{"id":134206,"date":"2024-06-07T20:57:28","date_gmt":"2024-06-08T00:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=134206"},"modified":"2024-06-07T20:57:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-08T00:57:28","slug":"lakeland-residents-protesting-beating-tasing-of-16-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=134206","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Residents Protesting Beating, Tasing Of 16-Year-Old"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 About 100 people gathered outside Lakeland Police headquarters on Saturday to protest the beating of 16-year-old Jahmal Hudson.\u00a0|\u00a0Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

About 100 protestors gathered in front of\u00a0Lakeland Police Department<\/a>\u00a0headquarters Saturday evening to demand that two officers seen punching and tasing a Black teenager in a widely shared bystander video be arrested and that Police Chief Sam Taylor<\/strong> resign.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The speakers were angry that two Lakeland Police officers \u2014 Christopher McKee<\/strong> and Jose Diaz-Acosta<\/strong> \u2014 repeatedly punched, pulled the hair of and tased 16-year-old Jahmal Hudson<\/strong> during a videotaped arrest. The video also shows Hudson<\/strong> fighting back against the officers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to published reports, the incident began when Hudson<\/strong> and three friends met a resident of The Caroline Apartments to swim in the complex\u2019s pool on Memorial Day. One of the\u00a0teens posted to social media<\/a>\u00a0that they had been playing volleyball and relaxing, but also admittedly using profanity in the pool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to the report, a woman arrived with her children and asked the group to tone down their language.\u00a0 Chief Taylor<\/strong> said the teens cursed at her, so she called 9-1-1. The\u00a0arrest affidavit<\/a>\u00a0says an apartment manager asked arriving officers to trespass the teens from the pool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 McKee<\/strong> wrote in\u00a0the affidavit<\/a>\u00a0that Hudson <\/strong>repeatedly refused to cooperate, would not give his name or address and said he didn\u2019t have to talk to McKee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A\u00a0social media post<\/a>\u00a0said the 6-foot-1, 347-pound teenager was gathering his belongings, but became angry and defiant when McKee<\/strong>told him he should go to the gym instead of the pool.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The incident escalated when McKee,<\/strong> who had repeatedly told Hudson<\/strong> to leave, moved to arrest him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 State Rep. Dianne Hart,<\/strong> D-Tampa<\/a>, attended Saturday\u2019s protest and vowed to make sure police are held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rev. Clayton Cowart<\/strong> of\u00a0the Poor And Minority Justice Association<\/a>, and Carlos Sotos<\/strong> of\u00a0Black Lives Matter Restoration Polk<\/a>\u00a0organized Saturday\u2019s event. The men have fought for the Civil Rights of several local Black men and women who have been arrested.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The protesters plan to come back the first Saturday of every month to protest the Lakeland Police Department, saying the department is full of racists.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NAACP Lakeland Branch President Terry Coney<\/strong> told LkldNow on Thursday that he had already been in talks with Lakeland Police about hosting an event to teach area teenagers how to interact with police. Coney<\/strong> did not attend the protest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hudson\u2019s<\/strong> mother, Ja\u2019Tae Lewis,<\/strong> was pleased with the support her son received.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 About 100 people gathered outside Lakeland Police headquarters on Saturday to protest the beating of 16-year-old Jahmal Hudson.\u00a0|\u00a0Kimberly C. Moore, LkldNow \u00a0 About 100 protestors gathered in front of\u00a0Lakeland Police Department\u00a0headquarters Saturday evening to demand that two officers seen punching and tasing a Black teenager in a widely shared bystander video be arrested and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88889,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/88889"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134206"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134208,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134206\/revisions\/134208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=134206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=134206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}