Black College Student Brutally Beaten By Police Officers In D.C.

Philip Lewis, Huffington Post

The Metropolitan Police Department later confirmed that Jason Goolsby had committed no crime.

A video that went viral on Twitter appears to show Jason Goolsby, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of the District of Columbia, being brutally beaten and detained by police officers Monday night. D.C. police claimed the incident was in response to reports of a robbery, but later said Goolsby had not committed a crime.

Goolsby’s friend filmed graphic footage of the incident, which he posted on Twitter.

In the video, Goolsby can be heard shouting, “I’m not resisting!” even as the officers hold him down and command him to stop resisting.

[…]

“The initial call was for a suspicious person, three subjects may be trying to rob people at the ATM,” Hickman said in an email… One individual fled on foot from the police, was chased, and then taken down. The individual resisted, and was handcuffed while resisting after he refused to stop.  The person making the video was interfering with police, and was also detained while the incident was investigated.  Neither individual was arrested.”

[…]

A different MPD spokesman later told The Guardian that “no criminal act was found to have taken place after the individuals were stopped and interviewed,” which Hickman confirmed to HuffPost Tuesday evening.

The friend of Goolsby’s who posted the video claimed in a tweet that the cops approached the group because “a white couple felt uncomfortable” around the teenagers.

The footage of the incident led sympathizers on Twitter to begin posting with the hashtag #JusticeForJason.

Demonstrators also protested the officers’ actions in the streets of D.C. on Tuesday.

[…]

For black college students across the country, simply existing can be dangerous. Christian Taylor, an unarmed 19-year-old sophomore at Angelo State University in Texas, was shot and killed by police in August.  In March, University of Virginia student Martese Johnson required 10 stitches after being badly beaten by Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control officers…  Matthew Ajibade, a 21-year-old student at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, was shot in the groin with a stun gun while in police custody in January. He died as a result of “blunt force trauma,” according to the Chatham County coroner.

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