Two officers suspended for Applebee’s arrest in Wisconsin

By Bryant McCray

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    MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (WDJT) — Nearly four months after the forceful arrest of a Black man and a Black woman in a Kenosha Applebee’s, the Kenosha Police Department has released body camera video from that night.

The Kenosha Police Department denies this incident was a case of profiling.

They say the two Kenosha police officers used force in a way that violated their policy.

Now, the attorney representing the family in this case is calling for the Kenosha Police chief to be fired.

In newly released body camera video from the Kenosha Police Department, you can hear Jermelle English Jr. begging to be released from the grip of a Kenosha police officer while holding his infant son.

“We now have a situation where this police department needs to be stopped,” said Chicago attorney Kevin O’Connor, representing family in the mistaken arrest.

Jermelle English Jr. and Shayna Boyd, a couple from Zion, Illinois, were mistakenly arrested in a Kenosha Applebee’s back in July.

Police mistakenly confronted the two while looking for suspects involved in a hit-and-run.

Those suspects were later found in the restaurant’s bathroom.

Now, KPD in their latest video, explain how Boyd and English ended up in handcuffs.

“At 11:11p.m. an employee called Kenosha police to advise that a group of individuals matching the description of those who fled the scene had entered the restaurant and quote ‘appeared very nervous,'” said Kenosha Police Chief Patrick Patton.

Shortly after the call, officers came back to the Applebee’s to question English and Boyd about what car they were driving.

The Illinois couple refused to answer.

“I don’t have to answer no question, I already told y’all… like we don’t gotta answer no questions,” said Boyd and English.

In the video, you can see English walks away, an officer follows, and shortly after a struggle begins.

The video left community activists like Tanya McLean with more questions than answers.

“Why not just step away, give it a minute or call someone else to the scene that is more skilled than what needed to happen in terms of de-escalation, because clearly those police officers did not handle it properly,” said McLean.

“And that’s the situation we are faced with in Kenosha, and if you’re Black and you don’t cooperate and you don’t beg and plead for forgiveness and mercy you’re getting beat, and even when you do, do that you’re going to get beat, so that’s the attitude that’s be perpetrated by this department and it’s coming from the top,” said O’Connor.

One officer was suspended for four days because investigators say he should have re-evaluated the effectiveness of hitting English.

Another officer was suspended for ten days because he failed to -quote- “decontaminate” a woman after he used pepper spray on her.

Both officers are receiving additional training.

CBS 58 reached out to Kenosha police but was told both their public information officer and the chief were not available for comment.

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