Updated as of 3/12/24 at 11:30 a.m. ET
Andalusia Officer Grant Barton has been disciplined after being caught on video, rough housing a Black woman into handcuffs because she legally and rightfully refused to show her ID.
In a statement, Andalusia Mayor Earl Johnson condemned the arrest of Twyla Stallworth and stated the police department has since ordered Barton to complete “additional training.” What that entails the cops didn’t say.
Stallworth was charged with obstruction of governmental operations and attempt to elude police after refusing to provide identification after making a noise complaint against her white neighbor. Thanks to her son catching the ordeal on camera, she’s free of charge.
“All charges against Ms. Stallworth are being dropped. The arresting officer has a clean record with our department, but he made a mistake. He has been disciplined for failing in his duty to know the law,” said Johnson.
Despite the Stallworth’s claim that things only escalated after she accused the officer of racial bias, the mayor said the city found no evidence of discrimination.
Barton hasn’t been suspended but was given a reprimand, per NBC News. Any other components of his discipline have not been disclosed by the department.
What Happened?
A Black Alabama woman claims while trying to report her white neighbor for a noise complaint, she was placed in handcuffs which proved her argument at that moment: the police don’t treat Black folks how they treat white folks.
Twyla Stallworth recorded the encounter she had on Feb 23. with the Andalusia police after allegedly making multiple complaints about her white neighbor who she claims was blasting music. Stallworth says her complaints went ignored so she decided to get the neighbor’s attention herself by setting off her car alarm. Per Stallworth’s account, the neighbor then had the nerve to make a counter complaint about her car alarm.
That’s when the cops showed up, she says.
Once Officer Grant Barton walked up on Stallworth’s front steps, everything escalated.
Just watch:
Stallworth’s son recorded the encounter, capturing the office ask for her identification. She refused and accused the cop of not asking the neighbor for their identification because they were white. In the state of Alabama, residents are not entitled to show identification unless in a public place. He then asked her to put her hands behind her back and shoved her son out of the way, barging his way inside the home. Stallworth refused again demanding to know why the officer wanted it and then orders her son to call his father.
Barton made an attempt to physically place Stallworth’s arms behind her back and upon her resistance, pushed her on the couch.
“No! No! Mom, it’s okay. It’s okay!” her son says in a heartbreaking, frightened voice behind the camera. As Barton allows Stallworth to stand back up and escorts her outside, her son calmly asks the officer why she’s being arrested. Barton responded she’s going to jail for “failure to identify.”
Well, that answer wasn’t good enough for Stallworth nor her newly appointed civil rights attorney.
“Nevermind that Officer Barton needlessly escalated the situation, forcefully entered Ms. Stallworth’s home and physically assaulted her over a noise complaint. Nevermind that he arrested her for exercising her constitutional rights and nevermind that he misquoted a law that doesn’t require a woman in her own home to present an ID,” said attorney Harry Daniels. “He was leaving. He was walking back to his car ready to drive away right up until she called out his racism.”