'He's been in this neighborhood for 30 years': Moment white attorney confronted police officer arresting innocent black man in rich suburb 'presuming he was a criminal'
- Jody Westby stopped Washington Police detaining disabled black man
- Officers told her he was a suspect in a robbery almost a mile away
- Mrs Westby blasts officers for having no grounds to arrest him
- She forces them to release him and warns that she plans to report them
By
Mia De Graaf for MailOnline
Published: 21:15 EST, 9 October 2014 | Updated: 23:34 EST, 9 October 2014
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This is the moment an attorney stopped police from arresting a disabled black man on suspicion of burgling a house almost a mile away.
Jody Westby came out of her house in Foxhall Crescent, Washington, to see an officer preparing to search 64-year-old Dennis Stuckey, a local handy man.
Demanding to know why he was being detained, Mrs Westby was told police received reports of a burlgary and stopped him as a possible suspect.
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Anger: Jody Westby (right) accosted a police officer when she saw Dennis Stuckey (center) being detained
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Support: Mrs Westby rushed to help Mr Stuckey as her housekeeper in Washington filmed the ordeal
But after intense questioning, captured on video by her housekeeper, she discovered the burglary was in another neighborhood three-quarters of a mile away and there were no grounds for suspicion.
'I'm an attorney and this is wrong' she exclaimed. 'Now please leave our neighborhood'.
The female officer attempting to arrest Mr Stuckey insisted he was 'loud and boisterous' when she stopped him.
'That's because you're accusing him,' Mrs Westby retorted.
Finally, after complaining to a passing officer about the incident, she secures his release.
'Come on Dennis, they said you can go,' she says as she helps him up.
Fighting his corner: Westby blasted the officers' conduct as they detained Stuckey without a description
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Questions: She discovered he was being arrested on suspicion of robbing a house almost a mile away
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Outrage: Westby told the officers they had no right to detain Stuckey, and helped him to his feet
She then turns to say: 'I'm reporting this.
'Just because he's black doesn't mean he's here to rob a house.
'He works for us, he's been in this neighborhood for 30 years.
'Now go find 4600 Foxhall.'
It has since emerged that the owner of the 'burgled' house had accidentally keyed in the wrong number to his garage, setting off the alert.
The two officers, who were both black, did not have a description of a potential suspect when they went on patrol at 1pm on October 1.
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Warning: She said she plans to report the case, accusing the cops of being racist for picking on Stuckey
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No suspect: It emerged the officers did not have a description for a suspect of the alleged burglary
Mrs Westby told the paper: 'It was very interesting, in the sense of getting a picture of how black cops treat black people, and how humiliating it was for him.
'They were treating him just like a dog.'
Washington Police told the
Washington Post they believed there to be 'no misconduct' and accused Mrs Westby of making 'assumptions of her own' by accusing the officers of racism.
The incident will now be addressed at a committee on stop-searches in the city next week.
to that white lady!!!
