A Black pastor in Alabama says he was arrested while watering his neighbor's flowers — and his attorney has called the incident "irrational, irresponsible, and illegal."
In police body camera footage from May and released last week, an officer is seen approaching the man, Michael Jennings, who tells the officer he has been asked to water the flowers while a neighbor is gone.
In the video that has since gone viral, Jennings, of Childersburg, Alabama, is asked by the officer what he is doing at the house and whose car is in the driveway. He says it's the neighbor's vehicle and identifies himself as "Pastor Jennings" without being asked
He was arrested for "Obstructing Governmental Operations," but charges were later dropped, according to a police statement from June 1, 2022.
Police were responding to a 911 call about a "suspicious" car parked at the residence and a person "the caller did not recognize," Richard McClelland, chief of police for the city of Childersburg, said in the statement. The caller stated that her neighbors who lived at the residence were out of town and advised that the suspicious person might be inside the residence, according to the police chief's statement.
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#cnn #erinburnettoutfront #Martinsavidge
From overseas view – just incredible, shocking. embarrassing.
@Gail Davies I always say the same thing when I’m post on random news items that are not really my place to comment on.. In the U.K. Europe and other places outside the U.S.A… As a person of authority..
@Zman 123 If I choose to walk across the road to chat to my neighbor, I don’t take my wallet, driving licence and birth certificate with me!!
@Macdonald Maurice you better, because ***jail time*** in the land of police “authority”
Us is sick. From european perspective.
i don’t think a burglar would be watering the flowers!? 🤪 😡
I bet somewhere a burglar is doing just that.
Kind of weird too that the police didn’t ask which house he lives at across the street. On of this three cops could have easily knocked on the door to get his wife’s corroboration before putting him in cuffs and the back of a patrol car.
His neighbor is worried about climate change save water 💦🌊🏙️🤣
It’s just tough being black in America if pastor Jenning was white things wouldnt go down like that.
@Leonel Ventura great story, good for you
@Leonel Ventura that is the way it should always be. In my opinion. I think they mistook the Pastors frustrated tone as defiant which they obviously had an issue with. So hapoy you did not have to deal with anything further. Here in Australia when you give attitude you get it back but I can understand that.
@Patricia Sporer This pastor dude was just out for money, he knew what he was doing, he seems to be old enough and wise enough to know better, he’s just out for the hustle. I’m sure the city lawyers are already making preparations for a settlement. And so it goes, the taxpayers always foot the bill.
@Leonel Ventura I was surprised how short he was with his tone but frustrated. That is very sad. He represents God.
I like how the woman also declined to identify herself to the police and nothing happened to her.
@Tobias Birmingham they have the whole body cam footage on youtube you know..
@C. Cadon send me the link please
@Tobias Birmingham that’s right , you just keep fighting for your people son. Even tho they’re wrong you just keep fighting
@William Pendergras u probably all the cops all the time
This is my 2nd time watching this and I find it peculiar. The neighbor stated it was a “young black male,” and the officer still thought Pastor Jennings was a “suspicious” person? Why didn’t the cop ask where his church is at least? pure incompetence
@Geoffrey Ryan Man, that is funny as hell. Sorry to laugh at a serious situation.
AMERIKKKA
Why didn’t they take a more friendly, conversational tone, instead of the “what’cha doing here man? Is that your vehicle” approach? More like “sorry to bother you sir, we got a 911 call about this house. You live across the street? If you wouldn’t mind going into your house and getting your I.D., we’ll be on our way.”
@Edwin It is against your constitutional rights to ID yourself when you are not lawfully detained. A simple name will suffice for an officer who’s following the law. These men were not.
If I was as bad at my job as these cops are at theirs, I would be fired. He answered every question and the other neighbor cleared it up but they still couldn’t figure out what to do.
@Some Guy I’m wrong about what exactly? I believe he should not have been arrested. He was asked to be on the property.
And he had no obligation to answer anything, not even his name. Reasonable articulable suspicion of a specific crime has been committed, is being committed or about to be committed is required for a cop to require you to identify yourself, and there is no requirement for that means of identification to be a physical document such as a license. It’s all 50 states, Scotus has been very clear about our 4th amendment rights. The owner of the property was not the complainant, no obvious crime was known, no requirement to even answer anything.
@Seth B he was on someone’s elses property
What despicable behavior, he was lucky they didn’t feel threatened by the garden hose
@LotWizzard He was joking!
@XCodes He was joking!
@iamthe partyone He was joking!
@Michael McGruder its not funny in the very least
I rarely have ID on me when I’m working in the yard or garden. Even after the wife brought it over and the caller said she was mistaken, they STILL arrested him. I hope he wins BIG TIME in his lawsuit.
@Joe Schneider The officers were the fools.
@Clem Fandango well said Clem
Why do they think he’s a “suspicious person”? Oh, right 🤦♂
@CNNOTHING BURGER LETS GO BRANDON!!!. I mean if you’re wanting congratulations on marrying your cousin, thats an odd way to go about it.
The cop was sent there because someone called them. He’s just doing his job. Just show some Id and it’s over.
@Kman8962 yeah your right people just can’t do a simple thing as show id
@CNNOTHING BURGER LETS GO BRANDON!!! he was asked to come water the flowers by his neighbor….he was supposed to be there. He wasn’t casing anything.
@Zman 123 he didn’t have to show id. This isn’t nazi Germany.
Hopefully he sues those officers as well and holds them accountable for their actions. Police cannot legally demand I.D. from someone just because someone makes a 911 call about them unless they are investigating a potential crime. All the lady on the 911 call said is there was “someone suspicious” in a car. That is not a crime so there was no investigation there for no legal grounds to detain, let alone arrest him. Hopefully these officers get fired, charged and convicted for this illegal arrest and the victim gets some compensation for what these “officers” did to him.
@UCkOoxcMEikhceeLx1lPsxSw ok grammar counts, you got me! However, my point there was not that it was required, but that his voluntarily act, would have resolved the issue before it became a problem. Something I thought would be appropriate for a man of God. Cue the next round of, he’s not required…blah blah blah. Again I will ask, why not be part of the solution?
@UCkOoxcMEikhceeLx1lPsxSw that was for u above
Not shared must be a bot
>> Police cannot legally demand I.D. from someone just because someone makes a 911 call about them unless they are investigating a potential crime.
The pastor was not on his own property. He was on someone else’s. He did not have a note, there was no note, and the neighbors did not leave any note. In a normal universe, that means he MIGHT be trespassing. Regardless of the color of his skin.
>> All the lady on the 911 call said is there was “someone suspicious” in a car.
No, that is how *the media* reported it. Those were the media’s words. We don’t know the *actual* words that were used. I would add that any single person, without an identifying uniform or truck, working on a property that another neighbor doesn’t recognize– depending on many factors, including how long they’ve known the neighbor, etc.– is fair enough reason for someone to call the police over. In terms of importance, it’s usually going to be a cat-in-a-tree thing, but it’s still fair to call the police for.
You’ll be paying them not them.
There was no reason why the police escalated this. As soon as they saw the guy watering the neighbours garden they should have left. Burglars don’t water peoples gardens!
Well…. I disagree. They were investigating a reported crime in progress. The law is on their side. (My opinion) and I don’t agree with what actually went down. But if that’s the hill you want to die on??? (Not showing ID??) Then you have at it lol. I bet if ole grouchy there said “Sure. I understand what you need and what you are doing here” let me help you it would been a whole different ball game. But no. It was not to be and I bet that preacher has preached a sermon about PRIDE and BEING STIFF NECKED. (it’s in the bible) he could of been a representative of the Christian faith and asked those men to church. But he took the easy path. I guess it’s time to call that huckster ben crump. Y’all let me know how this works out. I’m done.
@Greg Grace The Supreme Court has ruled that people are not required to show ID to police. There was no evidence of a crime (if there was, they would have arrested him for that crime.) They arrested him for “obstruction of justice” because he did not have ID on him to show him(I agree he could have done a better job of explaining to the police.)–the Supreme Court has already said that is unconstitutional, and there is no constitutional mandate to be polite. That is why I am 100% certain the pastor will win.
@Greg Grace I’ll just add, what the pastor did is no different what what the many 1st amendment auditor channels do. They stand up for their constitutional rights, even when they risk arrest (or worse.) I have a family, so I would not do what they do, but we are all safer because of brave people, like the auditors and this pastor, who are willing to risk arrest to stand up for our rights
This cop just got pissed that someone didn’t bow to his authority. He knew the pastor was being honest
@ralphferley If they could run the plate of the car in the driveway the could run his name just the same.
A crime has to committed not what you think might happen. The pastor has a right to have an attitude he doesn’t have to give his ID.
@iamthe partyone
He could have been a decent human being and treated others as he wanted treated does not mean he had to be SUB servient but as a representative of the lord he is called as a Servant and a representative and that would not be be acting a fool and all self righteous
@ralphferley cool opinion, the Constitution disagrees with you. He was being decent and had every right to be upset that his rights were being violated by power tripping thugs. The officers could have been decent human beings, bit they decided to violate his rights instead. Even Jesus got mad and whipped the money changers.
@iamthe partyone
Constitution has nothing to do with attitude. Preacher was a richard
@ralphferley he had evey right to be angry and upset about the violation of his Constitutional rights. If you have a problem with the Constitution I suggest you move the China. Even Jesus got mad and whipped the money changers.
Insisting on your rights may piss off the cop who only goes by “do what I say or else.” Once they’re in pissed off mode their brains shut off
“Your Honor, this black man was watering his neighbor’s garden. Respectfully we recommend 20 years to life without parole.” Where do they find these ‘officers’ without a shred of common fucking sense? A garden hose isn’t part of a burglar’s tool kit. The officers couldn’t have claimed that, “the suspect was armed with a garden hose.” Hopefully there are a few demotions for these ‘officers’ and a nice cash settlement for wrongful arrest.
1 Penny Royal Fuk what you saying it here 😠 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRdI9j2ZsDg
Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. 😠
5:25 Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados 😠😠
Saludos desde la Cd.. de world 🌹😉💖
los mortales abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer
Agreed.
“There’s a suspicious person in the yard” – I see criminals watering the garden all the time!
I’m embarrassed to be an ex police officer.
@SweetSue420 And what is your point? If you read my comments you see the more video I watched, the more I agree that the police maybe could have worked with this gentleman. The video is edited as well so it’s tough to know what the entire interaction was like. It does sound like the gentleman was trying to work with the police here. It’s kind of a grey area, if they don’t investigate fully and let him go, he then commits a crime, then you’d be bashing the police for letting him go too easily. I say to all you keyboard warrior/Monday morning quarterbacks that think you can do a better job, maybe you should become an officer.
@robert mcghee they had proof when the Karen confirmed his identity.
@Buk I’m sorry you and your finance had to go through this. I hope she said yes.
Thank you for sharing your story. Stay blessed!
@Caribbean Cruise a brilliant example of not understanding correlation is not causation, and cherry picking.
Stats mean nothing without context. Was the crime rate different (better or worse) when the mayors were Republicans? What is the comparable crime rate for Rep districts? When ALL cities are used, does the correlation still exist? Does the pattern only hold in certain demographics – eg average household income, or unemployment rate, or ruling state party?
Also, the violent crime rate is a different stat to odds of being a victim – which one of the two did you (mistakenly) make up, based on the other. Just dividing1000 by the crime rate does not necessarily give you the odds of being a victim!
“Don’t do this to me” says the officer, as if he is the victim, minutes before ARRESTING THE PASTOR FOR WATERING FLOWERS 🤬
Cops narcissism on full display. 🙄🤬
Please note that it’s been reported that the woman who apparently called the police came out identified the pastor “and refused to identify herself” yet the pastor was arrested and she wasn’t.
Take away immunity for cops so they can PERSONALLY be sued so the city/taxpayers aren’t on the hook for the bill. If they do that one simple thing then it will stop these types of situations because it’ll be the cops that get sued personally.
1 Big Brain Fuk what you saying it here 😠 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRdI9j2ZsDg
Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. 😠
5:25 Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados 😠😠
Saludos desde la Cd.. de world 🌹😉💖
los mortales abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer
This is what ruins the police force’s credibility. There are good ones. But these people need to be held to task for their actions.
1 Ben Trigg Fuk what you saying it here 😠 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRdI9j2ZsDg
Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. 😠
5:25 Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados 😠😠
Saludos desde la Cd.. de world 🌹😉💖
los mortales abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer
Can’t wait until this man wins his case. He’s gonna be laying back in a pile of money. Good for him!
Neon. Why does that person below your comment always comment the same thing with a link? Leave Neon Toast alone. Is this what you truly want to do with your short life? Quit cursing and trying to get people to click your garbiage’.
Prolly not he seems like a good man will prolly invest it all into his church or charity.