‘I’m Going to… Him Anyway I Can’: Mississippi Cop Vows to Exact Revenge on Black Man for Mouthing Off During Minor Traffic Stop, Video Shows
In a video that has gone viral, Fredrick Gaddis, a 39-year-old Black man from Mississippi, was pulled over for an expired license plate in March and arrested for being “verbally aggressive” towards the cop.
But the video shows Gaddis was doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights against Ridgeland police officer Kyle Boyd.
Boyd responded by telling him, “You’re about to talk yourself into jail” before fulfilling his promise.
In a telephone interview with Atlanta Black Star, Gaddis explained that his outspoken demeanor that day was a result of having been falsely arrested by the same agency on at least three prior occasions on a nonexistent warrant.
“I still don’t know what the warrant is for,” Gaddis said. “I think it’s contempt of court or something like that. But, you know, I’ve actually been jailed on that warrant three times. I think it might be four.”
Gaddis said he has filed public records request with the Ridgeland Police Department to see the actual warrant but they have not fulfilled his request. He believes it may stem from him having a suspended license a few years back which he has long resolved but he is not certain.
He said the Ridgeland Police Department eventually removed the warrant from their system after realizing it was not valid but those prior experiences is what led to his frustration during his latest traffic stop.
“I may appear what they’re trying to say is uncooperative, but I’m just simply exercising my rights this time because I feel I’m going to go to jail anyway,” he said.
Gaddis said he was charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of a firearm while in possession of a controlled substance, expired tag, and no proof of insurance.
The alleged marijuana was found after they had decided to arrest him for speaking his mind, which made the cops happy. His trial was scheduled for Tuesday, but it was rescheduled for next month to allow police to confirm it was marijuana they found in the car.
“I do not know what the substance actually is,” he explained. “That’s what’s actually delaying the trial. It’s been sent to the crime lab.”
Prior Arrests
It all started about five years ago when Ridgeland police responded to a noise complaint from a neighbor stemming from a get-together he was having with friends in his apartment.
“We was just simply over there eating pizza and wings, watching a football game, and we may have gotten too loud,” he said.
He explained that when two Ridgeland police officers knocked on his door, one of his friends opened the door and the cops walked in uninvited without a warrant.
“I look up and I see two Ridgeland police officers in my house and I’m like ‘holy smokes ‘what are you doing in here, man?’”
The cops told him his friend had allowed them inside, but he told them his friend did not live there and did not have the authority to allow them inside. He said he ordered them to leave his apartment, but they assaulted and arrested him instead.
“Things escalated from there because they refused to leave, and I went to jail for a warrant that day,” he said, adding that he was also charged with resisting arrest and other similar charges.
He said he tried to file a complaint against the officers at the police station after he was released from jail, accusing them of assaulting them, which he said they found funny. But they told him they would drop the charges if he dropped the complaint. He agreed to do it.
But he still had to pay a fine for the nonexistent warrant, which he believes the cops may have deliberately kept active to retaliate against him for daring to complain about them.
“And maybe that might be what triggered this warrant, where it wouldn’t disappear,” he said, explaining that the local cops have a long history of profiling and retaliating against Black citizens.
In fact, the ACLU in 2019 filed a lawsuit against the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, which patrols the county he lives in, for conducting illegal pedestrian and vehicle checkpoints in Black neighborhoods.
Many times, the Ridgeland Police Department would join them in these checkpoints which resulted in him getting arrested again for the nonexistent warrant.
“They can’t even patrol or set up roadblocks in minority populations anymore because a federal judge literally said that the statistics show that they’re targeting blacks and Hispanics,” he explained.
And he has been arrested a couple more times on the warrant within the last two years prior to March’s traffic stop that went viral, pulled over for minor traffic stops, then jailed on the warrant without ever being told the details of the warrant.
The last time he was jailed for the warrant after being pulled over after midnight for dark tints — which the officer determined were not illegal after using a tint meter — he overheard police at the jail acknowledging there is no warrant.
“I’m hearing him on the phone and he’s like, ‘I don’t see a physical warrant for Mr. Gaddis, we have him in booking on a warrant and we don’t have the warrant, what should I do?’” he said.
“I believe it resulted in a supervisor being woken up and somebody got a memo to go and physically remove this warrant from the system so it doesn’t keep reactivating on me.”
But those experiences made him determined to stand up for his rights when confronted by police.
“I didn’t take things as seriously as I do now, so that’s why I’m really assertive now, because if you let Ridgeland PD slip, then they’re going to continue to do it. It’s a systematic problem with this department.”
Recent Arrest
It was all those prior arrests for the nonexistent warrant that led to his recent confrontation with Boyd, the Ridgeland police officer who pulled over for an expired license plate on March 16.
The video that was obtained by an attorney and published online is edited with some parts removed, including the portion where they removed his legally owned firearms from his pocket and from inside his car.
The video shows Boyd ordering him to roll down his rear window several times but Gaddis ignores his request. Boyd then orders him to step out of his car which he does immediately but then recognizes Boyd from a previous traffic stop.
“Is there something back there you’re trying to hide?” Boyd asks.
“Nothing, you can search, I’ll help you,” Gaddis responds.
“I don’t want to search your car,” Body says.
“As a matter of fact, I don’t consent to any search or seizures,” Gaddis says.
“I’m not trying to search your car,” the cop responds.
“Ok, then do your job … if you’re going to write me a ticket —” Gaddis says before Boyd cuts him off.
“Shut up,” the cop responds.
“Stop being unprofessional and telling people to shut up,” Gaddis says. “You’re supposed to de-escalate the situation. Stop telling me to shut up. That is rude. I’m here to comply with whatever you want me to do.”
“You’re about to talk yourself into jail,” Boyd threatens.
“For what?” Gaddis asks.
“Because you’re being aggressive,” Boyd says.
Boyd explains the reason for the stop, and Gaddis pulls out a license plate from the car that is not expired, that he had not yet placed on the car, telling the cop he plans to install it that day.
Another cop pulls up, and Boyd informs him that Gaddis is being “verbally aggressive,” which Gaddis denies. However, he continues talking to the cops about his right to free speech, which annoys the second cop.
“If he wants to be an asshole, lock his ass up,” the second cop tells Boyd.
Then, after they handcuff him and begin searching his car, the second cop complains to Boyd that Gaddis was being disrespectful to him by interrupting him.
“He’s going to learn, dude, you don’t treat police like that,” the second cop says.
“I was trying to tell him his tint was legal, but he wouldn’t shut his mouth.”
Boyd then indicates he found weed inside the car, which makes the second cop happy.
“You found some dope? Another charge,” he chuckles.
After he is taken to jail, Boyd complains to another cop about Gaddis.
“I’m going to talk to sarge about him. I might hit him with resisting,” Boyd says, even though the video shows Gaddis never resisted once he was told to place his hands behind his back.
“I’m going to f_ck him anyway I can.”
Gaddis, who spent eight years in the army, said he “could have went about things slightly different, even though everything I did was within my right to do so.”
“I come from a family of law enforcement, so I’m not anti-law enforcement,” he said. “I’m anti-law enforcement that is willing to just ball the Constitution up and throw it in the trash.”
Atlanta Black Star contacted the Ridgeland Police Department asking for the full video and they said they would send it but it has not been received at this time.
However, Ridgeland Police Chief Brian Myers told WDAM that he plans to discipline the officers for their unprofessionalism.
“There has been a video that has come to light that was highly edited and also clipped and taken out of… some of it was switched around. Regardless, there were statements made by law enforcement that should not have been made,” Chief Myers said.
“There will be action in regard to our officers. As I said here at the beginning of this, we police our own. We make sure that everyone is behaving and acting professionally.”
Watch the video below.