A 19-year-old Florida man suspected of possessing marijuana reportedly tried to run from an officer with the Clearwater Police Department this week because, well, he doesn’t like “white people touching” him and “white people do weird stuff,” according to the Smoking Gun.
Officer Joseph May was in a gas station convenience store in Clearwater, Fla., early Tuesday morning when Taurus Jabriel Brown, whom the officer recognized as a local gang member, approached him, the report says. Brown reportedly said that he would like to become an officer one day and offered to shake the officer’s hand. As the two shook hands, the officer noticed what appeared to be a marijuana “blunt” tucked behind one of Brown’s ears and allegedly retrieved it after obtaining the youth’s permission.
“Is this weed?” May asked, according to the report. “How stupid are you?”
He asked Brown to place his hands behind his back, but Brown reportedly “tensed, pulled away, and attempted to run out of the front door.”
May says in the report that he chased the teen and used a take-down method to pull him to the floor. While on the floor, the teen allegedly said, “Damn, man, all this for weed. Wow, bro, you must want to make an arrest.”
He also allegedly said, “I’ll plead guilty, I’ll go to court and plead guilty. Please don’t take me to jail,” the report says. “Can you tell the judge I plead guilty?”
When May asked why he tried to run, the teen allegedly replied, “I don’t like white people touching me; white people do weird stuff.”
He allegedly then went on to say he’d just been making a joke about being touched by white people.
He was charged with marijuana possession and obstruction, both misdemeanors, and taken to jail.
Read more at the Smoking Gun.