Did the Eastpointe police go too far in how they handled a man suspected of drunk driving?
It was all caught on camera inside the police department and now the man is suing.
Community leaders say they will be bringing attention to this today.
Frankie Taylor was brought into the Eastpointe Police Department, where he claims he was strapped to a chair and beaten and left with permanent injuries.
Video from inside the Eastpointe police station appears to show Taylor not resisting officers while he was dragged to a chair to be tied down.
At one point, four officers are holding him down as a 5th officer puts on gloves and then slaps him multiple times while telling him to “stop resisting.”
Attorney James Rasor says Taylor has permanent partial blindness in one eye and is now suing the Eastpointe police department.
“Frankie Taylor was only asking for a telephone call. The telephone call that had been afforded to a white prisoner just minutes earlier who had allegedly urinated his pants,” Rasor says. “Frankie wanted to call his sister. He wanted to call his wife.”
Rasor says the officers taunted Taylor and mocked him for being short.
Rasor suspects there are other cases too.
“Now, we are engaging in a process where we will learn exactly how many other black folks have been strapped in that chair and beaten. Eastpointe is no stranger to racial disparity, racial discrimination,” he says. “I aim to prove Frankie Taylor wasn’t the first black person to be put in that chair and beaten but hope through our efforts he’ll be the last.”
Community leaders will make some type of announcement at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday.
We reached out to the Eastpointe Police Department. They said no comment.
