With tragic cases such as the killing of Sean Bell, it's natural to believe that black people can't be safe from police brutality anywhere … not even on their wedding day.
Joseph Baskins certainly knows what it's like to wonder "Am I next?" as he was reportedly faced with a 2014 police attack on his wedding day in Chicago, per the Chicago Sun-Times. In a complaint obtained by Courthouse News, "On what should have been one of the happiest days of his life, plaintiff Joseph Baskins was instead subjected to a nightmare that would last three years.”
According to Baskins, three on-duty Chicago police officers approached him and his fiancée then hurled racial slurs and attacked Baskins.
“As we get on the elevator, three white dudes get on the elevator with us,” Baskins said. “They start saying racial slurs: ‘We got on the wrong elevator, black n*gger squad, black gangsters, all types of crazy sh*t.”
Things then quickly escalated.
“The elevator opened up, I’m arguing with the tall one, I guess he was the sergeant … We’re arguing. We get off the elevator. He hit me, boom. We fighting, another one try to grab me … I get him off me," Baskins continued. "The first dude pulled out a gun. My little brother Brian kicked the gun out of his hand. I picked up the gun. I picked up the baby. Take the gun.”
According to Baskins, the men had never identified themselves as police officers, and he only found out later that they were on-duty cops.
Baskins had took the gun and planned to return it the following morning, but police soon found him and arrested him that night because he reportedly “committed an aggravated battery to victim Gilmore,” referencing one of the cops who reportedly suffered brain damage from the tussle. However, prosecutors only prosecuted Baskins for taking the sergeant's gun.
Baskins never got married that day. And in fact, never got married at all. His wife-to-be left him, and he blames the incident for breaking up what was about to be a happy family.
Soon after the incident, the police Bureau of Internal Affairs began investigating the three cops involved in the incident for "possession of alcohol/drinking on duty." Baskins' suit claims that a receipt from a nearby restaurant shows that the officers had eight beers and six vodkas between the three of them directly before the incident occurred.
The official police investigation has been going on for three years.
The prosecutors dropped the gun charge shortly after the Sun-Times interviewed Baskins in jail.
The office of State’s Attorney Kim Foxx declined to comment on why it took three years for the charge to be dropped, but the Sun-Times also found that the three officers all had different accounts on what happened.
One officer's account claims that he smelled marijuana on Baskins, which made him feel obligated to approach him.
Of course, the delay in dropping the gun charge leaves Baskins super suspicious. “Took three years to dismiss all of this,” he said. “I think they just wanted to hold me … to try to get any type of conviction.”
The City of Chicago did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.
