Displaying an arrogant amount of blue privilege, a group of North Carolina cops entered the lot of a Black-owned towing company in Greensboro on Sunday to seize a car that had been towed for parking illegally at an apartment complex in an attempt to help the car’s owner, who apparently was a friend or relative.
The Greensboro police officers accused the owners of Casey’s Towing of stealing the car from High Point, a city less than 20 miles from Greensboro, claiming the signs warning drivers their car could be towed had been improperly placed — which appears to have been a lie.
And even if it were true, it would have been more of a civil matter anyway, resolved through attorneys and mediators rather than a criminal matter requiring eight armed cops threatening to arrest a tow truck driver for doing his job.
If anything, it was the cops trying to steal the car from the towing lot without paying the required impound fees rather than the other way around. Such a privilege is never extended to the majority of people who have had their cars towed for parking illegally.
It was only when the cops spoke to the city attorney, who told them they had no legal right to seize the car, that they acknowledged they were in the wrong.
“Obviously, attorneys have way more knowledge than police officers do,” explained a police captain towards the end of the video recorded by an employee of the towing company in what was probably the most honest statement expressed by any of the cops that day.
Watch the video below.
‘Intimidation Factor’
Anthony Broadway, the owner of Casey’s Towing, which has been in operation since 1986, told local media he felt disrespected and his employees were left traumatized at the thought of going to jail for doing their job.
”The intimidation factor was crazy because it was more like look, you know, we’re here to take this vehicle, you’ve done wrong, it’s no questions asked, no nothing, like it was a very stressful situation for my driver,” Broadway said to WFMY-TV.
“If the city attorney didn’t get involved, someone was probably going to jail that day, which is very unfortunate,” Broadway added.
Greensboro police issued a statement on its Facebook page, informing citizens that the officers involved would be investigated by the department’s Professional Standards Division, aka internal affairs.
The owner of the towed car, a woman who was sitting in the passenger’s seat of one of the patrol cars, was accused by employees of the tow company of being married to a cop.
However, Greensboro police said in its statement that “social media posts alleging that the vehicle owner is married to a GPD officer are incorrect.”
But that could mean the woman was married to a High Point police officer, the agency that got Greensboro police involved. Or it could mean she was a friend or relative of a police officer.
The video begins with the Greensboro cops already inside the towing lot, accusing employees of “kidnapping” them because employees tried to shut the gate to the lot, preventing them from driving off with the car.
“We’re not kidnapping,” said the Black man recording the confrontation. “One, you’re not even supposed to be on our property, so how are we kidnapping you all?”
Meanwhile, a cop enters the car in question, sits in the driver’s seat, starts the car with the ignition key, and drives it through the open gate.
However, a Black woman working for the towing company stands in front of the car, preventing the cop from driving off, saying she will only move if a sergeant arrives on the scene.
The cops kept claiming the car was stolen, basing their information from what they were told by High Point police.
But the video shows that they were mainly interested in taking the car and not making any arrests, which is usually the first step police take when confronting people suspected of stealing cars.
Meanwhile, a Greensboro police captain arrives and tries to justify their behavior to the Black woman who was blocking the car from leaving.
“High Point PD said they went over there and they looked for where the sign was supposed to be, signs are not where they’re supposed to be by statute,” he explains. “They’re supposed to be posted at every entrance.”
But the Black woman responds by saying she had an employee check out the lot in question, who informed her the signs were in their proper place.
She was also on the phone with Broadway, the owner, who said the cops needed a search warrant to take the car, which they did not have.
“In order to take it out of a lot if they’re not going to pay, they’re got to have a search warrant,” he said. “I’m not releasing that car, I refuse to release the car, they need to put that car back in the lot.”
But the captain insisted he was right.
“The thing about it is, from everything we’ve been told by the people who know, is that technically the car is stolen because the signage was not in its proper place,” he claimed.
But the captain also admitted Greensboro police were acting solely on the word of High Point police and had not driven to the apartment complex to investigate for themselves whether the signs were there or not.
However, the captain finally got word from the city attorney, who told them to leave the car there. And the owner of the car, whose name has not been made public, had to pay the proper fee to obtain her car.
“I support the law enforcement for what they do, but I think that it should never be a situation where … anybody that’s at work should feel threatened and intimidated by the police when they’re just doing their job,” Broadway told local media.
Watch the full-length 30-minute video here, posted on the Casey Towing YouTube page.
