Attorney: Kenosha Police Pepper Sprayed Black Infant

Let’s just keep it a buck, police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin, allowed Kyle Rittenhouse to waltz right by them holding an assault rifle after he had shot two people to death and injured a third. A cop with the same police force prompted the civil unrest in Kenosha that brought Rittenhouse across state lines in the first place by shooting Jacob Blake.

Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty

And in July, cops in the same damn city accosted the first Black couple they saw inside an Applebees, despite the fact that the couple did not quite fit the description of the hit-and-run suspect the police were looking for—plus they were holding an infant child at the time.

As previously reported, 24-year-old Jermelle English Jr. and his 21-year-old wife Shanya Boyd were arrested on July 20 inside Applebees after the restaurant’s manager called the police after somehow mistaking the couple for the hit-and-run suspects.

Despite the fact that the cops realized at some point that they had the wrong people, English and Boyd were both charged with misdemeanor resisting and disorderly conduct,  because, apparently, it’s illegal for a couple to be less than calm and perfectly compliant while being bombarded by cops for no discernable reason while they’re holding their baby. Boyd was also charged with possessing a small amount of marijuana. (But when we say f**k the police, they get mad.)

According to the couple’s attorney, the incident may have been more violent and child-endangering than what the initially released body-cam footage showed.

According to Insider, attorney Kevin O’Connor said during a press conference last week that the baby caught in the crossfire of the cops’ violent arrest was also pepper-sprayed during the incident. Imagine even thinking about whipping out your pepper spray while there is an infant child anywhere near the vicinity let alone in the direction you’re

spraying literal poison—and all of that just to catch hit-and-run suspects that you still hadn’t caught. 

 

“This was no accident,” O’Connor said in the press conference, reports Insider. “What is the first thing that officers are taught? To de-escalate a situation.”

Tanya McLean, the executive director of Leaders of Kenosha, a local social justice nonprofit, said at the press conference that police still have not released all body camera footage of the incident.

O’Connor has asked for the Justice Department to investigate the incident and for the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office to drop the charges against the couple.

Meanwhile, Jay-Z and his legal team are also on the case.

According to TMZ, “Jay-Z’s Team ROC org has enlisted powerhouse lawyer Alex Spiro to rep Jermelle English Jr. and his family in hopes of getting all charges dropped, and possibly to sue the Kenosha PD.”