Remember how Milwaukee’s police department and mayor warned everyone that the bodycam footage of the arrest of NBA rookie Sterling Brown was terrible? They weren’t lying. The thirty minute video leaves a lot to be desired on the volume front, but what’s clear is that the police involved were out of control that night, while their victims remained remarkably calm in the face of authoritarian aggression.
If you don’t care to watch yet another bout of brutality against black bodies, the recap below should serve you well. It’s long, but then again, so is the video.
The footage begins with the officer wearing the bodycam walking up to a car in a nearly empty Walgreens parking lot. The Mercedes, parked directly parallel to the building, appears to be running with the lights on, and straddles some striped pavement and handicapped spaces. A woman gets in on the passenger side as Sterling Brown exits the drugstore. The audio kicks in as she closes the door and the still-unseen officer, who was standing behind the car, approaches Brown, asking if he has a driver’s license.
Eight seconds after we first see Brown, the officer is already aggressive, telling the basketball player, who is standing still, to back up, while putting hands on him to push him away. Brown asks him not to touch him and two seconds later, the officer raises his voice. Less than thirty seconds after Brown exited the store, the officer radios for backup. The cop claims he “owns this” and Brown quietly tells him he doesn’t own him.
After a brief impasse, Brown asks what happens next; the officer tells him they have to wait for his partner, saying “we’re gonna figure out what we’re gonna do … a ticket or whatever.”
Almost three minutes later, the first of an eventual six police vehicles arrive on the scene.
While other cops speak with Brown, and more cars arrive, the officer who initiated the stop sheepishly bops from car to car for several minutes, telling anyone who’ll listen that he’d only meant to summon one car. Whoopsie! He calmly lies to them, claiming that Brown “got up in (his) grill” when asked to back up. None of the officers appear to leave, despite the fact that they’re not needed.
The Mercedes’ alarm goes off, and the camera cop hurries back to Brown, who is calmly speaking with at least three officers that surround him. Brown searches his hoodie and pants pockets before finally finding his keys and silencing the alarm.
Half a minute later, the officer to Brown’s left appears to set off the Mercedes alarm on purpose. Again, Brown reaches into his pocket, finds his key fob, and silences the alarm without incident.
The camera-wearing officer wanders to the back of the car, where yet another officer is interviewing Brown’s female companion. Her words can’t quite be heard, but the officer tells her “you don’t need to” do whatever it was she wanted to do, and he discourages her from "getting involved." He loops around the passenger side of the car with a flashlight, while another officer stealthily joins the growing circle of at least six cops now surrounding Sterling Brown, who again, somehow keeps his calm.
It’s that sneaky newcomer who suddenly screams “Take your hands out of your pockets!” Ten seconds later, Brown is on the ground, swarmed by a group of cops who had literally just watched the athlete move his hands in and out of his pockets seconds before without incident. Brown can be heard saying he has “stuff in his hands.”
Twenty seconds after being flung the ground, Sterling Brown is tasered, while officers hold him down. He cries out repeatedly in pain.
From the start of the video to the firing of the taser, less than nine minutes elapse.
For the next four minutes, the camera-wearer who started all of this violence reads a battered piece of paper on the car’s trunk, while the Mercedes is searched by others. He heads back to the site of the tasering just as another officer suddenly asks Brown, who’s still lying on the concrete, whether or not he plays for the Bucks. Brown, who also happens to be the son of a retired police officer, confirms his NBA employment around the 13-minute mark.
The inciting officer then repeats his blatant lies about Brown “getting in (his) grill” to multiple officers, adding the embellishment that he had asked Brown and his companion if they'd parked that way due to a medical emergency. Each time he shares his fiction, the officer is sure to insist that this is "just how I explained it before," as though that makes his story true.
The officer even claims that if Brown "hadn't been such a dick about it" he’d have just sent him on his way, but because he “was being an ass,” he thought "he was hiding something." He then mocks Brown for answering positively when asked to confirm his employer.
”And now he’s like, ‘oh I’m a Bucks player, blah blah, blah,’ so what?”
At this point, the camera-wearer asks another police officer what happens now, and whether or not Brown has any warrants. After that officer seems to just blow him off, the bodycam-wearing bully appears to scan a laminated sheet as though searching for a crime with which to charge Brown, muttering off statute numbers all the while, and talking to himself about “simple requests” and “hands in pockets.”
The officer returns to the ever-growing circle surrounding Brown as he remains on the ground after being tasered. Milwaukee firefighters have now joined the throng, and the recording goes silent for about a minute as the camera-wearer works with another officer on a tablet computer. In the background, three officers continue to question Brown's female companion.
The sound resumes just before the 21-minute mark, at which point the still-unnamed instigator of all of this actually hums a tune as he finds his way to the front of the car, where he writes for a while before searching the car with a flashlight.
Brown can be seen now, finally back on his feet, carefully avoiding eye contact with the inciting officer. Brown asks other officers how far away an unnamed place is, but the instigator forces another engagement with him, repeating his fake origin story and blaming Brown for initiating it.
Brown again keeps his cool, but continues to insist that the camera cop is at fault. The cop sarcastically apologizes for not recognizing his "famous name" earlier; Brown insists he's not famous, but repeatedly tells the cop to "look (him) up."
The shit-starting cop then goes to his vehicle, muttering what he surely thought was sassy commentary. After typing on his car computer, he radios in his location, just as an ambulance siren closes in. The unidentified woman who was with Brown can be seen getting into the back of a police SUV; Brown, still in cuffs, waits patiently in place, while an ambulance pulls up.
The remaining cops appear to awkwardly avoid eye contact and conversation with the camera-wearer, but in the final seconds of the video, the cop who started it all cheerfully boasts to a firefighter pal about the great interview he had a couple days earlier.
The nearly dozen cops involved in the incident remain unidentified, and their punishments undefined, but The Journal-Sentinel reports that multiple sources have named two of the sergeants disciplined as Jeffrey S. Krueger and Sean A. Mahnke.
In a statement, Sterling Brown notes that scenarios far worse than his arrest happen to black Americans daily, and that he is committed to forcing change.
My experience in January with the Milwaukee Police Department was wrong and shouldn’t happen to anybody. What should have been a simple parking ticket turned into an attempt at police intimidation, followed by the unlawful use of physical force, including being handcuffed and tased, and then unlawfully booked. This experience with the Milwaukee Police Department has forced me to stand up and tell my story so that I can help prevent these injustices from happening in the future.
Situations like mine and worse happen every day in the black community. Being a voice and a face for people who won’t be heard and don’t have the same platform as I have is a responsibility I take seriously. I am speaking for Dontre Hamilton of Milwaukee, Laquan McDonald of Chicago, Stephon Clark of Sacramento, Eric Garner of New York, and the list goes on. These people aren’t able to speak anymore because of unjust actions by those who are supposed to “serve and protect” the people.
The common denominator in all of these situations has been racism towards the minority community, the abuse of power, and the lack of accountability for officers involved. The lack of repercussions for the police officers involved in so many of these cases is offensive. This is a slap in the face to the victims’ families and communities.
Black men shouldn’t have to have their guard up and instantly be on the defensive when seeing a police officer, but it’s our reality and a real problem. There must be mutual respect and both sides have to figure out how to accomplish this.
There are no easy solutions to this problem, but there are strides that can be made to create change. I will do my part in helping to prevent similar incidents from happening to the minority community in the future.
This is bigger than me. My family, friends, legal team, Priority Sports, Milwaukee Bucks, the black community and the communities of all who stand against injustice plan to continue the fight. Peaceful support to ensure no further damage to our community is the only way to respond. I know many of you will share my anger and frustration, but for our community to progress and grow, we need to build on what we already have and not destroy it. I will take legal action against the Milwaukee Police Department to continue forcing change in our community.
Unlike their NFL counterparts, the Milwaukee Bucks took a stand against police brutality. The team’s official statement was direct in its condemning assessment of the situation.
The abuse and intimidation that Sterling experienced at the hands of Milwaukee Police was shameful and inexcusable. Sterling has our full support as he shares his story and takes action to provide accountability.
Unfortunately, this isn't an isolated case. It shouldn’t require an incident involving a professional athlete to draw attention to the fact that vulnerable people in our communities have experienced similar, and even worse, treatment.
We are grateful for the service of many good police officers that courageously protect us, our fans and our city, but racial biases and abuses of power must not be ignored.
There needs to be more accountability.
The Milwaukee Police Department and local officials have acknowledged the challenges they are working to address, and we urge them to enact higher standards and more direct accountability. We all want to be able to trust each and every officer serving to protect us.
Incidents like this remind us of the injustices that persist. As an organization, we will support Sterling and build on our work with local leaders and organizations to foster safe neighborhoods and better our community.
Milwaukee Chief of Police Alfonso Morales apologized for the incident’s escalation, and vowed that change was coming.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett decried the video and vowed change was coming.
The Milwaukee Police Association, on the other hand, said disputing the “righteousness of the interaction” is a failure to cooperate.
The MPA went on to blame the city for inadequate staffing and “improperly mentored new officers,” and claimed that “Use of Force will never look pretty.”