Protesters of Steve Perkins' death, videos depict aggressive police arrests

Oct. 14—Decatur police have arrested eight people — one of them twice — for disorderly conduct as they protested the Sept. 29 shooting death of Stephen Clay Perkins by a Decatur police officer.

Cellphone cameras recorded several of the interactions between protesters and Decatur police last weekend. Dozens are circulating on social media, and in most cases multiple videos show the same incidents from different angles.

Some of those arrested spoke out this week.

One video shows a man wearing a backpack and a yellow hat labeled "legal observer" step into the street to document the arrests of two individuals. Three Decatur police pursuit vehicles are stopped in the median with their emergency lights on.

A Decatur police officer approaches the observer before turning away to assist three of his colleagues in their attempt to place a protester into the back of the lead police vehicle.

The observer appears to say something before turning away from the police toward the sidewalk, where several other protesters are chanting "no justice, no peace." The officer he just exchanged words with turns again and follows behind the observer, yanks him by the backpack, and bends him over the hood of the nearest police vehicle. Two officers join in to assist, and three more line up in front of the arresting police and face the crowd.

The crowd doesn't like it. The din grows louder.

"He ain't doing ****, what are you doing?!" one man shouts. "**** you pig! What happened to serve and protect?"

The observer's name is David Snyder, 34, of Huntsville, and he was charged with disorderly conduct for obstructing traffic near the intersection of Wilson Street Northeast and Sixth Avenue om Monday.

"What they did to Steve Perkins was an egregious violation of his human right to life," Snyder said Friday. "There has to be major changes in what's happening in policing in America. That's why I went out there, is to show my support for the (Perkins) family."

Snyder said he uttered an expletive before turning away from the officer who chased him.

"The cop had given me a lawful order to disperse, and I very clearly had obeyed that lawful order and turned and dispersed, but because they didn't like what I said, he came chasing after me and grabbed on me and dragged me to a police car and slammed me on the hood," he said.

Snyder said he was angry and upset over the police killing of Perkins on Sept. 29. Watching two protesters taken down by police angered him more.

"I'm not afraid to say that I was a little afraid," he said. "I'm now in these people's custody, they're changing me from vehicle to vehicle. In my mind I'm thinking, you know, just one step at a time, one breath at a time, and just understanding that I'm being arrested." — 'Y'all did wrong'

Another cellphone recording, this one from the Oct. 8 protests, opens with a Decatur police officer rushing past the frame. Several zip ties are hanging from his belt. The camera pans to catch the moment a woman is tackled into a parking lot's pavement by three officers.

"Hey!" several protesters shout. There are indecipherable screams.

One officer stands in front of the piled officers and woman and orders encroaching protesters to back up.

"Ain't even nobody in the **** street!" one man shouts.

"Y'all did wrong," another man shouts through a bullhorn. "And then you slammed her on the ground. We got it all on video!"

Another voice, not shouting, simply asks "why" over and over.

The tackled woman, Kurstin "Kurt" White, 23, of Decatur, said Wednesday that she still doesn't know why.

"After we were warned to get out of the street, we continued to march down Second Avenue on the sidewalk, and right by People's Bank they pulled back up and they all got out and they were ready to arrest people," White said.

"I was back a little bit behind the group, and I was trying to get to the group, and I saw a cop single me out and start chasing me," she said. "Then three cops tackled me and — the way they hit me — they dove for my feet, which sent me sideways, and I hit my head on the concrete."

White said police zip-tied her hands together and escorted her through the City Hall garage to another street, where she was placed in a police van.

"I was angry and upset but I was also scared," she said. "I didn't know where they were taking me, because they took me a different way than everybody else, so at that point I was a little nervous."

White said police pulled back her hair when they searched her, revealing a contusion on her forehead. She said they did not offer or ask her if she required medical attention.

After she was released from the Morgan County Jail a few hours later, White said she sought medical attention and doctors told her she suffered a concussion. — Chief's statement

In a written statement released Wednesday, Decatur police Chief Todd Pinion said "we welcome the exercising of 1st Amendment rights and are happy to have facilitated prior protests without any arrests. However, during protests over the weekend, we made nine arrests for Disorderly Conduct — both for obstructing traffic on main roadways as well as Disorderly Conduct Language in Public.

"While we would rather have had no arrests, we will make arrests when actions include violence or impeding roadways that could impact providing basic public safety services to the rest of the community."

Another recording from the night of Oct. 8 shows Decatur police Lt. Jonathan Lindley pointing and shouting at protesters on the sidewalk.

"Anybody who uses profanity will go to jail for disorderly conduct," he says. "This is your warning."

Alexia Owens, 31, of Hillsboro, was charged with disorderly conduct language that night for allegedly using a curse word near Second Avenue and Lee Street Northeast.

She spoke Friday about the events leading up to her arrest.

As protesters gathered at City Hall after the community prayer service, Owens said Decatur police officers sat in their patrol vehicles in an adjacent parking lot and responded to chants of "justice for Steve Perkins" with taunts.

One officer then drove slowly past the protesters while loudly playing N.W.A.'s "**** Tha Police" and laughing, according to Owens.

She said a female K9 officer then slowly drove by protesters and rolled the rear window down when she was parallel to protesters so that the dog could snarl at them.

Owens said tensions were high after that. The protesters marched toward Zaxby's at 410 Grant St. S.E. before turning back toward downtown. As they got closer, Owens said police kept following them in vehicles. She said they stopped to get out and stand at each intersection in an apparent effort to deter protesters from heading back toward City Hall.

At one point, Owens said an officer aggressively got into a protester's face and repeatedly called him "boy." The protester was a Black man, according to Owens. She said the officer also waved and jeered at protesters. — Vehicle pursuit

Then, Owens said she made a reference to the police who were present the night of Perkins' death.

"I turned and walked away, and next thing I know they're running full force saying you're under arrest," she said. "They told me I was under arrest for profanity in public.

"One of the officers kicked the megaphone, so Jaheim (Langford) went and picked the megaphone up. They never put him under arrest, never said you're under arrest, just immediately took off after him. Like he robbed a bank. They almost hit another police vehicle."

Video captured the moment police took off after Langford. As he runs down the street, three police SUVs accelerate quickly after him. Owens said she was scared they might accidentally kill him.

Many other people were cursing that night, including police, according to Owens.

"I live where you can go to jail for saying a cuss word, but you can be caught on camera murdering someone and you go up for an investigation," she said. "Arrest people that are really out harming and doing stuff to people, not because your feelings got hurt or you don't like what they say."

Owens said police behavior during the protest was the very thing they were protesting against — aggressive and antagonizing behavior and a fickle application of the law.

"I had no intentions of getting arrested, but if I'm getting arrested for allegedly saying a cuss word, and I'm going to jail for fighting for justice for someone who was shot at their home, then I'll be going to jail," she said. "I have no problem with it. Take me right now."

All of those arrested for disorderly conduct over the weekend have since been released, except one. Garrick Rawls was arrested for disorderly conduct on both Oct. 6 and Oct. 7. He remains in Morgan County Jail.

— david.gambino@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2438.