Historian 'pinned to ground by US police and beaten for jaywalking'
| quote: | Historian 'pinned to ground by US police and beaten for jaywalking'
By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 2:24am GMT 12/01/2007
A distinguished British historian claims he was knocked to the ground by an American policeman before being arrested and spending eight hours in jail — because he crossed the road in the wrong place.
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto said he had been the victim of "terrible, terrible violence" after he inadvertently committed the offence of "jaywalking" in Atlanta, Georgia, last week and failed to realise the man telling him to stop was an officer.
The slight, bespectacled professor claimed that five burly officers pinned him to the ground after Kevin Leonpacher kicked his legs from under him as he hesitated to show his ID.
He was left "traumatised and disorientated" and with a gashed forehead as he was taken to the local jail and charged with pedestrian failure to obey a police officer and physical obstruction of police.
The academic, professor of global environmental history at Queen Mary College, University of London, and a member of Oxford University's modern history faculty, said he had been subjected to "very humiliating procedures" and even had his box of peppermints confiscated.
advertisement
The 56-year-old appeared in court the next day, "tortured" by the fear of getting a criminal record that would wreck his chances of getting a green card allowing him to work in America. But prosecutors dropped the charges.
Atlanta's police chief ordered an inquiry after the mayor raised the incident.
Prof Fernandez-Armesto, who is also a member of the history department at Tufts University, Massachusetts, was in Atlanta for the convention of the American Historical Association. He said he was crossing the road and became aware of a "rather intrusive young man shouting at me telling me that I shouldn't have crossed the road there".
Because he was wearing a "rather louche" bomber jacket that covered his uniform, the professor did not realise he was a policeman.
"I thanked him for his advice and went on," said the professor. When Officer Leonpacher tried to stop him and demanded to see identification, the professor asked to see his, which he "didn't take kindly to". "He said 'I am going to arrest you'," Prof Fernandez-Armesto said. "In the culture I come from this wouldn't mean that the conversation was over.
"Nor would it mean that you were about to be subjected to terrible, terrible violence. This young man kicked my legs from under me, wrenched me round in what I think is a sort of a judo move, pinned me to the ground, wrenched my arms behind my back and handcuffed me.
"Naturally I was bridling at this moment and he called his colleagues to his assistance. I had five burly policemen pinioning me to the ground, pressing my neck with really very severe pain. I'm a mass of contusions and grazes.
"I was traumatised, disorientated, my conference programme was in the gutter and I was begging them to give it back to me and to give me my spectacles back," he said. "I still find it incredible that an ageing, mild-mannered professor of impeccable antecedent, should be the subject of such abominable treatment."
The professor, who has written books on the Americas and global exploration, was handcuffed to another suspected criminal in a "filthy, foetid paddy wagon" to be transported to jail and had his fingerprints and mugshot taken. With his bail set at £720 but with no way to get the cash, Prof Fernandez-Armesto remained incarcerated, until he eventually got out with the help of a professional bail agent.
In court the following day he explained to the judge and charges were dropped.
Officer Leonpacher denied that he overreacted, saying the historian repeatedly refused to co-operate. The 28-year-old told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I used an excessive amount of discretion."
Atlanta's mayor, Shirley Franklin, said: "We want everyone who visits Atlanta to find Atlanta to be friendly and helpful."
The professor said he had no plans to sue, adding: "It was actually a fantastic experience going into that detention centre and spending time with those miserable wretches of the earth. I feel I've learnt more than I would have in important sessions of the Historical Association." |
Source: London Telegraph
___________________
"The Greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen Hawking
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak out for me." -Martin Niemöller
|
