Plaintiff:
Lynell Mitchell
Incident date:
05/22/2012
Location:
7000 S. Sangamon St.
Allegations:
Mitchell, a 34-year-old African-American male and youth activist, was at home watching television when he heard a disturbance near his home. He went to his front porch to see what was happening. Mitchell saw three men running away from police officers. Two of the men were on the opposite side of the street from Mitchell's house. The third man was on the same side of the street as Mitchell. As the officers chased him, he asked Mitchell to videotape what was happening. Mitchell did not have any electronic equipment with him, and he did not intend to videotape anything, so he ignored the request and remained on his porch. One of the officers running after the man told Mitchell to get inside his house. When Mitchell asked why, the officer ran onto Mitchell's porch and dragged him off the porch. Other officers arrived and then handcuffed Mitchell and took him to the police station. At the station, the officers told Mitchell they were required to charge him with something because they had arrested him, but they would makes sure the charges were dismissed. He was charged with obstructing a peace officer. The officers wrote false reports to support the charge, which was later dismissed.