Springfield Police bodycam footage
May 23, 2021, 9:27 am
A traffic stop that resulted in police officers accusing a grieving father of possessing a container full of drugs is causing outrage.
Featured Video
Hide
Dartavius Barnes was pulled over in Springfield, Illinois, last April for allegedly speeding and failing to stop at a stop sign. Bodycam footage shows that he cooperated with the officers’ request to search his car, and admitted he had marijuana in the vehicle, but said that was it.
However, when police found a small urn in the car, they assumed it contained harder drugs.
Advertisement
Hide
“I checked for cocaine, but it looks like it’s probably molly,” one officer can be heard saying in the footage.
Eventually, the cops told Barnes that they found a container full of meth or ecstasy. They showed him the urn and he lost it.
“Give me that, bro. That’s my daughter,” he told them. “Please give me my daughter, bro. Put her in my hand, bro.”
Eventually, Barnes’ father showed up on the scene and the urn was turned over to him. Barnes himself was ultimately let go without being arrested.
The story and accompanying footage have struck a nerve, and have some folks insisting this is just further proof that there’s no reforming a police force that will drug test an urn found in a Black man’s car without permission and claim it came back positive for drugs.
Him fucking laughing about it is making me crave inhuman levels of violence
—
Astro
Advertisement
Hide
What makes everything even worse is that Barnes’ 2-year-old daughter, Ta’Naja, died of neglect in a highly publicized case that saw her mother sentenced to 20 years in prison just seven months prior, leading multiple people to suggest Springfield police already knew exactly who Barnes was and why he would have a small urn in his possession.
Barnes has filed lawsuits against the specific officers involved as well as the city.
*First Published: May 23, 2021, 9:27 am
0 Comments