Politics
Black teen Rodney Reese ARRESTED for walking in middle of the road to avoid icy sidewalks during Texas storm
A BLACK high school student was arrested for walking in the middle of the road to avoid ice-covered sidewalks during the brutal Texas storm last week.
Rodney Reese, 18, was arrested at 10:45pm last Tuesday in Plano, Texas, and charged with being a pedestrian in the road way, which is a misdemeanor offense.
Rodney Reese walked home in a T-shirt[/caption]
The Plano Police Department said it got a call about a black man wearing a short-sleeve T-shirt stumbling in the middle of the street, according to FOX4.
Body camera footage of the encounter released on Friday showed police confronting Reese for a wellness check and asking him where he was going.
A female officer can be heard saying: “Hey man, you trying to get home? Are you trying to get home?”
Reese said: “I’m on the way home, I’m straight.”
Rodney Reese said he believes he was racially profiled[/caption]
The officer then said, “Alright, but you’re walking in the middle of the road,” the officer said.
Reese replied, “My bad.”
Police followed Reese for two minutes and 17 seconds.
About a minute and 10 seconds in, Reese asked the cops, “What do y’all want?” And went down an alley.
Rodney Reese was arrested and spent the night in jail[/caption]
The officers continued to follow him and the female cop said, “We’re just trying to figure out where you’re going.”
Reese reiterated: “Home. I just said.”
The teenager who works at Walmart declined the cops’ offer to give him a ride home, saying he does the walk every night.
Reese declined to reveal his name and told the officers to go away and “please don’t touch me.”
Rodney Reese was walking home after working at Walmart[/caption]
A male officer then said they were “doing an investigation” on him, which prompted Reese to ask, “For what? I’m going home.”
The male cop then said, “You’re officially detained.”
Reese was handcuffed and spent the night in jail.
The teen told FOX4 that he was walking in the middle of the road because the sidewalk had snow and ice.
Rodney Reese told police he was walking home but they continued to trail him[/caption]
“They just treated me like I was a criminal or something,” Reese told the TV station.
He said that interactions with police made him nervous after George Floyd was killed last May in Minnesota.
“Just a simple encounter. A simple encounter,” Reese said tearfully.
“That’s why I tried to dodge it, so I could make it home, I don’t know.”
Reese added that he thinks he was racially profiled.
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“Just ‘cause I’m black, that’s it. It’s cause I’m black, I fit a description. It hurts, man,” he said.
Plano police Chief Ed Drain told FOX4 that the department has dropped charges against Reese because the arrest did not match the reason that officers were dispatched.
“They should’ve taken him home, is where he should’ve gone,” Drain said.
