Last week, a number of police officers in Atlanta gained national attention after a video surfaced showing them man-handling two college students. Messiah Young, 22, was behind the wheel of a vehicle with Teniyah Pilgrim, 20, sitting the passenger seat. They were reportedly out past the allocated city-wide curfew, and in the video, cops can be seen surrounding the car, breaking the driver's side window, tasing both students, and using what some consider to be unnecessary excessive force. Young also claimed he was punched as much as 10 times during the incident and Pilgrim can be heard screaming in the clip.
Later, six officers were charged with aggravated assault, and it's being reported the two of the cops who were fired from the force due to the incident, Ivory Streeter and Mark Gardner, have filed lawsuits. CBS News reports that the lawsuit states the officers "were involved in a use of force incident that arose within the scope and course of their duties." The officers also accused the City of Atlanta of "failure of due process" before firing them from their positions.
"Way too quick they had no due process," said Vince Champion, southeast director of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers. "Knee-jerk-reaction that the mayor and the chief made for their own political reasons."
College Students Attacked & Arrested By ATL Police Speak Out
Messiah Young and Taniyah Pilgrim were recently captured being assaulted by Atlanta police officers, six of whom were recently arrested and charged.
Six police officers in Atlanta were arrested today (June 2) after a disturbing video circulated showing them assaulting two college students. On Saturday (May 30), 22-year-old Messiah Young and 20-year-old Taniyah Pilgrim were in a car stuck in traffic on an Atlanta street when police began knocking on their window. Soon they were surrounded by a number of officers as one took a baton to break the driver's side window. They were pulled from the vehicle, tased, assaulted, and arrested.
In a press conference, both college students spoke about their recent harrowing incident after it was announced that six officers involved had been arrested and charged. "He did the worse thing," Pilgrim said about one of the officers. "Walking me and Messiah off he said that he was going to shoot us. This is stuff that shouldn't be said after all the trauma."
"I'm very shaken up, I don't know how to act or what to do," she added. "I just can't stop thinking about if cameras weren't there or if they would have went a little bit further - I can't stop thinking about what could have happened." Messiah said, "This isn't just about me, this isn't just about us. This is an entire generation that has to deal with brutality and injustice and wrong-doing for nothing because of the color of their skin or simply because what they prefer." Watch below.
