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RECTJ The a ccount of an encounter with the City of Atlanta Police, May 2, 1967, by Huron W. Virden, Jr., 685 Argonne Avenue NE Tuesday Night, Apt. 10, Atlanta , Ga. At appro~imately 9 PM to 9:30 PM , May 2, 1967, I was walking south on the west s i de of Peachtree between 10th and 11th streets. I had been to the Pos t Office on 14th nd ha d parked on Peachtree a nd was going to make a telephone ca ll a t the Rexal l Drug Store. Nea r 10th Street I noticed two men in business s uits who l ooked to be in t heir thirtie s forcing an old man across to the east side of Peach• tree to a late model automobile with no obvious markings . Each of the younger men had the old man (he wa s white in maybe his early fiftie s ) by his arms and were t wisting them slightly f orc ing him a cross the stree t. The old man himself was offering no discernable resistence and looked in good condition. He carried hims e lf well. The old man was forced . into the car to the rea r seat and the other two got in the front seat and clo&ed the doors~ The first thought that entered my mind was that of citizens in a city who observe violence and do nothing to aid the victum. This situation did not look right. I cros sed the street after all three men were in the car and walked behind the car deliberately looking at the liscense plates which were ordinary Georgia, Fulton County, 1966 plates . I stepped onto the sidewalk and walked toward the front of the ca r. As I pa ssed the ~ront ca r door the man sitting next to the curb said: "He looked at the liscense plates !" I rea ched approximately the front wheel of the car a nd turned a nd looked through the front windshield in order to clearly see the faces. At this point the man sitting next to the curb jumped out of the car and said to me, "What do you want, mister?" I &aid, "What's going on here?" (Thi was · the first remark that I had -· spoken which was in response to him and ha d made no attempt to interfere.) He said, We' re the police." _I said, "Show me your badge, mis ter." We had been s tanding two or three feet apart . He immediately shoved me ca using me t o lose my balance . He showed me nothing. I turned and stumbling tried to run. He was right behind me, but I managed to get into the middle of Peachtree before he dragged me down onto the street. The other one piled on a nd I s truggled, not hitting t hem but trying t o throw them off. I began yelling, "Help ! I don't know who these two guys are . Somebody help me! " Nobody came over. In the middle of Peachtree a pair of handcuffs was gott en out and finally put on we. I was f or ced ba ck to the car, but they were ·unable to force me into the car. During this ent ire t ime I continued to yell, "Help, I don't know who these two guys are : 11 Aft er I was forced back to the car a bystander sa id, "They're the police. You're in good ha nds . " Since I did not know the bystander and -did not cons ider ha ndcuffs very good ba dges of i dent ifica tion, I continued t o yell. By this time they had fo r c ed me to the trunk of the ca r with my feet pn the ground and pressed by torso a cross the trunk. Fina lly a bys t ander, a Chinese, said, "What are you two doing to him?" and one of them said, "We !re the pol i ce." The.. Ch ine e s aid , "Then show him your ~adge ." At this point one of them for the first and only time pulled out a badge and holding it l ow, briefly fl as hed it and then put it back in his pocket. I yelled to the Chinese "Get his name and badge number." \ �2. The Chinese t hen said , "You a re in good hands, you go on with them." I was by no means assured nd continued to yell hoping that a uniformed patrol• man would show up . Fina lly a paddy wagon came screaming up and as the driver jumped out I said , " Boy, am I glad to see you." The wagon driver later said that his name was Ray . I offered no resistenc e to being pla ced in the wagon and stopped yelling. Sitting there in the wagon at 10th and Peachtree I became aware of two new faces in plain clothe who began talking to the men who had jumped me, and I Aeganwemanding their name and ba dge numbers. Finally one of them stuck his head . in the door of the wagon and sa id that his name was Metzger (or s omething roughly like that) a nd th the was superintendent of detectives. I briefly related to him the circums tances of my ob se rving the old man be ing forced across the street to an unmarked car and my , subsequent invo lvement with the other t wo men and told him, "I don't mind an hvllCHt cop, but you've got two louses out there." I later discovered I was charged with using profanity to an officer, and thia remark was the extent of my profanity. Sitting cneL~ in the wagon the old man was finally put in with me, ana he said that his name was Robert Anderaon from Decatur, Ga. I underatand that he was later booked for being drunk. Another remark that I did yell out of the wagon to the detectives and superintendent was that I was going to file charges for false arrest. We were driven to the station house in the wagon ~nd both of us got out making no fuss. The h ndcuf fs were t aken off me and I was told to sit on a bench in the station hou s e while the old man was booked. I was . told to come up to the counter which Ihdid with no comment . A patro~n with a plaster of paris mitten took my right hand and started to r ise it as if to fingerprint me. I held my hand down and said, "You can't · fingerprint me ." He said , "Oh yes we can." and bega n to twist my right arm while putting a hammerl ock around my neck with his left arm. A woman behind the counter sus tained his statement by saying, "Oh ;es they can." Another patrolman began twisting my left arm and I relaxed and s aid, "Okay." At no time did I offer any other opposit ion then simply state that they could not fingerprint me, and I held my hand down when they firs t tried to lift it. I was choked unconscious. When I came to I was led into the eievator by the patrolman with the plaster mitten plus a nother patrolman. Another pris oner was pla ced on the elevator who I think was Robert Anderson and he was a ccompanied by another officer. I think there was als o an elevator operator present. In the elevator I was beaten and kicked by the two officers with me and particularly by the officer with the plaster mitten which he used as a very e ffective weapon. When the elevator stopped I was led out and thrown to the floor and .kicked. I was told to get to my feet and directed down the hall, down which I was continua lly bea ten, especially with the pl ster mitten . The only remarks tha t I made during this course of events waa, "Stop , please, atop! I can't do anything!" I wa fina lly thrown into a barren cell and the door s hut. After what seemed to be about two hours I asked an of ficer who c ame by if I could make a phone call. He aid , "No." A little later he came by a gain and I sa id, "I want to ca ll my lawyer." He ~aid , "No ." Finally a round five o'clock in t he morning (I had my watch) the same officer came by and said , "You can make a telephone call." At this time I was a fforded an opportunity to call an ttorney and friend, Gilbert D. Spinde l, and my emp loyers L. W. Gray. Mr. Spindel ba iled me out a t approximate ly 7:30 AM, Wednesday morning. I . I �3. My face was bruised a nd bloody. I stated at the des k as I left that I thought my arm was broken. Before the officers in charge would let me out he wanted to know if I wanted to go to the hospital while still in officia l care and I said no that ! ,wanted out. Trial wa set for 3 :30PM tha t afternoon, and it was the next day Thtrsday, before I was ab le to have the arm examined and x-rayed by Dr. E0 Ladd Jones. The end of one bone on my right elbow was broken which did not require a cas t. There were five cha r ges filed against me . Since I was never given copies I c an only recall them as best I cau a ccording to memory: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Assault •nd bat tery agains t an officer Assault and battery against an officer Dis orderly conduct Violating the noise ordinance Using profanity to an officer My attorney for the hearing, Ernest Brookins, cons ulted with one of the arresting · officers, Detect i ve Ferguson, before the tria l. The other detective who initia ted the frac as did not s how up. Detective Ferguson was willing to admit tha t I probably thought I was aiding a distressed citizen and I simply stated that I did not know the two men were policemen . I do not know what .e ther consultations there might have been but Judge Jones dropped all the charges except disorderly conduct for which he fined me $15.00 and s uspended the fine . " i f My ttorney a lso conceded tha t I be fingerprinted after the trial for which I acceded. The same crew who had worked me ove r the prevous evening were there aga in. After delaying me for approximately an hour while a ttemp ts were made to dind a previous record, o f whic h there was none, I was let go. However, at the fingerprinting the man doing i t mad e ~ sets, both with the da te May 3, 1967, stamped on them •• There also seemed to be a third ca rd o f larger size than the ones made and signed by me . I could not be s ure that this third card of fingerprints was associated with me, though it could have been a se t o f fingerprints I had made at the Atlaata Pol i c e Stati on back in January or February f or a pistol permit which I received. Also in photographing me the same man who made the print s changed some of the letters or numbers on the identification plaque when going from the frontal shot to the pro= file shot. The two sets of fingerprints which I signed and the chanije in the plaque have yet to be cleared up. If one is bemused by this account of brutality, there was perhaps one contributing factor here tofore unsppken. I am a construction superintendent on residences and was dress ed in kaiki work clothes and work boots which were not altogether clean. I have found that when so attired I am sometimes given the most perfunctory consideration by store clerks, filling station attendents, and now the police. My present cour se of action is this . I do not plan to contest the settlement of the charges aga inst me nor do I pl anto f ile charges of fal se arrest . I do intend that my side of the story be clearly brought to the attention of the appropriate superiors. I want to make it clear also that it was not detective Ferguson who initiated the fracas but his partner whose name I do not know. The situation in the station house is a dif ferent mat t er . I will file f ormal charges . For tho s e who must consider this case I s ay this. The primary responsibility f or the brutality inflicted on me l ays with the men who did it and their superiors . These now are less than men. I believe that the majority of the Atlanta Police Force are men of basic h onesty , integrity, and humanity. To let such unwarranted brutality by their fellows go unchallenged would be a dis s ervice to their va lues which must be constantly striven forin a viscious world. I know too that the same of f icer s who assulted me d .sk their lives ev ery day in the line of duty. Thereis another s ource of evil here only slightly less in magnitude. Men, whether rich or poor mus t s tand accountab le f or their actions and when they do not, then they are the wor s t. But h er e we are al so faced with a p~ l i ce department, a city administr at ion, a city power structure , a bar ass ociation, newspapers, t e l ev ision s t ations, a citizenry t h at expect men to continuously risk their live s in de fense of their gr eat property for a min imum of pay. .I �