by Jack Burns, The Free Thought Project:

Lawrence Township, IN — Lawrence Township Constable Daryl Jones was fired this month for the behavior he exhibited towards two Nordstrom patrons who caught the confrontation on video. Lawrence Township Chief Constable Terry Burns Terminated Jones’ 20-year employment less than two hours after he watched the video which included a tyrannical proclamation Jones could do “anything” he wanted because he was a “police officer,”

Aaron Joseph and his cousin were shopping and purchased items inside the shopping center. While they were leaving, Jones claimed the men were “suspicious” and demanded to see their identification. From the description in the YouTube video (below), the two described what started it all and what happened after Jones made contact with them.

Lawrence IN officer harassed me and my cousin after we spent over $1000 in the department store. He watched us buy everything, and then followed us to the car. This video picks up after we pulled off, and he screamed he was going run our plates once we pulled from the parking spot. So, we circled back to ask him why he was being invasive and abusing his authority! From the video you will see is blatant disregard for being civil or calm, even though we were clear about our complaint without being angry, however we were stern because we believed we did nothing wrong or suspicious! This occurred November 12th 2019 in Indianapolis Indiana, on the cities north side shopping district. The officer never gave us his name or badge number. When he told us clearly in the video “I have the right to do anything I want to do, I’m a police officer!!” With that line, it spoke volumes of the continuous abuse of power and the mentality of many civil servants who dawn a police uniform and are being allowed to call themselves “Law Enforcement”

Joseph told the officer he hadn’t done anything wrong and asked why Jones needed their identification. He admitted what many police accountability experts already know. The cop wanted the identification of the two young men because he wanted to check them for warrants.

The incensed officer told the men if they didn’t have any warrants for their arrest he would let them go. Still, Joseph and his cousin said they simply had not done anything wrong and wanted to know what the officer suspected them of doing. Jones, however, refused to identify himself and, likewise, rejected the men’s request to see a supervisor.

Jones then admitted he was “off-duty” and again demanded to see the men’s identification. It may seem to viewers the men asked Jones dozens of times to identify himself, an action he refused to comply with, which is standard policy and procedure for law enforcement agencies. Jones was perturbed, it appears. Maybe he knew he had broken with departmental procedure and the law and was caught on camera racially profiling two men of color who were simply shopping for the holidays.

An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) officer arrived on scene and deescalated the situation which was highly confrontational at one point where Jones actually intimated he would use force against the two men for “threatening” him. Those threats were likely imagined by the career police officer.

After Jones and the IMPD officer conversed, the officer told the two they were free to go. He said:

As far as I’m concerned, you guys are good to go.”

Joseph said he has received a lot of support from friend and family and even law enforcement officers who believe the two men were racially profiled. Joseph said:

I have support from a lot of people, and some of them are even other law enforcement officers…So I don’t want people to think that all cops are bad or he represents all officers. There are some really good officers out there who would never treat people that way.

The two men say the incident started inside the Nordstrom Rack department store as the officer stared the two men down as they were making their purchase. Joseph’s cousin took out his cell phone and recorded the initial incident which took place.

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