A Texas police officer racially profiled a Black man in front of his own home while his children were present.
Last week, Clarence Evans took to Facebook and posted a now-viral video of him being harassed by a police officer who pressed him to hand over his I.D. after the officer wrongly identified him as a wanted man from Louisiana. The incident appears to have occurred last Wednesday after Evans was approached by the officer in front of his home.
In the video, you can see the officer attempt to arrest Evans, but Evans resists, explaining to the officer that he had the wrong person. The officer then proceeds to demand Evan’s I.D., but he refuses, mentioning Texas’ law, which only requires a citizen to give their ID or personal information to a “peace officer who has lawfully arrested the person and requested the information.” Although the officer claimed to know who Evans was, he proceeded to call him by the wrong name of Quintin. The officer then informed Evans that “the cavalry was coming,” adding that it would be over quickly if Evans offered his identification. After the officer showed Evans a photo of the Louisiana man, who has several warrants out for his arrest, Evans again said the officer had the wrong person – still, the officer tried to book him. “You don’t even know my name, and you’re telling me I have a warrant?” said Evans. “How can I trust you when you don’t know my name, and you’re shaking like you’re scared of something?”
In the Facebook post, Evans explained why the officer came to his home after receiving a call that his dog was stolen. “I’m outside with my son and daughter watching them play when this racist ass constable from precinct 4 pulls up in front of my house and tells me someone called in about my dog being stolen. I tell him that’s impossible cuz I have his paperwork plus I have a chip in him. He then asked for Id, and I politely tell him no he then says to me ‘put your hands behind your back Reg,’” Evans said. Evans’ Facebook post continued, “Then once his partner shows up, he shows me a picture of a black man in his 50s with dreds,” Evans wrote. “So clearly, this mf just saw a black man with dreds and think we all look alike.”
The incident ended with the officer trying to clean up his mess by offering to do a report on the ordeal, but instead, Evans told the officers off. “Nah, y’all can get the fuck out of my yard!” Constable Mark Herman said his deputy showed up at Evans’ home because “someone” called the cops and said that Evans was a wanted fugitive, according to KRIV. When Houston Police Union President Joe Gamaldi was asked to review the tape, he stated that the officer “very much thought he had the right person.”
In response to the traumatic incident, Evans said all he could think about were his children. “My kids were out there watching. I don’t want my son to have that memory of my dad being hauled off to jail and I didn’t do anything wrong,” Evans told the news station. “Had he been upfront and said he had a warrant for a guy named Quentin, it would have ended in three minutes. I would have showed him my I.D., showed him that I wasn’t Quentin.”
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