A video showing Mississippi state troopers choking and body slamming a man who questioned his being detained has emerged online.
Robert Morton, 34, was pulled over for speeding – allegedly going 101 mph in a 65 mph zone somewhere in Clay County when the altercation took place.
The mobile phone footage firstly shows Morton questioning the officer’s requests for him to ‘get on the f*cking ground’.
Watch the incident in the videos below:
Morton continually asks the first officer why he’s being arrested – to which he’s repeatedly told: ‘Give me your hands.’
‘When you walked over to the car I asked you what was the reason you pulled me over,’ Morton says. ‘You said [when you got my] license and registration [you’ll tell me].’
The trooper tells Morton: ‘That is correct.’ Morton then adds: ‘And then you [asked me to get out the car]. I get out the car, I’m calm.’
When he pulls his arms away after the officer attempts to put him in handcuffs, the officer pulls out a taser. Morton’s fiancée, Porsha Shields, can be heard pleading with Morton: ‘Please don’t do that, just wait till somebody come [sic].’
Another cop arrives, who says: ‘Put your f*cking hands behind your back,’ before grabbing Morton by the neck, and then slamming him to the ground. Shields can be heard shouting: ‘You ain’t gotta do all that! You’re supposed to be out here protecting us!’
The first trooper also helps his backup in forcing Morton to the ground.
As reported by The New York Post, Morton was charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and malicious mischief according to jail records.
The videos were posted online by friends of Shields, and have been met with a mixed response.
One Facebook user wrote: ‘Cops have become completely unhinged.’ However, many have defended the actions of the officers, saying that Morton shouldn’t have resisted arrest.
Another Facebook user wrote:
Yes, they do ‘gotta do all that’ he resisted arrest several times and wrestled with the officers. He had multiple chances to comply.
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After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.