GhLinks Media
Few months ago, Pastor Michael Jennings was arrested while watering a neighbor’s flowers in his neighborhood in Childersburg, Alabama, after police received a complaint about a strange man and vehicle on the property.
Pastor Michael Jennings, who was seen in a video watering the flowers with a hose, told police his long-term neighbor asked him to look after his shrubbery while he was out of town.
But despite his good neighborly intentions and other residents vouching for him, Jennings was taken to jail and later charged with obstruction of government operation.
After insisting that he was just calmly gardening in the front yard, police asked Jennings: ‘How do we know that’s the truth?’
The baffled pastor, who lives in the house across the street, responded: ‘I had the water hose in my hand! I was watering the flowers.’
Body camera footage showed three officers from Childersburg Police Department screaming at Jennings as he refused to provide identification – before he was ushered away in handcuffs.
The lawsuit
According to dailymail.co.uk, Pastor Michael Jennings is set to file a discrimination lawsuit against the police after he was handcuffed for watering his neighbor’s flowers while they were out of town – despite a white woman stepping in and coming to his defense.
Following the ordeal, Jennings said that the ’emotional toll’ will take him some time to recover from.
Jennings’ attorney, Harry Daniels told WBRC: ‘These cases put law enforcement on notice and the country on notice that these types of interactions – thank God that Pastor Jennings had a cool head.
‘He didn’t get aggressive or defensive in a sense, and he complied when the officers grabbed him.’
When police asked Jennings to prove his identity, he refused since he knew – having a background in law enforcement – that he was not obliged to because he was not committing a crime.
Daniels claims that the video clearly showed police denying Jennings his rights.
The attorney added: ‘It represents an abuse of police powers.
‘It represents racial profiling and it represents law-enforcement officers intimidating a person who actually understands and knows their rights.’
