In another outrageous case of police overreach, out CNN commentator and journalist Keith Boykin was arrested on the westside of Manhattan over the weekend while covering the NYC protests over the murder of unarmed black man George Floyd.
Boykin told Don Lemon he was arrested “for doing nothing, for exercising my first amendment rights to be on the street” and covering the protests.
Boykin said he was ahead of a group of peaceful protesters on the West Side Highway taking photos when the police met them from the opposite direction.
Boykin said he told the police he was with the press and they walked by him, and then turned back around and came for him.
Boykin asked why he was being arrested and they said ‘well, you’re blocking the highway’ which Boykin said he clearly wasn’t doing.
Explained Boykin: “They took me, they put me in a zip tie, they put my hands behind my back, they put me in a hot van for an hour, in a hot police bus for an hour, then they took me down to 1 Police Plaza where they held me in a jail cell with about 35 other prisoners from [the] protest, and I was there for 4 hours, 6 hours overall in total custody, and they never charged me with any felony. It was just a summons to appear in court in September for blocking the highway. A six hour ordeal. When they could have just said, ‘you need to move off the highway you’re going to be arrested’ they didn’t bother to do that. They just arrested me. The police have too much power.”
Boykin said “so often, the police make matters worse and that’s what people are protesting about.”
Boykin also told Don Lemon he was in Houston this week for a wake for his stepfather who died from coronavirus.
Lemon asked Boykin about any measures taken by the police for social distancing during his time in custody. Boykin said there were none.
“There’s no opportunity for social distancing when you’re in a cell with 35 people,” said Boykin.
Watch Boykin’s infuriating story:
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