The Eastpointe, MI, police department has a lawsuit on its hands that alleges a brutal beating against a Black man while he was restrained in a chair, WJBK reports.
Frankie Taylor was picked up for drunk driving on Aug. 10 of last year. The beating was caught on video, and the man claims it caused him to lose vision in one eye.
“If you keep acting like a child, you’re going to get strapped in that chair and you’re going to stay there,” an officer can be heard saying on the video.
The video shows officers picking Taylor up and taking him to a chair in an attempt to restrain him. They also threaten him with a Taser. Another officer enters the room, puts on gloves and strikes Taylor repeatedly until he loses consciousness.
“Stop resisting, stop resisting, stop resisting,” said an officer between strikes. Multiple officers can be seen huddled around Taylor with their backs to the camera.
“The guy hit me so many times, it made me cry once I seen the tape [sic],” Taylor says. “I was knocked out.”
Taylor says he wasn’t treated after being struck in the head. Instead, he was transferred to the Macomb County Jail the following day. He eventually ended up at Detroit Receiving Hospital for surgery on his eye — one that already had a lens replaced once before.
“He has permanent loss of eyesight in one eye. His vision is severely compromised,” says attorney James Rasor. “He has these horrible nightmares.”
Attorney Rasor not only alleges that Eastpointe police used excessive force on Taylor, but discriminated against him because of his race by refusing to let him make a phone call. Taylor says White inmates were allowed to do so.
“You want to protect people from this type of brutality by police forces,” says Rasor. “White folks were allowed to use the phone by police officers; even one who had urinated in his pants was allowed to use the phone. Frankie Taylor wasn’t, and the only difference is that Frankie Taylor happens to be African-American.”
The suit was filed in federal court and Eastpointe police did not comment due to pending litigation.
Watch the disturbing footage below.
