Sharpton holds town hall on black woman’s restaurant arrest
Rev. Al Sharpton attended a town hall in Alabama to show support for a black woman whose contentious arrest at a Waffle House sparked anger when the video went viral online. WALA-TV reports hundreds attended the meeting at Bethel AME church in Mobile, Alabama, to show support for Chikesia Clemons. Police in Saraland, Alabama, say Clemons was drunk and disorderly when they arrested her April 22. They say she and a friend cursed employees and threatened to return with guns. Sharpton had questions about the Saraland police officers’ actions, body cameras and sound from the surveillance video they released. He also demanded Clemons’ charges be dropped and for Waffle House to admit she was treated improperly. Several others spoke including Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump who’s representing the Clemons family. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Reverend Al Sharpton hosting town hall in Mobile over Waffle House arrest
Reverend Al Sharpton, and prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, will be in Mobile on Tuesday to host a town hall meeting on the controversial Saraland Waffle House arrest earlier this week. The meeting will take place on May 1 at Bethel AME Church at 7 p.m. Chikesia Clemons, the woman who was arrested at the Waffle House will also be at the meeting. The controversial arrest of Clemons took place last Sunday after she entered a Saraland Waffle House with a group of friends. According the the employees, Clemons was intoxicated and smelled of alcohol when she entered, and then proceeded to act extremely aggressive towards staff members. Clemons and Canita Adams were asked to leave the establishment after an altercation over plastic utensils; Waffle House corporate policy requires staff members charge $0.50 for customers that wish to use plastic utensils to dine-in. According to Waffle house employees, after giving the utensils to Clemons free of charge, tensions between the staff members and patrons rose until employees asked Clemons and her group to leave. They did, but Clemons and Adams returned, “Witnesses, who included six employees and one customer, told police that the two women were loud and used profanities toward employees. ‘Words were used toward the employees such f*ck, b*tch, calling women whores,’ Detective Mims told AL.com. ‘They were told to cool down and stop using the profanities.’ “‘I’ll come over this counter and beat your f**king ass, bitch I’m gonna have your job, you ain’t gonna be here tomorrow,” said Clemons according to witness statements read by Detective Mims. Waffle House employees called the Saraland Police who arrested Clemons while she insisted she did nothing wrong. Clemons mother, Chiquitta Clemons-Howard, told AL.com a different story. According to Clomons-Howard, the incident did begin when a Waffle House employee tried to charge Clemons $0.50 for plastic utensils but when she refused to pay for the utensils, the employee responded by canceling her order. Clemons then asked for the district manager’s contact information, and while she was waiting for the employee to bring the district manager’s business card, the police arrived and arrested her. In an edited video of the incident which has since gone viral, Clemons is shown being pulled out of her chair and after resisting arrest, is thrown onto the ground by Saraland Police Officers. An officer is then heard saying that if she continued to resist the arrest by pulling her arm away while he was trying to handcuff her, her arm would break. Some viewer have said this was a threat however the police department insists it was a warning. Read further details of Mobile Town Hall meeting below:
How the media, BLM activists are pushing false narrative of Chikesia Clemons arrest and why we shouldn’t let them
Law enforcement officers haves a tough jobs these days. Just last week two deputies in Florida were ambushed, shot and killed while simply having a meal together. While the Sunshine State, and the nation, mourns their unnecessary deaths, we also need to stop and recognize the danger our law enforcement faces these days extends beyond just that of violence. It’s also the threat of mistruths and outright lies by those who would discredit the career field as a whole. This week Alabama has found itself in the spotlight for an incident at a Waffle House where an edited portion of a video taken of Chikesia Clemons being arrested went viral. Quickly Black Lives Matter, and others, took to social media to scream that the arrested woman was mistreated. The woman’s mother and friends are also pushing their own false narrative of the situation to anyone who will listen. A full copy of the video of the incident made available to press later showed Clemons and friends being asked to leave multiple times. Her version, and that of her friend who released the edited tape, of events are completely different than those from multiple witnesses including other black women, and women in the restaurant. A full report indicates that witnesses, who included six employees and one customer, told police that the two women were loud and used profanities toward employees. The fact remains that Clemons isn’t a victim of anything but her own bad behavior and poor decisions. Al.Com reported according to the video and witnesses, these were the words of the woman Black Lives Matters and others are wrongly trying to call a “victim”: “I’ll come over this counter and beat your f**king ass, bitch I’m gonna have your job, you ain’t gonna be here tomorrow.” This is according to witness statements read by Det. Mims Another witness said that one of the two women said they could come back to the store and “shoot this place up if I need to.” So to be clear: A drunk woman walks into a restaurant holding alcohol, is told she can’t have it and asked to leave. She leaves, then returns shouting and threatening people. At one point on the video she is seen standing on a chair while screaming. She called the restaurant obscene employees names. She threatened to shoot them. Officers come in and ask her to leave and she refuse. Then, on video, she resists arrest and when the officer warns her that her resisting could lead to her breaking her arm she’s a victim? Only if you live in a world where you have no idea what victimhood actually is or looks like, is Clemons an actual “victim”. Yes, her dress came down. That’s not the police officers’ fault. Had she not resisted arrest, it wouldn’t have happened. The officers ask her friend to fix it as soon as they have the situation under control. Wardrobe malfunctions can be a terrible side effect of a lawful arrest. In the future maybe the woman shouldn’t have behaved the way she did to warrant an arrest, or perhaps she shouldn’t have rolled around and tried to stop the officers from cuffing her — then she wouldn’t have had to worry about the wardrobe problems. Just a thought on the complaints about her dress coming down. Facts don’t matter to some (read in this case: many) these days. The woman has already raised over $12,000 on a GoFund me page that inaccurately sums up the incident. That’s $12,000 that could go to so many kids and causes that need it, but instead it will go to a woman whose violent tirade has gone viral with a misinformation campaign aimed at discrediting cops who were simply doing their job. One author on The Cut asks, “Who will stand up for Chikesa Clemons?” The author starts out saying, “While watching the video of 25-year-old Chikesia Clemons at a Waffle House in Saraland, Alabama, I realized Chikesia could have easily been me, my friends, or my cousins.” Well Brittney Packnett if you and your cousins trespass, threaten violence and resist arrest, then yes, this too could happen to you. Because those are the reasons this happened to Clemons. Not her race. Her actions. Period. An important fact to keep in mind is this incident happened the same day — Sunday morning — as the shooting at a Waffle House in Tennessee that killed four. So here we have a drunk woman saying she could come back and shoot up the place and officers and employees were suppose to do what? Just ignore her? That sounds ridiculous. We are living in time in which law enforcement officers have to worry about being called racist or sexist, just because they are doing their jobs. Sometimes the facts reveal actual bias was an issue. Sometimes the facts show that the cops did the right thing. How anyone can look at Clemons’ video, read the witness testimony, and still see this as anything but another drunk person arrested for their own dumb choices is beyond me. But to the cops who are getting very little support I say, the facts are on your side. Stay safe men (and women) in blue. Thank you for all you do.
