“If Ocean City doesn’t want the money of young Black men, and they want to spend their time attacking them, using MMA moves on them when they’re on the ground, handcuffed, then maybe we shouldn’t spend our money in Ocean City.”
Willie Flowers, the president of the Maryland State Conference of the NAACP
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND (16 JUNE 2021) Read the full article NAACP leader calls for economic boycott of Ocean City after arrest video
The beginning of the video, which you can watch below, shows three officers trying to restrain one of the men, since identified as 19-year-old Brian Anderson. At one point, one of the officers knees Anderson in the side multiple times.
A second video shared on the same social media post, which you can also see below, shows a fight between the officers and another man. During that fight, one of the officers uses their stun gun on the man.
Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan: “I think the video depicts a very unfortunate incident,” he said. “One which could easily have been avoided with a little compliance.”
Meehan said the men “mocked the officers, they resisted arrest, and that’s what led to the altercation you witnessed on the video…there’s a lot more to this.”
The men were not arrested for vaping, Meehan explained, even though that’s what the initial contact with police was about. “We’re trying to keep the boardwalk as a safe, clean, environmentally safe place for all visitors,” he said.
The NAACP already demanded in a statement Monday that the officers involved in that arrest be removed from their posts and that a thorough investigation be conducted.
“This incident along with other videos show a consistent pattern of assaults on African Americans and sends a message that African American tourist dollars are either not respected or wanted,” the statement said.
