Police say that his arrest was not because he was taping, but because he would not move
Commuters walk past the shelters and tents of homeless people underneath a railway track (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
A Black man from Boulder who used a cane while recording a p*olice o*fficer’s interaction with a group of homeless people has been a*rrested for allegedly refusing to put it down.
In a p*olice report, Boulder Officer Waylon Lolotai said he was out doing p*atrols last Friday when he saw three transients “lounging around a large pile of property and trash,” according to Colorado Daily.
Lolotai said he asked them for their IDs. It was then that Lolotai said Sammie Lawrence, 26, approached and started videotaping the interaction and was carrying “a large staff” in his hand, Lolotai wrote in the report.
The o*fficer, in the p*olice report, said he told Lawrence that he was fine with him filming the encounter but asked him to move away and to drop his cane. Allegedly Lawrence refused to drop the cane and the o*fficer wrote that he was “alarmed by Sammie’s refusal to drop the staff” and told him he would be a*rrested if he refused to oblige.
Once two additional o*fficers arrived, they allegedly asked Lawrence to move back and when he didn’t, Lolotai wrote in the report, he attempted to a*rrest him but Lawrence “v*iolently pulled away” and refused to drop his cane until Lolotai k*icked it away.
Lawrence has a different take. He took to Facebook to post a video of his a*rrest in which he can be heard saying “Stop it, you are a*ssaulting me,” as the recording shows o*fficers taking him to the g*round, according to Colorado Daily.
In the video, Lawrence said he needs the stick to help him keep his balance because of challenges with past s*eizures. The newspaper described the staff as having a rubber tip bottom and depicting a wooden dragon at its handle.
P*olice took Lawrence to the h*ospital before taking him to Boulder County J*ail on ch*arges of obstructing a peace o*fficer and resisting a*rrest. He was later released on bond, although not with his walking stick, which p*olice are keeping as evidence, according to the p*olice report.
The i*ncident comes one month after Boulder p*olice confronted a black student as the student picked up trash in his own yard, according to Colorado Daily.