‘Can I Have It Please?’: Phoenix Police Agitated By Black Man Asking for Their Badge Numbers After Handcuffing Him for Crossing the Street Retaliates Against Him on Camera. Lawsuit Filed
Phoenix police did not appreciate a Black man questioning their authority as to why they had handcuffed him for simply crossing a street to catch a bus – especially considering they had already removed the handcuffs and told him he was free to go.
But William Kitchen knew he had committed no crime, so he asked the arresting officers exactly what law he had broken to have been handcuffed in the first place.
He also mentioned he needed the information to pass along to attorneys, suggesting he may file a lawsuit over what he believed was an unlawful detainment. And he asked for names and badge numbers.
That is when the cops decided to re-arrest him, placing him in handcuffs and transporting him to jail where he spent the night on a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a thoroughfare.
Kitchen has since filed a lawsuit, accusing the Phoenix Police Department of violating his First, Fourth and 14th Amendment rights as well as malicious prosecution, negligence, intentional inflection of emotional distress and aiding and abetting with each other to arrest him in retaliation for questing their authority.
“This case involves an African-American male who was arrested, cited under false pretenses, and then unreasonably handcuffed and taken to jail for the night for engaging respectfully in protected activity with the police officers on scene,” states the lawsuit filed by attorney Joshua W. Carden of the Carden Livesay law firm.
Listed in the lawsuit as defendants are Phoenix police officers Michael Meelhuysen, Michael Sullivan, Erick Selvius and Rene Beltran, along with the city of Phoenix.
Watch the body camera footage, below which has been purposely blurred by police, according to ABC News.
The Arrest
Phoenix police claim they were conducting an “intensive” operation on Feb. 6, 2024, in west Phoenix, surveilling another Black man sitting at the bus stop who appeared to be intoxicated, according to the claim.
Kitchen, meanwhile, was walking across 83rd Avenue near the intersection of Camelback Road to reach the same bus stop in order to catch a bus.
The lawsuit states that Kitchen had the right-of-way but Phoenix police claim in their report that “a vehicle driving northbound in the westbound turn lane honked the horn to alert traffic and to attempt to get Kitchen out of the roadway.”
But what police failed to mention in their report was that the vehicle that honked the horn was being driven by same cops in plainclothes who ended up arresting him.
Once Kitchen had crossed the street, the cops confronted him and arrested him and seizing his phone, accusing him of being associated with the other Black man who was intoxicated, suggesting he may have been the one to have called them in the first place.
Kitchen denied the allegations, telling the cops he was only there to catch the bus.
Once Kitchen was handcuffed, the cops turned their attention to the other Black man who they mockingly called “James Brown” because they believed he looked like the famous singer known as the “Godfather of Soul.”
“We finally got him,” one cops boasted even though it is not clear if that man had committed any other crime aside from being intoxicated.
The cops then decided to remove the handcuffs from Kitchen, apparently realizing he had nothing to do with the other Black man.
The Retaliation
Once the handcuffs were off, Kitchen asked the cops for the citation of the statute he was accused of violating as well as for their names and badge numbers.
He also told the cops he subscribed to Legal Shield, a pre-paid legal service, and wanted to share the information with the lawyers.
The conversation with Meelhuysen went as follows, according to the blurry body camera footage.
KITCHEN: What was the ARS code that you said I violated?
MEELHUYSEN: Arizona Revised Statute 13-2906A.
KITCHEN: Arizona Revised Statute 13-0926?
MEELHUYSEN: Close enough.
KITCHEN: What was it? I want to have my attorney look at it. I have Legal Shield…I just want to let know to have them look at the statute. What was the statute?
MEELHUYSEN: I just told you.
KITCHEN: Do you have your name and badge number? Can I have it please?
MEELHUYSEN: Renee [another officer], Renee. Put him back in cuffs. We’re booking him. He’s getting booked for obstructing a thoroughfare.
KITCHEN: For saying I’m going to have my attorney look at it?
MEELHUYSEN: No. Just to show you it’s a legitimate code. Seems like your incredulous about the code, sir. You’ll get educated when you have your initial appearance with the judge.
KITCHEN: It’s freedom of speech. I’m allowed to ask what I’m —
MEELHUYSEN: Yes. Freedom of speech. You’re right.
The statute that Kitchen was accused of violating states the following:
“A. A person commits obstructing a highway or other public thoroughfare if the person, alone or with other persons, does any of the following: 1. Having no legal privilege to do so, recklessly interferes with the passage of any highway or public thoroughfare by creating an unreasonable inconvenience or hazard.”
The lawsuit also states that the charge was eventually dismissed after Kitchen hired an attorney because he had crossed the street in a legal manner.
Pattern of Abuse
The claim also states that not only has Meelhuysen been sued in the past over similar allegations. It also points out the entire Phoenix Police Department has been accused by the United States Department of Justice of committing a pattern of similar abuses against homeless citizens and minorities.
The 126-page report published by the U.S. Department of Justice on June 13, 2024, summarized its findings by highlighting the following:
The Department of Justice has reasonable cause to believe that the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives people of their rights under the Constitution and federal law:
- PhxPD uses excessive force, including unjustified deadly force and other types of force.
- PhxPD and the City unlawfully detain, cite, and arrest people experiencing homelessness and unlawfully dispose of their belongings.
- PhxPD discriminates against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when enforcing the law.
- PhxPD violates the rights of people engaged in protected speech and expression.
- PhxPD and the City discriminate against people with behavioral health disabilities when dispatching calls for assistance and responding to people in crisis.
“Interim Chief Sullivan has failed to correct the pattern and practice of these violations, which directly contributed to Mr. Kitchen’s harm,” the lawsuit states.
The U.S. Department of Justice report also accuses the department’s leadership of turning a blind eye to the abuse against minorities and people with mental health issues:
“PhxPD relies on dangerous tactics that lead to force that is unnecessary and unreasonable. PhxPD has taught officers a misguided notion of de-escalation. Rather than teaching that de-escalation strategies are designed to eliminate or reduce the need to use force, PhxPD has misappropriated the concept and teaches officers that all force—even deadly force—is de-escalation. According to one police official, this distorted view of de-escalation is ‘ingrained in the vernacular of the department.’”
“The harm caused by unconstitutional policing is not spread evenly across the City’s population. PhxPD targets people experiencing homelessness, retaliates against people who criticize the police, and disproportionately uses force against people with behavioral health disabilities.”
“Officers enforce certain laws, including drug and low-level offenses, more severely against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people than against white people engaged in the same behaviors. And despite these disparate outcomes and longstanding community complaints, the City still claims it is ‘unaware of any credible evidence of discriminatory policing.’”
The unconstitutional practices of the Phoenix Police Department have been documented several times over the years at Atlanta Black Star, including beating a Black man after responding to a call of a white man creating a disturbance, stealing $40,000 from a Black man who had saved the money to buy a truck, and violently confronting a Black family after their 4-year-old daughter inadvertently walked out a Family Dollar store with a doll, which resulted in a $475,000 settlement.
Kitchen told ABC News he was “pro-police” but says the group of cops who arrested him need to be held accountable for their lies.
“I’ve always been pro-police,” he told ABC News. “You know officers put on their uniforms, and they are doing this to serve their community, you know, integrity, honor, respect.”
“These officers chose to escalate it through their actions, and I feel like I’m obligated as someone who went through that to hold them accountable.”