OCEAN CITY – Civil rights activists gathered in front of Worcester County District Court on Monday as court cases against the men arrested on the Boardwalk this summer in separate vaping incidents were postponed.
The trials in Worcester County District Court in Ocean City for Taizier Griffin, 19, of Perryville, Md., and Brian Anderson, 19, of Harrisburg, Pa., were to begin Monday. Griffin and Anderson were charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, failure to provide identification and second degree assault. Both cases were postponed this week with a new date set for Jan. 5.
Outside of court Monday, representatives with the Caucus of African American Leaders (CAAL), NAACP branches and other civil rights groups joined together in support of four men involved in separate vaping incidents on the Boardwalk earlier this year. They were Griffin, Anderson, Jatique John Lewis and Kamere Anthony Day.
“People are beginning to look at what happens in our criminal justice system,” CAAL convener Carl Snowden said in a press conference Monday. “Last week, we saw the decision that was made in Wisconsin, the nation is anxiously awaiting the decision that will be made in Georgia, and we today are awaiting a decision to be made here in Maryland.”
In the two June cases, attempts to issue citations for vaping on the Boardwalk ended with physical confrontations between Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) officers and the suspects. In one instance, cellphone video shows one of the suspects being kneed repeatedly by a police officer. In another, Griffin is seen being Tased by an officer.
What a load of crap. If people saw the WHOLE video instead of the few seconds of “abuse” there would be absolutely no question the “innocent children” were NOT abused by the police. The cops did not shout F-you to the suspects…or they would kill them..or swing a bicycle at them . that was the out of control , no manners brats.
Yawn…. CAAL? Trying to make hay from clay.
Try teaching your young men to respect and obey authority along with how to behave in public. Standing around for a photo op or soundbite in front of a court house just makes you look foolish.
The article in the dispatch stated that the FBI did not interview the defendants – it also shared that CAAL filed an FOIA with the town. I personally can’t wait until that is made public and the “freedom coalition’ (or whatever they call themselves) realize that the problem in this case is not at all racism. It is a matter of personal behavior in public and consequences of their actions.