Thanks to a viral Facebook video with more than 650,000 page views, an investigation is currently underway into why Dyer, Ind., police stopped and frisked Black men because they pushed a friend’s SUV into a BP gas station parking lot.
During a Dyer Town Council meeting last week, Black Lives Matter organizers called for Dyer police and town officials to issue an apology to the five young men for “acting in a manner which threatened their safety without cause,” according to the
Post-Tribune.
On June 6, Dmani Brown, the owner of the truck, posted the video on Facebook, which was shot and narrated by an unidentified woman. Brown included the following message:
“My truck broke down and my friends came to help me push it to the gas station. While at the gas station waiting for the tow truck we were stopped and frisked because the undercover police officer said we ‘looked suspicious.’ My brother was placed in handcuffs because he verbalized his disapproval of the illegal search. Things have to change is Dyer, IN please make this go viral.”
The video shows that after frisking the men, an officer speaks to one of them, then handcuffs him and sits him down in front of a police SUV. The young man does not resist.
The Dyer Police Department said in a Facebook statement on June 7 (their page has since been deleted) “at the conclusion of this encounter the officer assisted in pushing the vehicle further into the parking lot and offered further assistance with the vehicle if needed. There were no tickets issued or arrests made.”
Dyer is located along the Illinois state line in Lake County, Ind. The town is
85.5 percent white and 4.4 percent Black.
Council President Jeff Dekker said at the meeting on Thursday the town is conducting its own investigation into the incident.
Dyer Police Chief David W. Hein said on Friday that an investigation is ongoing and the department has instructed the men who were stopped and frisked on how to file a complaint against the officers.
Facebook video:
