*Note: While the following incident happened in 2012, it helps put the recent events in Ferguson in context, particularly for privileged white people who don’t have to deal with police abuse on a daily basis. Marcus Jeter was only cleared in February 2014, once the dashcam video surfaced.

Sarah Wallace: “If this tape hadn’t surfaced?”



Marcus: “I’d be in jail.”

This video was only turned over by Bloomfield police after Jeter’s attorney filed a request for records; at the time prosecutors were insistent that Jeter do prison time.

“The first plea was 5 years,” said Jeter.

Sarah: “Your hands are up.”

Jeter: “My hands are up.”

Jeter: “As soon as they opened the door, one officer reached in an punched me in my face.” He adds, “As he’s trying to take off my seatbelt, I’m thinking something is going to go wrong…”

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Something did go wrong. Very, very wrong, and if it wasn’t for a police dashcam, an innocent black man would’ve faced five years in jail for the crime of being beat up, threatened and wrongfully accused by police. Meanwhile, the New Jersey cops who actually engaged in barbaric wrongdoing would’ve remained free to harass other innocent members of the community.

If the recent events in Ferguson (read my thoughts on the matter here) haven’t yet altered your perception of the how some members of the militarized police view themselves relative to the communities they are paid to “protect and serve,” then perhaps the following video will. As someone who reports on wrongdoing by those in power on a daily basis, it takes a lot to shock and disturb me. This video did just that.

Although Marcus Jeter was able to be cleared of charges, it makes you wonder how many of the millions of Americans currently in prison are there under false charges? After all, police do make an arrest every two seconds in the so-called “land of the free.”

In Liberty,

Michael Krieger



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