Excessive Force Allegations At Christian Heavy Metal Concert To Be Investigated

Patrick Sands of The Valley-Times News is reporting that the city of Lanett, Alabama has commissioned an independent external investigation into an incident at a Christian heavy metal concert on September 3 where two members of the Lanett Police Department allegedly used "extreme physical force" to arrest a young black male after shutting down the show. That external investigation should be completed in the near future.

The officers involved have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

An amateur videotape exists which depicts a portion of the incident. The city has requested a copy of this videotape from the owner, but has thus far been denied access. A copy of a portion of the videotape was, however, made available to local television stations. It would have been hoped that the city would have been afforded the same courtesy as the local media regarding information to assist in the investigation of the matter. Such has not yet been the case.

Joseph Holly of LaGrange attended the Sept. 3 concert and he understands police shutting the show down but doesn't understand the officers arresting people for "merely asking questions."

"The two police officers that arrived first came into the venue with a macho, I have power, attitude and began to treat the people at the venue like criminals," said Holly in a letter to The Valley-Times News.

Holly said that the evening clearly got out of hand when the two officers approached the young black male and "began to use extreme physical force to get him into a police car and to arrest him for nothing, for simply telling them that he couldn't leave at the moment because his mom was on her way to get him."

"At this point he was slammed into a telephone pole and the two officers began to drag him across the pavement while the boy was screaming and crying for someone to help him," he said.

"The term 'serve and protect' was clearly out of the picture here," said Holly. "If this is the kind of police justice that the City of Lanett delivers, then I'll clearly never step foot there again. I can't believe this kind of action is allowed."

For more information on this incident, read these Valley Times-News articles from writer Patrick Sands: Story#1, Story#2, Story#3.