Over 4 years ago, on December 7, 2012, on a Friday, I lived in a two bedroom house on 319 Iowa Avenue in Louisville, KY, just a few blocks south of Churchill Downs, where the decadent & depraved Kentucky Derby is ran annually. I lived there with Jason Zuckero, my roommate, for a year. At the time, I was a graduate student at Spalding University, working on becoming a High School Social Studies teacher by going through their 2 year teacher-training MAT program.
At about 6pm, just after dusk, while it was slightly raining - a light sprinkle - I decided to go to the local gas station, which was exactly 2 blocks away from my home. I could have drove my car that night, but I didn't, and I regret that decision. I decided to walk instead on that nice cool & slightly dreary & rainy night to the conveinance store. I stepped onto the sidewalk just outside of my house, turned right, walked about 100 feet down Iowa Avenue to 4th Street, and then I turned right on 4th street, walked 1 block, crossed M Street, peacefully, without incident, and then, now, I'm standing on the corner of M & 4th Street.
I'm only 1 block away from my house, just walking down the street, walking down the sidewalk, going to the store, that's it. I'm just walking. I was going to buy a beer, a 40 ounce, because I was planning on just sitting in my house, watching TV, and drinking a beer that Friday night. I had a pocket full of change, about $2 worth or so, was wearing sweat pants, and a loose fitting gray Old Navy jacket.
While I was about to cross 4th street, I looked both ways, saw no cars coming, but there was a plain white sedan car just sitting across the street from me. It was a plain white four door vehicle, I believe, like a sedan, a Toyota Camry kind of car... there were no decals on it, no sirens were attached, no spotlights, or cop lights on top of the car. Nothing. It was just a plain ol unmarked 4-door white sedan car. And it was just sitting there. They didn't have their blinkers on, and they weren't moving, at all, so they weren't going forward, they weren't going anywhere. In spite of no cars coming, that plain ol white car just sat there, for 3 seconds or so. It's reasonable to assume that they weren't going anywhere, that whatever they were doing, they were going to continue to do, so therefore, I proceeded to cross 4th street, legally. You're allowed to cross a street at an intersection, even if there's no crosswalk at that intersection. In fact, you have to cross at an intersection. That's what the Kentucky's Driver's manual says.
Also, in his grand jury testimony, Joel Casse admitted that the City of Louisville didn't even have a charge of jaywalking, but that doesn't matter anyways, because I wasn't jaywalking.
After I took a few steps, that plain white car pulled a U-turn, a kind of 180 degree turnaround, where they had to drive wide & circle the entire perimeter of the intersection to be able to make the 180-degree turnaround, which is different than a U-turn, where you have 4 lanes, and there's plenty of space to turn around. At an intersection, there's barely enough space to circle around it. If that manuever isn't illegal, especially in a congested city, it really should be. Folks driving 2-ton vehicles, spinning around in intersections, is much more dangerous than a man, a peaceful citizen, legally crossing a crosswalkless intersection.
So they did this 180-degree turnaround, and they about nearly hit me. I had to lean my legs forward so that their car didn't hit the back of my legs. They almost clipped my legs. They were within inches of my leg. I could see the light streaming past me from their headlights, and I glanced back, to my right side, and saw that they were very close. I leaned forward, and somebody, probably Aaron Browning, yelled "get the fuck out of the road!" I threw up my left hand in disgust, and reacted in kind, and said, "fuck you!" But I didn't turn around. I kept on walking, as I was doing. I was trying to cross the road in peace, and just because they had almost hit me, and was cussing at me, that didn't mean that I needed to immediately jump out of their way, which is what they wanted, which is the "crime" that I actually committed. That, and saying "fuck you!" to some cops.
After I said "fuck you" back to them, responding in kind to their initial "get the fuck out of the road" hello, they were immediately triggered, and aggressively whipped their car around me, to the right side, and then in front of me, cutting off my path towards the sidewalk, blocking me from being able to cross the road.
Okay, so now I'm kind of scared. I didn't who these people were, why they were acting crazy, or what they were capable of. I was afraid for my life. The plain white car didn't have any decals on it that said "police", nor were their sirens, & not only was there no flashing cop lights, there weren't any lights on top of their car at all, I don't even think there was one of those spotlights... there was absolutely nothing at all that indicated that they were the police. No reasonable person could have known who these people were, because their behavior, their speech, their dress, their attitudes... all of it said they were white trash punks, looking to rob somebody, or fight somebody, or just picking on somebody just to be picking on them.
South Louisville was a fairly rough place. It was a poor white area, there were a handful of prostitutes that would work right outside of my house, one of them was my neighbor... My car radio was robbed there, and after UofL won the championship, a man walking the sidewalk in front of my house pulling out a pistol, and shot a bunch of shots into the air. It was a rough neighborhood.
After Joel Casse pulled a second aggressive maneuver with that plain white car, in the middle of the intersection, blocking my path, I only had one of two choices: run or fight, flight or flight. So, I stood my ground, and I resolved that if the person who was bullying me stepped out of that car, I was going to hit them. Joel Casse then opens the door, and he's wearing a baseball cap, and a flannel shirt, and I took a step or two, and punched Joel in his head as he was trying to get out of the car. It was a split second decision & it wasn't even a good punch. The punch slid off of the top of the right side of his head - his left side, my right - and he was surprised by it. He'll say that he said that he was the police a million times, but he never said it, anytime, and definitely not as he was exiting the car, because he didn't have the time to do so. As soon as that door popped open, it was on like Donkey Kong. As far as I knew, I was being jumped by some local white trash thugs, so I stood my ground. I'm tired of bullies & I'm tired of being bullied.
In the grand jury testimony, Casse said his hands was in surrender mode when he opened the door... he also claims that he was saying that he's the police at the same time... really!?! That's not possible. He also claimed that the news of the robbery came over his radio as he was spinning around me, the 2nd aggressive vehicular maneuver.
After I swung a punch, Joel was still standing, and he came at me, trying to punch me, but he wasn't able to land anything. So I'm squared up, and we're tussling, but Joel wasn't able to land anything, or grab ahold of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another person get out of the car - Aaron Browning - and he came around the car, and came towards me. So, great, now I know there's 2 people I have to deal with. Aaron Browning tried to land some punches on me too, and he kinda of sorta landed a few body shots, but they weren't significant. But they weren't able to get ahold of me, nor could they drop me. It was only after I surrendered when the violence happened.
Eventually, while we were skirmishing, one of them said something about "police". I was stunned. It didn't make any sense. Nothing about them said that they were the police. So I raised my hands up, took a step back, and looked them over, scanning their bodies, trying to see if there was any evidence that they were indeed the police. Eventually, I saw a piece of a badge underneath Joel's flannel shirt, and that's when I basically believed them, even though I was still skeptical. Once it looked like they were cops, I immediately surrendered.
I put my hands up, and here is two seconds where it gets hazy, because I'm not exactly sure how I went from standing up in the surrender position, to laying on my back, but there's 2 theories: 1) They ordered me down on the ground, and I laid down on my back, or; 2) Aaron Browning tackled me. I thought they ordered me down on the ground, I wasn't 100% sure, but that's what I thought happened, but after both Aaron & Joel testified that Aaron tackled me, I thought there might be some truth to that, so I started to think that's what happened. I'm about 50/50 on the two theories... both are equally possible to me. To be 100% honest, for those 2 seconds, I don't know what happened.
If I was tackled, I feel like I would have remembered that, but perhaps I blinked.
Regardless, what I do know for sure, is that once it became clear to me that they were the police, I immediately surrendered, and in 2 seconds, I was laying on the ground, on my back, with my hands by my head, and Joel Casse was standing over me. He tries to punch me with his right hand, a cowboy punch, which one can see coming a mile away, coming right for the center of my face. I didn't even put my hands in front of my face, which would have been a natural reaction. Instead I waited till the last moment, and turned my head to the side, and Joel punched the concrete. Then Joel punched me in my nose with a cowboy punch, a full body, full power cowboy punch, with his left hand, shattering my nose, breaking it in one place, and cracking it in another.
I didn't even put my hands in front of my face. I just resigned to the situation, and since he was a police officer, and was going to punch me straight in the middle of my face, there wasn't anything I could do about it. But when I was standing up & squared up, they weren't able to handle me. It was only once I resigned myself, and completely surrendered, and was 100% compliant, that's when they attacked me. They punched an innocent man who surrendered, and was laying on his back. It reminds me of the Frederick Douglass quote that the level that you submit to will be the level of injustice that's perpetuated upon you.
Once my nose was broken, I sat up, and my nose was bleeding all over the place. I was cussing at them, asking them, "What in the fuck did you all do that for?", and just kept on going with that theme. I told them I wasn't doing anything wrong, and how it was bullshit that now I'm looking at charges, and was going to jail. They seemed humbled by that, and just kind of listened. They told me to sit off to the side, on the sidewalk, until the commanding officer showed up. They didn't even care to wipe the blood dribbling down my face, and got mad when one of my answers spit some of my blood towards them. He wasn't near me, but he complained a bunch. The commanding officer at least wiped the blood off of me when he got there.
I also remember the $2 in change that I had in my pocket was spread out all over the wet black asphalt pavement.
Then I got into the EMS, where the men there were making fun of me. Afterwards, Joel & Aaron were being chummy with me, at the hospital & at the scene of the their crime, because they wanted to prove to me that they were good people. Joel said that he just wanted to ticket me, and turn the charges into just a violation, but he wasn't able to convince the commanding officer to do so.
Joel Casse & Aaron Browning came with me to the hospital for about an hour, and then drove me to jail, where I stayed for 8 hours or so. Joel & I agreed to have a beer after all of this was over. Joel also said that if I would have ran away, that he wouldn't have chased me. So I wasn't a priority.
So, why did they attack me for no reason? I was just walking, that's it. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, that's it. I'm the perfect victim. I wasn't running, I had committed no crime, I was just walking, that's it.
What pissed them off, was, 1) I didn't jump out of their car's way; 2) I said "fuck you" back to them, and; 3) I punched Joel. So they just kept on escalating the situation, a situation they started, until they did what I assumed white trash thugs would have done: beat me down. Just their Pride, their Ego, because they're used to being untouchable Billy Badasses, and because they're above the law, as a VIPER unit.
At about 6pm, just after dusk, while it was slightly raining - a light sprinkle - I decided to go to the local gas station, which was exactly 2 blocks away from my home. I could have drove my car that night, but I didn't, and I regret that decision. I decided to walk instead on that nice cool & slightly dreary & rainy night to the conveinance store. I stepped onto the sidewalk just outside of my house, turned right, walked about 100 feet down Iowa Avenue to 4th Street, and then I turned right on 4th street, walked 1 block, crossed M Street, peacefully, without incident, and then, now, I'm standing on the corner of M & 4th Street.
I'm only 1 block away from my house, just walking down the street, walking down the sidewalk, going to the store, that's it. I'm just walking. I was going to buy a beer, a 40 ounce, because I was planning on just sitting in my house, watching TV, and drinking a beer that Friday night. I had a pocket full of change, about $2 worth or so, was wearing sweat pants, and a loose fitting gray Old Navy jacket.
While I was about to cross 4th street, I looked both ways, saw no cars coming, but there was a plain white sedan car just sitting across the street from me. It was a plain white four door vehicle, I believe, like a sedan, a Toyota Camry kind of car... there were no decals on it, no sirens were attached, no spotlights, or cop lights on top of the car. Nothing. It was just a plain ol unmarked 4-door white sedan car. And it was just sitting there. They didn't have their blinkers on, and they weren't moving, at all, so they weren't going forward, they weren't going anywhere. In spite of no cars coming, that plain ol white car just sat there, for 3 seconds or so. It's reasonable to assume that they weren't going anywhere, that whatever they were doing, they were going to continue to do, so therefore, I proceeded to cross 4th street, legally. You're allowed to cross a street at an intersection, even if there's no crosswalk at that intersection. In fact, you have to cross at an intersection. That's what the Kentucky's Driver's manual says.
Also, in his grand jury testimony, Joel Casse admitted that the City of Louisville didn't even have a charge of jaywalking, but that doesn't matter anyways, because I wasn't jaywalking.
After I took a few steps, that plain white car pulled a U-turn, a kind of 180 degree turnaround, where they had to drive wide & circle the entire perimeter of the intersection to be able to make the 180-degree turnaround, which is different than a U-turn, where you have 4 lanes, and there's plenty of space to turn around. At an intersection, there's barely enough space to circle around it. If that manuever isn't illegal, especially in a congested city, it really should be. Folks driving 2-ton vehicles, spinning around in intersections, is much more dangerous than a man, a peaceful citizen, legally crossing a crosswalkless intersection.
So they did this 180-degree turnaround, and they about nearly hit me. I had to lean my legs forward so that their car didn't hit the back of my legs. They almost clipped my legs. They were within inches of my leg. I could see the light streaming past me from their headlights, and I glanced back, to my right side, and saw that they were very close. I leaned forward, and somebody, probably Aaron Browning, yelled "get the fuck out of the road!" I threw up my left hand in disgust, and reacted in kind, and said, "fuck you!" But I didn't turn around. I kept on walking, as I was doing. I was trying to cross the road in peace, and just because they had almost hit me, and was cussing at me, that didn't mean that I needed to immediately jump out of their way, which is what they wanted, which is the "crime" that I actually committed. That, and saying "fuck you!" to some cops.
After I said "fuck you" back to them, responding in kind to their initial "get the fuck out of the road" hello, they were immediately triggered, and aggressively whipped their car around me, to the right side, and then in front of me, cutting off my path towards the sidewalk, blocking me from being able to cross the road.
Okay, so now I'm kind of scared. I didn't who these people were, why they were acting crazy, or what they were capable of. I was afraid for my life. The plain white car didn't have any decals on it that said "police", nor were their sirens, & not only was there no flashing cop lights, there weren't any lights on top of their car at all, I don't even think there was one of those spotlights... there was absolutely nothing at all that indicated that they were the police. No reasonable person could have known who these people were, because their behavior, their speech, their dress, their attitudes... all of it said they were white trash punks, looking to rob somebody, or fight somebody, or just picking on somebody just to be picking on them.
South Louisville was a fairly rough place. It was a poor white area, there were a handful of prostitutes that would work right outside of my house, one of them was my neighbor... My car radio was robbed there, and after UofL won the championship, a man walking the sidewalk in front of my house pulling out a pistol, and shot a bunch of shots into the air. It was a rough neighborhood.
After Joel Casse pulled a second aggressive maneuver with that plain white car, in the middle of the intersection, blocking my path, I only had one of two choices: run or fight, flight or flight. So, I stood my ground, and I resolved that if the person who was bullying me stepped out of that car, I was going to hit them. Joel Casse then opens the door, and he's wearing a baseball cap, and a flannel shirt, and I took a step or two, and punched Joel in his head as he was trying to get out of the car. It was a split second decision & it wasn't even a good punch. The punch slid off of the top of the right side of his head - his left side, my right - and he was surprised by it. He'll say that he said that he was the police a million times, but he never said it, anytime, and definitely not as he was exiting the car, because he didn't have the time to do so. As soon as that door popped open, it was on like Donkey Kong. As far as I knew, I was being jumped by some local white trash thugs, so I stood my ground. I'm tired of bullies & I'm tired of being bullied.
In the grand jury testimony, Casse said his hands was in surrender mode when he opened the door... he also claims that he was saying that he's the police at the same time... really!?! That's not possible. He also claimed that the news of the robbery came over his radio as he was spinning around me, the 2nd aggressive vehicular maneuver.
After I swung a punch, Joel was still standing, and he came at me, trying to punch me, but he wasn't able to land anything. So I'm squared up, and we're tussling, but Joel wasn't able to land anything, or grab ahold of me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw another person get out of the car - Aaron Browning - and he came around the car, and came towards me. So, great, now I know there's 2 people I have to deal with. Aaron Browning tried to land some punches on me too, and he kinda of sorta landed a few body shots, but they weren't significant. But they weren't able to get ahold of me, nor could they drop me. It was only after I surrendered when the violence happened.
Eventually, while we were skirmishing, one of them said something about "police". I was stunned. It didn't make any sense. Nothing about them said that they were the police. So I raised my hands up, took a step back, and looked them over, scanning their bodies, trying to see if there was any evidence that they were indeed the police. Eventually, I saw a piece of a badge underneath Joel's flannel shirt, and that's when I basically believed them, even though I was still skeptical. Once it looked like they were cops, I immediately surrendered.
I put my hands up, and here is two seconds where it gets hazy, because I'm not exactly sure how I went from standing up in the surrender position, to laying on my back, but there's 2 theories: 1) They ordered me down on the ground, and I laid down on my back, or; 2) Aaron Browning tackled me. I thought they ordered me down on the ground, I wasn't 100% sure, but that's what I thought happened, but after both Aaron & Joel testified that Aaron tackled me, I thought there might be some truth to that, so I started to think that's what happened. I'm about 50/50 on the two theories... both are equally possible to me. To be 100% honest, for those 2 seconds, I don't know what happened.
If I was tackled, I feel like I would have remembered that, but perhaps I blinked.
Regardless, what I do know for sure, is that once it became clear to me that they were the police, I immediately surrendered, and in 2 seconds, I was laying on the ground, on my back, with my hands by my head, and Joel Casse was standing over me. He tries to punch me with his right hand, a cowboy punch, which one can see coming a mile away, coming right for the center of my face. I didn't even put my hands in front of my face, which would have been a natural reaction. Instead I waited till the last moment, and turned my head to the side, and Joel punched the concrete. Then Joel punched me in my nose with a cowboy punch, a full body, full power cowboy punch, with his left hand, shattering my nose, breaking it in one place, and cracking it in another.
I didn't even put my hands in front of my face. I just resigned to the situation, and since he was a police officer, and was going to punch me straight in the middle of my face, there wasn't anything I could do about it. But when I was standing up & squared up, they weren't able to handle me. It was only once I resigned myself, and completely surrendered, and was 100% compliant, that's when they attacked me. They punched an innocent man who surrendered, and was laying on his back. It reminds me of the Frederick Douglass quote that the level that you submit to will be the level of injustice that's perpetuated upon you.
Once my nose was broken, I sat up, and my nose was bleeding all over the place. I was cussing at them, asking them, "What in the fuck did you all do that for?", and just kept on going with that theme. I told them I wasn't doing anything wrong, and how it was bullshit that now I'm looking at charges, and was going to jail. They seemed humbled by that, and just kind of listened. They told me to sit off to the side, on the sidewalk, until the commanding officer showed up. They didn't even care to wipe the blood dribbling down my face, and got mad when one of my answers spit some of my blood towards them. He wasn't near me, but he complained a bunch. The commanding officer at least wiped the blood off of me when he got there.
I also remember the $2 in change that I had in my pocket was spread out all over the wet black asphalt pavement.
Then I got into the EMS, where the men there were making fun of me. Afterwards, Joel & Aaron were being chummy with me, at the hospital & at the scene of the their crime, because they wanted to prove to me that they were good people. Joel said that he just wanted to ticket me, and turn the charges into just a violation, but he wasn't able to convince the commanding officer to do so.
Joel Casse & Aaron Browning came with me to the hospital for about an hour, and then drove me to jail, where I stayed for 8 hours or so. Joel & I agreed to have a beer after all of this was over. Joel also said that if I would have ran away, that he wouldn't have chased me. So I wasn't a priority.
So, why did they attack me for no reason? I was just walking, that's it. I was at the wrong place at the wrong time, that's it. I'm the perfect victim. I wasn't running, I had committed no crime, I was just walking, that's it.
What pissed them off, was, 1) I didn't jump out of their car's way; 2) I said "fuck you" back to them, and; 3) I punched Joel. So they just kept on escalating the situation, a situation they started, until they did what I assumed white trash thugs would have done: beat me down. Just their Pride, their Ego, because they're used to being untouchable Billy Badasses, and because they're above the law, as a VIPER unit.
Comments
Post a Comment