AL Pastor Arrested While Watering Neighbors’ Flowers Can Proceed With Lawsuit

By Free Republic | Created at 2024-10-04 04:21:04 | Updated at 2024-10-07 16:31:13 3 days ago

AL Pastor Arrested While Watering Neighbors’ Flowers Can Proceed With Lawsuit
Chruch Leaders ^ | October 3, 2024 | Stephanie Martin

Posted on 10/03/2024 8:55:06 PM PDT by Morgana

Michael Jennings, a pastor arrested while tending his out-of-town neighbors’ yard, can sue the city of Childersburg, Alabama, and three police officers involved in the case.

On Friday (Sept. 27), a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously reversed a lower-court ruling that had dismissed Jennings’ lawsuit. The officers aren’t protected by qualified immunity, the panel said, because they had no probable cause to arrest Jennings.

Jennings, who is Black, was confronted by police in May 2022, after a white woman called 911 to report a “suspicious individual” in a neighboring yard. The pastor, who identified himself verbally but refused to show his ID, said friends had asked him to water their flowers while they were away.

Body camera footage released a few months later shows Jennings being handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle. “Y’all racially profiled me,” he told the officers after they arrested him. A charge of obstructing government operations was dismissed days later. Attorney Calls Ruling ‘A Win for Justice’

Alabama’s “stop and identify” law, which permits officers to demand identification, applies when police have “reasonable suspicion” that someone is committing a crime, the 11th Circuit Court ruled.

“While it is always advisable to cooperate with law enforcement officers, Jennings was under no legal obligation to provide his ID,” said the court. “Therefore, officers lacked probable cause for Jennings’ arrest…because Jennings did not commit an independent unlawful act by refusing to give ID.”

Jennings, pastor of Vision of Abundant Life Church in Sylacauga, Alabama, said the officers “dehumanized” him and violated his constitutional and civil rights. Jennings’ lawsuit claims he suffers from “ongoing emotional distress,” including PTSD-like symptoms, nightmares, and flashbacks.

Harry Daniels, the lead attorney for Jennings, said Friday’s ruling was “a win for Pastor Jennings and a win for justice.” Daniels claimed the body-cam video showed that officers were intent on arresting the pastor but “then tried to rewrite history claiming he hadn’t identified himself, when that was the first thing he did.”

Daniels added, “Finally, Pastor Jennings will have his day in court and prove that wearing a badge does not give you the right to break the law.” The ruling could impact other civil rights cases throughout Alabama, according to the attorney. Pastor Michael Jennings Thanked God for Sparing Him

As ChurchLeaders has reported, Jennings said he holds no grudge against the neighbor who called police on him. “I don’t hold anything against my neighbors. I still speak to them,” he said in 2022. “Matter of fact, I’ve talked to [the woman’s] husband since the incident, and he was telling me how bad she feels about it.”

“I love that neighbor just as well as I love the one where I was watering their flowers,” said the pastor. “May not have to like them all the time, but we have to love them anyway.”

Jennings, a former law enforcement officer, also insisted he’s “not anti-police.”

In an opinion piece for USA Today, Jennings addressed racism in America, saying we must address it so history doesn’t repeat itself. “I am grateful that God spared me on that day,” he wrote in September 2022. “I’m grateful that God can use me moving forward to help spread his message that we are all made in the image of God and in his likeness.”

The pastor added, “God, please forgive those who pass or have passed judgment upon your creation based solely on the color you assigned to your creation at birth.”

TOPICS: General Discusssion; Religion & Culture
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Thank you very much and God bless you.

I remember this, that was nuts

1 posted on 10/03/2024 8:55:06 PM PDT by Morgana

To: Morgana

Yes, I see it on TikTok where there are tons of videos about police behaving badly.

2 posted on 10/03/2024 9:00:23 PM PDT by JohnnyP (Thinking is hard work (I stole that from Rush).)

To: Morgana

I remember that video. Mr. Jennings was behaving “suspiciously”, and he wouldn’t ID upon request. And so he was arrested.

Alabama is not a stop-and-ID state. There are, in fact, no stop-and-ID states. And that’s because the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution takes precedence. No crime = no ID.

There was no crime. That didn’t stop the trash cops from arresting Mr. Jennings anyway. How dare he his stand on his constitutional rights! Mr. Jennings deserves a million-dollar settlement. And the cops who casually violated his rights should be jailed for a false arrest.

The first might well happen. The second much less so.

3 posted on 10/03/2024 9:13:31 PM PDT by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)

To: Morgana

Hate it for the taxpayer but I hope he takes them to the cleaners. Cops have a gift for making mountains out of mole hills. The do it by belligerent intimidation. A pox on many of them.

4 posted on 10/03/2024 9:13:35 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (More important than why there was nobody protecting the AGR roof, how did Crooks know that?)

To: Morgana

The fracas may have been race inspired but it was grounded in stupidity. I wonder what neighbor called 911 and what really motivated that call?

5 posted on 10/03/2024 9:19:38 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (More important than why there was nobody protecting the AGR roof, how did Crooks know that?)

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