Two white Flint cops sprayed mace at customers and workers at a food truck after arresting a man for dancing.
Two white Flint cops were caught on video indiscriminately spraying a crowd of Black people at a food truck over the weekend, violently pushing another man, and arresting a professional boxer for dancing.
The incident occurred at about 2 a.m. Sunday, when witnesses say police pulled up and demanded workers at the Family Recipes x All the Smoke food truck stop serving people because it was getting late.
Owner Leon Lawson II says the cops agreed to let him finish the remaining orders after he asked.
“I even asked them if they wanted something to eat,” Lawson says, adding that he had a permit to sell food.
But after doing a lap, the officers returned, blaring their sirens and shining bright lights in the faces of food truck workers and customers.
“It agitated them that we were still fulfilling orders, but we weren’t taking new orders,” Lawson tells Metro Times. “They weren’t getting the effect they were expecting.”
Lawson’s son Leon Lawson III, a professional boxer, raised his hands in the air like he was dancing, and the cops immediately arrested him and pushed another person who was near him.
As of early Monday afternoon, Lawson III was still in jail.
After making the arrest, the cops approached the grill, and one of the officers started macing people. As the people wretched and rubbed their irritated eyes, one of the officers demanded everyone leave. The mace also soaked the food and grill.
“What do I do about my food?” one woman asked.
“Go home,” the cop responded. “Go to McDonalds.”
The woman recording the video, Thelma Louise, called the cop “rude” before leaving.
“These motherfuckers just started macing people,” Louise said in the video. “They think they’re so fucking privileged.”
Louise posted the video on her Facebook, and it received 50,000 views as of Monday afternoon.
Louise filed a police report against the cops late Monday morning.
Lawson II says police escalated the situation and then used excessive force as people responded to the cops’ behavior.
“These weren’t gangsters waiting on their food,” Lawson II says. “These are regular citizens. They could have deescalated and told people to go home. It was sad. It was a black eye to our city.”
Metro Times reached out to Flint Police Chief Terence Green and Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, but neither returned our calls as of early Monday afternoon.
Residents slammed the police on Facebook, saying they used excessive force and failed to try to diffuse the situation.
“I don’t see anyone doing anything wrong except for the police! There’s been shootings every night and they wanna mess with people selling food peacefully smfh,” Kerri Willoughby wrote.
Neil Durfee chimed in, “I hope all these cops get what they got coming. Harassing hard working Americans while there’s criminals shooting, drug dealers selling and people dying. Whack how much of a police state flint has become over shit they control.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
