A Jacksonville, Florida police officer detained and threatened to arrest a black pedestrian for jaywalking while another person jaywalked without consequence. In a video posted on Facebook Wednesday, June 21, the man accused of jaywalking, 21-year-old Devonte Shipman, was pulled over and approached by an officer identified as J. S. Bolen.
The nearly 4-minute video starts off with Bolen trying to cite Shipman for crossing the street outside of the crosswalk, but viewers can see that another man in the background did the exact thing without the heavy police response. “One: You weren’t in the crosswalk. Two: there was a red sign you both crossed. That’s a $65 ticket,” Bolen says in the video. “You are being legally detained. If you don’t, you are disobeying a direct order, and we’ll put you in jail. So go to my car.” Shipman implies that the officer could be spending his time more wisely. “I wasn’t paying no attention,” Shipman said. “You act like I really just committed a serious crime that’s worth this time right now.” The Florida Times-Union reported that Bolen wrote two separate citations. One for failing to obey a walk signal and another for not having a license on his person.
However, Shipman plans on not paying for either because he felt the police overreacted, per the Times-Union. “We got three cop cars just because we crossed the motherf**king street,” Shipman says before the video ends. “We crossed the street. That’s all we did.”
Watch the video below.