A pair of black men crossed the street in Florida and before they knew it, three cop cars had arrived on the scene.
“We crossed the street, that’s all we did,” Devonte Shipman says in a video of an exchange between himself and Officer J.S. Bolen.
Shipman’s recording of the incident, which he shared on Facebook last week, starts off with him asking the officer what he and his friend did wrong. Bolen explains to them they crossed against the cross signal — a $65 fine in Florida, the officer says before sternly ordering the two men over to his police cruiser.
Shipman refuses at first, but Bolen responds by threatening him with jail time.
As they make their way over to Bolen’s car, Shipman reveals that he doesn’t have identification on him, though willingly spells out his first and last name for the officer.
“That’s another infraction. In the state of Florida, you have to have an ID card on you identifying who you are or I can detain you for seven hours until I figure out who you are,” Bolen can be heard saying in the 3-minute recording.
By the clip’s end, Shipman and his pal were surrounded by three police cruisers all because they jay-walked.
Bolen cited Shipman, 21, twice for failing to obey a walk signal and not having license, the Florida Times-Union reported. Each comes with a fine of $62.50 and $136, respectively. His friend was detained, but did not receive a ticket or fine.
According to one of Bolen’s citations, Shipman violated Florida Statute 322.15, which requires all drivers to present a valid license should law enforcement request it — but Shipman wasn’t driving, he was just walking across the street.
Jacksonville constitutional rights lawyer Eric Friday told First Coast News that the officer’s statements were “blatantly false.”
“There is no requirement in Florida law for anybody to have an identification card on their person unless they are doing certain activities such as operating a motor vehicle,” Friday said, noting if Shipman did cross against the pedestrian signal, he did break the law on that count.
The sheriff’s office told the Times-Union they were reviewing the recording of the encounter, which has since been viewed on Facebook nearly 500,000 times. The Jacksonville police station also said Bolen was not under investigation for the exchange.
