NAACP Legal Defense Fund wants the restaurant and police to release the video and audio of what happened that night.
Now the NAACP Legal Defense Fund is responding. President and Director-counsel Sherrilyn Ifill issued a statement about what they called the “violent Waffle House arrest”:
“We’re once again outraged by a video showing police officers using excessive force on an unarmed, non-violent African-American Waffle House customer,” the statement read. “Once again this incident was sparked when a Waffle House employee called the police after the patron allegedly complained about customer service. And once again the police responded with violence.”
“Last month, in Saraland, Alabama, a customer’s mere questioning of why she was being charged extra for plastic utensils – when she never had before – appeared to spiral out of control after employees called the police,” Ifill’s statement read. “The dehumanizing arrest of Chikesia Clemons alarmed neither the Saraland Police Department nor Waffle House, who have both failed to accept any responsibility for potential wrongdoing and hold those at fault responsible.”
“After a reported small disagreement at a Waffle House in Warsaw, North Carolina, it appears that employees unreasonably heightened the situation by calling local law enforcement. Twenty-two-year-old Anthony Wall, who had just taken his sixteen-year-old sister to prom, was then choked and violently thrown on the ground by Warsaw Police Officer Frank Moss. The officer’s actions were grossly inappropriate, and we call on the Warsaw Police Department and District Attorney to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of the officer’s conduct by publicly releasing any body-worn and/or surveillance camera footage, as well as audio of the call for police service. The officer should also be placed on administrative duty during the investigation.”
In both Wall and Clemons’ cases, Ifill wrote that neither were armed and both were non-violent.
“Neither situation warranted police intervention, let alone such gratuitous use-of-force,” Ifill wrote. “Waffle House must conduct an extensive review and overhaul of its policies to ensure that employees do not needlessly subject customers of color to police contact and brutality.”
Read the full article here.
