A day after Chris LeDay started circulating one of the graphic videos of police officers gunning down Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., he was arrested, Complex reports.
Coincidence? Could be, but LeDay believes that his arrest was an act of retaliation by police, Complex notes.
As the site note, LeDay did not film the video himself but spread it to a wider audience, using his sway over his large follower base on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
However, the day after posting the video, he was detained by both military and civilian law enforcement as he arrived at his job as a technician at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, Ga.
According to the blog Photography Is Not a Crime, LeDay was met by at least 10 military officers with guns. He quickly informed Facebook friends about what was going on but did not dare record the officers.
Initially, the blog notes, LeDay was told that he was wanted for assault and battery by police in Dunwoody, Ga. He was escorted to a back room, where he was handcuffed as he waited on police to come pick him up. However, when officers arrived, the warrant had nothing to do with assault and battery.
“It was just over some traffic tickets from a couple of years ago,” he said. “They said my license was suspended.”
LeDay acknowledges that he did not pay the fines and allowed his license to be suspended. But he also said that he doesn't even drive anymore.
“At the time, I couldn’t afford it; then I was just being stubborn about it,” he said. “But I take Uber to work anyway. Even one of the cops on the base said he sees me getting dropped off for work.”
In the end, LeDay was held for 26 hours at the DeKalb County jail, only being released after he paid a fine of $1,231.
Despite his experience, LeDay remains determined to exercise his right to speak out against police brutality.
“We need to diffuse what the cops are doing,” he told Photography Is Not a Crime. “They want to say that not all cops are bad, but they are not speaking out against the bad cops.
“It just keeps getting worse, and people are getting tired of it. I just want some change to occur," he added.
Read more at Complex and Photography Is Not a Crime.