LAWSUIT: Phoenix arrested Black man for asking questions about stop – ABC15 Arizona

LAWSUIT: Phoenix arrested Black man for asking questions about stop  ABC15 Arizona

The Phoenix Police Department retaliated against a Black man by throwing him in jail for asking basic questions about why he had been stopped, according to a new lawsuit.“It was a mix of emotions from anxiety to confusion,” William Kitchen said. “I was just perplexed, like what just happened.”In addition to retaliation, the federal lawsuit alleges officers continue to demonstrate that Phoenix has a longstanding pattern and practice of racial discrimination and violating people’s rights to free speech.“He literally just asked questions, a core First Amendment activity, and got thrown in handcuffs for it,” said Josh Carden, Kitchen’s civil attorney. “[Officers] were just trying to teach him a lesson, an unconstitutional lesson.”The Phoenix Police Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.THE STOPOn February 6, 2024, Phoenix officers were conducting an “intensive” operation in west Phoenix where they were surveilling a man at a bus stop just south of 83rd Avenue and Camelback Road.While watching the area, officers claimed that Kitchen ran across the street to get to the bus stop and obstructed a thoroughfare.A team of officers swarmed the bus stop and detained and searched Kitchen.After a few minutes, he was taken out of handcuffs.That’s when Kitchen began asking Sgt.

Meelhuysen, who was in plain clothes, questions about what was happening and why he had been stopped.The interaction was recorded