⁍ ‘Oh my God, it’s one of these days where they are going to probably arrest me, and take me off, and probably won’t find me anymore,’ Antonio Smith said.
⁍ Smith, a Black man, is suing the Georgia city of Valdosta and numerous Valdosta Police Department officers for excessive force and for violating his civil rights after he was slammed to the ground as he was wrongly arrested.
⁍ Smith said he forgave the officers at the time, but his attorney faults the second officer at the scene for escalating the situation into physical violence.

– “Oh my God, it’s one of these days where they are going to probably arrest me, and take me off, and probably won’t find me anymore,” Antonio Smith tells CNN. The Georgia man says he was just waiting for his sister to send him money on Feb. 8 in Valdosta when police officers slammed him to the ground, broke his wrist, and arrested him. Now he’s suing the city, the officers, and the International Union of Police Associations for excessive force and for violating his civil rights, the New York Daily News reports. Police say the incident started when a Walgreens employee called 911 to report a man asking for money. When police arrived, they found two different men who matched the employee’s description—one with felony warrants and the other with no outstanding warrants, the Valdosta Daily Times reports. In body camera video of the incident, Smith can be heard telling officers he’s just waiting for his sister to send him money. When an officer tells him to put his hands behind his back, Smith says, “Listen to him and put your hands behind your back,” and an officer slams him to the ground. Smith’s lawyer, Nathaniel Haugabrook, says the officer who slammed him to the ground shouldn’t have done

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/us/valdosta-wrongly-arrested-black-man-antonio-smith/index.html