On April 5, 2022, Team Emancipate visited the Durham County Courthouse to obtain a court order for the general public release of body camera footage from an incident of excessive force involving the Durham Police Department. Highlights of the body camera video are found here.
This video portrays what should have been a routine traffic stop that turned into an aggressive arrest. It is, unfortunately, typical of the way police overreact to minor incidents when they are policing Black people.
William and Kimurry Smith were driving home on Highway 70 in Durham when Kim committed a minor traffic infraction. When the blue lights came on, she knew that she had made an error, and she pulled to the side of the road to receive her ticket.
William and Kimurry also knew that due to a mix-up on a prior court date, there was an outstanding warrant for William for a “failure to appear” (FTA) for a nonviolent property crime. They had already been working with a lawyer to get the case re-calendared so that it could be disposed of. So, they knew it was possible he could be arrested if the police ran his name in their database.
William was ready to go with the police voluntarily and get booked at the jail for the FTA. He was not ready to be violently extracted from his car, pushed face-first onto the ground while cuffed, and assaulted with a baton. He was not ready for his mouth jewelry to be smashed into the concrete and ruined. He was not ready to be shoved aggressively into a holding cell at the jail by a contemptuous officer. And, he was not ready for his wife to be traumatized witnessing all of this, as she feared for his life.
There was no reason for Durham Police to act this way. This was a minor thing. In fact, when William went to court afterward, the outstanding charge was dismissed.
The most aggressive thing the police should have done in this context would be to say: “Sir, you have an outstanding warrant for a Failure to Appear. Could you please step out of the car and submit to arrest so that we can go process the matter at the jail?”
The police treated William with a presumption that he was dangerous, without any evidence to make them think that. They used a pretextual excuse to be violent.
The system that has taught police to fear Black people must be dismantled. Report incidents of police misconduct on our website