From [HERE] Daniel Jarrells said he was driving to his mother’s house when he was pulled over by an unmarked police car in February 2019.

Jarrells, a Black man who lives in Anne Arundel County, was thrown into the street and video taken by his mother’s neighbor shows him under Anne Arundel County Police Officer Daniel Reynolds’ knee on a cold day in February of 2019. The other two police officers present during this incident were Joshua Shapiro and Brian Ranck.

It is important to note that this case started with a traffic stop that Jarrells alleges did not have probable cause and that he might also assert quickly escalated to a felony stop when Officer Reynolds brandished his gun at Jarrells’ head. During this incident, Reynolds’ also threatened Jarrells with a taser. Jarrells is suing the Anne Arundel County Police Department and three detectives. [MORE]

The Capital Gazette editorial board commented that; '‘What should not be missed is that by peeling back the layers of alleged corruption or dishonesty within Anne Arundel County law enforcement, one can quickly see how the “system” bends over backward to support police officers even when they reportedly violate the law and/or departmental policy and procedure resulting in the dehumanization of the Black and brown members of our community.

The corruption can be seen by the existence of two reports of this incident. One report was completed contemporaneous to the incident and then another one was generated two months later with further rationalizations of why the police officers behaved so egregiously. The second report surfaced after the video taken by a bystander was released and that many believe clearly demonstrated that the police officers lied about the incident. The State’s Attorney’s Office dropped all the charges against Jarrells.”

The video of this incident helped community advocates argue for support of body cameras, which is in the process of being implemented across the county police department.’

Officer Reynolds opted for a police trial board to decide his fate rather than accept his termination. The problem is the lack of transparency in the trial board process. Police Chief Amad Awad (a probotic, Black strawboss) decided not to livestream the trial board. Anyone interested in watching the trial board may go to the western, southern or eastern district police stations, the Anne Arundel County Henry L. Hein Building or Heritage Complex Chesapeake Room on Wednesday, July 14, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Capital Gazette editrial board stated “[It] has over 50 years of combined experience in law enforcement and believe that the Jarrells case raises many unanswered questions:

1. Why have the other two police officers, Shapiro and Ranck, not been recommended for termination?

2. Why did police command sanction two police reports for the same incident? This is counter to accepted police practice and raises Brady/Giglio integrity violations because of the untruths in these reports. And,

3. Why hasn’t the supervisory staff been disciplined for allowing and approving what appear to be untruthful police reports?