A retired Nassau County, New York, corrections officer claims he was beaten and manhandled by police in a wrongful arrest on Nov. 30.
On that Wednesday, Ronald Lanier was shopping at a Western Beef Supermarket when he was racially profiled and arrested by three white Garden City Police officers for fitting the description of an alleged shoplifting suspect.
“I’ve never been cursed, physically abused, beaten and treated like a slave as I was two days ago,” Lanier says as he breaks down. “For somebody to grab me by the neck in the supermarket, and I’m telling you, ‘I’m one of you,’ and you disrespect it — it was like you’re just another Black dude.”
According to CBS New York, he worked as a corrections officer for two decades before retiring and he relayed that information and complied with officers. However, they did not care.
But to make matters worse, Lanier was loaded into the back of a squad car for 20 minutes and wasn’t released until Garden City Police located the real suspect shortly thereafter and apprehended him on the roof of the supermarket.
But according to the retired officer, Lanier was released without an apology for his trouble.
“I’m tired of hearing officers constantly talking about we have to retrain. We don’t have to retrain, we got to let them be held accountable for their actions,” Lanier tells the media. “Imagine if I had my gun at that time. It could have went either way.”
Now, Lanier and his attorney, Fred Brewington, are taking legal action against the Garden City Police Department. Lanier will sue the department because he believes the officers violated his civil rights.
As of this report, the Garden City Police Department has not commented on the incident. However, they did reveal to CBS New York that real suspect abandoned a getaway car and went inside of the supermarket.
Newsday reported that 150 protesters took to the streets Dec. 4 to support Lanier.
Additionally, the store’s interior surveillance footage has not been made public since Lanier recounted his side of the incident.
