A DoorDash delivery driver recorded his encounter with a Tennessee police officer because he felt unsafe after being pulled over for a traffic violation.
The footage showed Delane Gordon, who is Black, being tased by a White officer with a stun gun.
According to ABC News, the police in Collegedale declined to release the name of the officer in the video, which was presented at a news conference.
WARNING: violence
NEW: Attorney Ryan Wheeler just held a press conference about the Collegedale PD Traffic Stop that DA Pinkston is asking for an investigation on.\n\nWheeler\u2019s client, Delane Gordon, who is the Door Dash driver stopped in this video, was standing by his side.pic.twitter.com/LPVZnkJVyy— Eric Benninghoff News (@Eric Benninghoff News) 1647617287
Gordon's attorney, Ryan Wheeler, said his client was a few hundred feet away from delivering food for the delivery service app when the officer made a u-turn and pulled Gordon over for an apparent speeding violation.
In the footage filmed by Gordon, he asked why he was being pulled over with his ID visible in his hand.
The officer ignored his question and repeatedly yelled at Gordon and told him to get out of the vehicle.
"I feel uncomfortable, please get your supervisor," Gordon told the officer, to which he replied, "I don't give a sh*t."
Not sure why it was difficult for the policeman to answer the question of why he's couldn't get his supervisor?\n\nWHY NOT ANSWER THE QUESTION? \n\nTWITTER do your thing & NAME THIS POLICEMAN.\n\nAMERICANS don't need BRUTAL POLICEMAN like this protecting us.— Ani (@Ani) 1647887322
The officer then physically tried to remove Gordon from his vehicle by pulling on his shirt.
"Please stop. Why are you being like this? Why are you hurting me?" said Gordon. "This is not lawful."
Unsuccessful in his attempt, the officer backed up and fired the stun gun.
It seems there is a widespread movement among many white police to foment a race war. This is a systemic issue that calls for highest level scrutiny by the nations lawmakers now. Otherwise the citizens themselves will start making serious decisions on their own.— Adam Jeffreys (@Adam Jeffreys) 1647886563
The clip ended with Gordon, crying out, "Oh my God, that’s not lawful sir. That’s not lawful."
Iv worked jobs where i has authority over people and these situations are what is covered in most descalation classes. Does an officer have to tell you why they pulled you over? No. But given the video and the interaction i believe the correct thing here was to just tell him why— Nathan White (@Nathan White) 1647880638
Question a tyrant and he will immediately impose his authority. The officers actions were not reasonable... unfortunately they are probably lawful. He'll just lie and say he needed to put the man out of the car for his safety. We need Law enforcement reform now!— Fathers With Attitude (Podcast) \ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2\u270a\ud83c\udfff (@Fathers With Attitude (Podcast) \ud83c\udf0a\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf2\u270a\ud83c\udfff) 1647883403
Typical cop escalates things to the point of another citizen being brutalized . That cop sounded like he was on drugs or an over dose of steroids. Why does he have a badge? Just spineless and aggressive. Its a traffic violation and a supervisor was asked for #defundpolice— Brian (@Brian) 1647876115
Wheeler told the news station:
"Any exchange of that nature shouldn’t be met with immediate escalation."
You can watch a news report of the incident, here.
Wheeler said Gordon was booked, made bond and was released.
"Our goal here is to raise awareness on incidents like this because you got members of the community who are scared of any type of interaction with law enforcement," said Wheeler, adding "and we think that incidents like this are a big part of the reason why."
"My client was scared and that's why he was asking the questions he was asking and behaving the way that he was behaving because he was fearful for his safety at that point."
The Hamilton County District Attorney asked the county Sheriff's office to open an investigation looking into the March 10 incident in which the driver was charged with speeding, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
The DA's office said no further details from the incident will be released until the investigation was over.
The police department said they are "cooperating fully" with the Sheriff's probe as they conduct their own investigation and will provide more details when the investigations are complete.
They say it's a few bad apples. It's the whole f#####g tree. It's there training and choice of personnel.— james g. dalessandro (@james g. dalessandro) 1647692961
Congress needs to put into motion audits of every police station in America. Anyone with multiple complaints in the community needs to be fired and possibly criminally charged. We've witnessed these attitudes enough to warrant a total clean up.— Charles Moore (@Charles Moore) 1647882348
Wheeler noted his client had no previous criminal record, never posed a threat to the officer who pulled him over and remained respectfully engaged with the officer during their interaction.
The police will retaliate by prosecuting this man but hopefully Mr. Gordon will wind up owning the Police Department with successful lawsuits and won't have to Doordash for a living anymore.— WokeSkyKrysz\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\u262e\ufe0f (@WokeSkyKrysz\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\u262e\ufe0f) 1647884538
We ALL must hire a lawyer if we can afford it and just start filing #ReparationsNOW lawsuit one by one until it catches on with the masses, & combine the Reparations lawsuit with the many millions living in the USA and abroad...If Racists globally can come together, SO CAN WE— Subscribe to my YouTube: Sosolinha_YT (@Subscribe to my YouTube: Sosolinha_YT) 1647876861
“Simply asking, ‘Hey, can you explain to me why I'm being pulled over?' or any exchange of that nature shouldn't be met with immediate escalation, shouldn't be met with, I guess, an officer interpreting that exchange as a challenge to his authority,” Wheeler said.
“That speaks to the temperament and mentality of an officer.”
