Detroit Police Officer Sues Warren Police Department – $10M



Warren Police Department patch
Warren Police Department

NEWS VIDEO BELOW

$10 Million Wrongful Arrest Lawsuit

Officer Donald Owens with the Detroit Police Department was arrested by Warren police officers in November of 2019. The arrest stemmed from a minor crash on Owen’s property. There is very little information regarding the crash. We don’t know if Owens was the driver, a passenger or if he had anything to do with it at all. What we know is that Warren Police officers arrested Owens. You can watch the video below to see how it was reported on the news.

How Valid are Police Reports?

To briefly summarize it the incident, Owens says he was wrongfully arrested, discriminated against, denied requested medical attention, and disrespected. The police report says Owens was, “belligerent, non-compliant and possibly drunk.” Since we really don’t know what happened I’m going to wait for more details on that part. What I will bring up is the issue of police reports. The general public has always given police officers respect and consideration in believing that police reports are true and accurate. But video has shown us that was a mistake. It has shown us that officers do lie on police reports, they do misrepresent the events that took place, and they do intentionally leave out details.

As an example, look at what happened in the killing of Hannah Westall. The San Antonio Police Department HAD VIDEO and Chief McManus still said at a briefing, “Approached the woman, gave her some commands. She very slowly turned around, pulled the gun, and pointed it at the sergeant.” The video clearly shows that Ms. Westall did not point the gun (a toy that looked realistic) at the officer. If police are willing to lie when there is video to show what really happened, how can we even begin to believe written reports that don’t have video to back up the accusations? As a society, this is something we are going to need to address. It will be interesting to find out what happens in the lawsuit against the Warren Police Department.

Warren PD History of Discrimination

Something we do know is that the Warren Police Department has had discrimination issues before. The single Black officer employed with the Warren Police Department filed a discrimination lawsuit. A Warren police officer went viral in a video showing him throwing a Black Amazon driver to the ground for the “horrible” crime of parking in the wrong direction while the driver ran to the door and dropped off a package. Think about that. Think of how short a time frame it would have been for the driver to get out of the vehicle, run the short distance to the door to drop off the package and the officer was already on him before he could get back in the vehicle. It definitely leads me to believe that the officer had targeted him and was just watching for something, ANYTHING, he could use to harass a Black man.

NEWS VIDEO ON OWENS ARREST

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