Shaun King
22 hrs ·
Infuriating.
Lee MerrittFollow
Yesterday at 6:45 PM
This is Mellisa Dent. She is a mother of two, a medical professional and the founder/president of Lunchbox of Love, a nonprofit that feeds and supplies the homeless.
She’s also the victim of police brutality.
Arlington Police officers conspired with reps from her apartment complex to punish her for winning a landlord tenant dispute.They fabricated a warrant for her arrest, accusing her of a violent crime committed by a Hispanic male in 2001. This man was convicted of the alleged crime in 2002. They went to her job at Methodist Dallas and arrested her in front of the staff and patients anyway. She was stripped, placed in an isolation cell and held for three days wearing nothing but a paper gown on a $15,000.00 bond. Her family paid the bond to secure her freedom. The case was presented to a Tarrant County Grand Jury and because she was neither Hispanic nor male nor associated with the crime for which she was accused in anyway the charges were thrown out. Humiliated; confused; dejected Ms. Dent was told to go on with her life. No harm. No foul.
What was done to Ms. Dent was not only offensive, it was illegal. It represented an extreme violation of her constitutional and human rights. It represents the kind of indignity African Americans face in Texas and all throughout the country at the hands of a corrupt and abusive criminal justice system.
Today we filed a federal civil rights suit against the Arlington PD officers, Methodist PD officers, her apartment complex and every entity involved in her unlawful arrest and detention.
This is not a high profile case. It won’t likely make the evening news but it is critically important, where we can, that we fight back. #itsonus
22 hrs ·
Infuriating.
Lee MerrittFollow
Yesterday at 6:45 PM
This is Mellisa Dent. She is a mother of two, a medical professional and the founder/president of Lunchbox of Love, a nonprofit that feeds and supplies the homeless.
She’s also the victim of police brutality.
Arlington Police officers conspired with reps from her apartment complex to punish her for winning a landlord tenant dispute.They fabricated a warrant for her arrest, accusing her of a violent crime committed by a Hispanic male in 2001. This man was convicted of the alleged crime in 2002. They went to her job at Methodist Dallas and arrested her in front of the staff and patients anyway. She was stripped, placed in an isolation cell and held for three days wearing nothing but a paper gown on a $15,000.00 bond. Her family paid the bond to secure her freedom. The case was presented to a Tarrant County Grand Jury and because she was neither Hispanic nor male nor associated with the crime for which she was accused in anyway the charges were thrown out. Humiliated; confused; dejected Ms. Dent was told to go on with her life. No harm. No foul.
What was done to Ms. Dent was not only offensive, it was illegal. It represented an extreme violation of her constitutional and human rights. It represents the kind of indignity African Americans face in Texas and all throughout the country at the hands of a corrupt and abusive criminal justice system.
Today we filed a federal civil rights suit against the Arlington PD officers, Methodist PD officers, her apartment complex and every entity involved in her unlawful arrest and detention.
This is not a high profile case. It won’t likely make the evening news but it is critically important, where we can, that we fight back. #itsonus