David Boyer, along with his two friends, Ray and Alex were assaulted by police while attempting to buy pizza after a night out. One of the three pulled out his cell phone to catch the event on camera. David contacted CopBlock.org and wanted to share his story. Here is his account of the incident:

Myself and two friends, Ray and Alex decided to go meet up in one of the neighborhoods in Baltimore. After we had a few beers, the bars closed at 2am and we decided to venture out for pizza. We found the only pizza shop that was open. Alex and I were in front of the shop and Ray was distracted by something elsewhere. We agreed the shop was too busy and to call it a night. There was a small crowd amassed in front of the shop (naturally) and two cops directed the people and some customers to disperse. I informed the officer that we were waiting for a friend and he replied “too bad” and I then pointed out it was public sidewalk. He bumped me off the curb to which I replied “so now you are gonna assault me?’ This enraged the cop and prompted him to throw me to the ground and cuff me. The video starts right after this moment. Alex and Ray were shocked to see what happened and justly contested the arrest. In the video you can see the female officer take out her baton and the other officer grab Alex’s legs and slam him to the ground. The female officer hit Alex with the baton off camera. We are sat in the street, cuffed and humiliated and waiting for the paddy wagon to come. Baltimore is an arrest friendly city and the BPD have managed to streamline it. Back up comes to disperse the crowd armed with night sticks. They twirl the sticks in our face, teasing us. One officer even calls me a “Rabbi.” At one point during the event I count 13 police officers for us. Is there really nothing better the police could be doing?

The van comes and we are switched from temporary cuffs to plastic ones. The cops are sure to tighten the cuffs on us and marks were left. We get to central booking and and are processed. First, we see a doctor to make sure we are aright. Next we got our personal property taken and itemized. We are placed in temporary cell after this. We meet one gentleman that is already there and witness him pulling out the heroin he sneaked in and snort it. To quote Alex, “How does Baltimore City expect to keep drugs off the street if they can’t even keep them out of their jails?” We are taken to another cell and begin to wait to get our mugshot taken and fingerprinted. We noticed the officers that work there were very unprofessional and argued back with the inmates. Guards cussing and using racial epithets was very common. Not that I was much surprised. After one guard thought that Ray was getting smart with her she separated him from us in an attempt to “break him.” We finally get everything done and find a more permanent home, around 4×10. The cell is very hot and crowded. I think that there was about 9 of us and once Ray was brought back 10. But there was no room for Ray and he was forced to stand on the toilet. Breakfast included orange-like drink, milk, hard boiled eggs, cereal and slices of bread. After many hot hours we were taken to the departing cell. Everyone’s spirits in here were high since they knew they would be getting released. We noticed first hand that the majority of people in there were doing nothing like us or victimless crimes such as using drugs. But their mindset was different, they were happy just to be able to get out rather than being angry for the injustice they experienced. We were released on own recognizance the next day with no crimes charged against us.