‘That’s No Lawful Order!’: Texas Deputies Attack and Handcuff Black Teens for Walking While Black—Their Only ‘Crime’ Was Knowing Their Rights
Acting above the law, a Texas sheriff’s deputy approached two Black teenagers walking on a public sidewalk through a residential neighborhood, ordering them to stop because he wanted to “talk” with them, claiming he was giving them a “lawful order to stop.”
But the young men knew their rights and continued walking away from him, telling him, “That’s no lawful order.”
Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Deputy Mason Koehler then walked up to them, grabbing a 17-year-old male by the arm and dragging him to the ground, where he sat on top of him and handcuffed him along with two other cops.
“I’m just trying to talk to you,” Koehler said as he was manhandling the teen. “If you would’ve listened to me.”
But Koehler never articulated whether he had any reasonable suspicion or probable cause the teens had committed a crime to justify the violent detainment. Despite how common it is, detaining people for walking while Black is not lawful.
“When a law enforcement officer gives you an order to do something, you have to do that,” Koehler told the teen after he had been handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car.
But that is false. Cops are not allowed to just walk up to people and bark orders and expect instant compliance. There needs to be a legal basis for the order despite Koehler’s belief that citizens must comply with any order or else face abuse and arrest.
Koehler also claimed in the video the teens were running away from him when the video shows they were walking away from him. He also claimed the teen he detained was “fighting” him when he was actually resisting an unlawful arrest without physical violence.
And Koehler also accused the teens of “reaching,” which is a common law enforcement excuse to justify abuse and even killing a citizen over an imaginary gun. However, the video does not appear to show the teens reaching for anything.
They just wanted nothing to do with Koehler, which did not deter him.
Watch the video below.
Reasonable Suspicion Defined
The Texas law firm, The Greening Law Group, describes what is considered reasonable suspicion under state law:
In order for a police officer to pull you over in Texas or detain you, there must first be a reasonable amount of suspicion to do so. Although law enforcement officials need to have reasonable suspicion to stop or detain you, they are not allowed to arrest you on reasonable suspicion alone.
For example, a police officer may observe you driving recklessly in and out of traffic and swerving. He now has a reasonable suspicion that you may, at the very least, be impaired. He can now legally pull you over. However, reasonable suspicion alone is not enough to arrest you for potentially driving under the influence. To facilitate an arrest, he must have what is known as “probable cause.”
In this case, the deputies never had a clear description of the actual suspects other than they were Black. And considering 20 percent of Fort Bend County’s population happens to be Black, according to the U.S. Census – which makes up more than 167,000 Black people – a wide range of people could match the description if it is just based on skin color.
The video shows Koehler’s plan was to detain them, then compare them to video footage they had of the actual suspects, which is not how it is supposed to work.
“So right now, we’re just going to review something real quick on our video footage. And if we can, if we determine that you guys aren’t involved, guess what, you’re free to go,” Koehler said.
“And it could’ve been way easier if y’all would’ve just stopped and listened to me. You realize that right?” Koehler lectured. “This became so much more difficult because y’all just didn’t stop and listen. If you weren’t doing anything wrong, what’s it matter? If you guys knew you were doing nothing wrong, what’s it matter if you guys stop and talk to me?”
Another deputy then tells Koehler that the actual suspect was described as having “colored dreds,” which was when Koehler walked back to the patrol car to look at the teen’s hair – which was not colored.
Koehler told the boy’s mother after she had arrived on the scene that they had “matched the description” of two Black men who had committed an armed robbery in the area – which was about a mile-and-a-half away, according to Justin Pulliam, who runs the YouTube police accountability channel The Corruption Report and also lives in Fort Bend County.
Social Media Backlash
Pulliam published a video criticizing the Fort Bend Sheriff’s Office for violating the constitutional rights of the two youths, which has been viewed more than 332,000 times in less than two weeks, generating more than 6,000 comments.
“The officer admits the Black teen he attacked ‘didn’t do anything’. That means the desire to speak to the teen was not based on any probable cause nor any reasonable suspicion,” wrote Krist Martin.
“That means the demand to speak was one of a consensual encounter wherein the teen had every right not to participate. This makes the entire arrest unlawful, and the actions of the officer criminal. Assault and Battery of a Minor, False Arrest, Excessive Force, Threats of Violence, Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law. These Sheriff Deputies are way out of control.”
Pulliam’s video also led to various complaints from citizens on the agency’s Facebook page on a post ironically dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where the sheriff’s office quoted him as saying: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
“What are you doing about Deputy Mason Koehler?” wrote Val Jester in one of the comments.
“He lied to his fellow deputies, lied to his sergeant and violated the constitutional rights of two Black men by instigating two illegal arrests.”
“Oh I forgot. You are going to investigate yourselves. Nothing wrong here. Move along. I hope deputy Koehler loses his qualified immunity. You want to honor Dr. King? Reign in Deputy Koehler.”
Another commenter, Michael Gallegos, responded by writing:
“Injustice everywhere just don’t be walking a mile away from a crime scene. These cops seem to ignore the law and the Constitution. Unbelievable law enforcement that’s completely out of control if you want to know what gang is out there in your community they’re driving around in police cars. All tatted up claiming to uphold the law ridiculous. I think they have a dream and that’s to arrest everybody. Innocent included they probably arrest their own grandmother.”
The teen’s aunt, Marie Hanks, then arrived on the scene demanding to know why the boys had been arrested, and Koehler tried to convince her he had reasonable suspicion for the apparently unconstitutional detainment. He also claimed the teen “tensed up” after he had grabbed him, which is more law enforcement lingo to justify abusing citizens.
When Hanks continued pressing the deputy for details, he told her he could not provide them because “you’re not directly involved.”
“Neither was he,” the aunt responded, reminding the deputy her nephew had nothing to do with the alleged crime and he had no reasonable suspicion to detain him in the first place.
The teens were released less than an hour after they had been detained, but the damage had already been done.
“Making the boys feel threatened in their own community and neighborhood is alarming,” Hanks told Fox 26. “Especially in this area that is so culturally diverse.”
It is not clear at this time if deputies ever arrested the original suspects.
In December, a Black college football player named Brayden Kizzee was detained at gunpoint in Fort Bend County by the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force because he ‘matched the description” of another Black man, forcing him to crawl 30 feet to their car before they removed his beanie and realized they had detained the wrong Black man.
The task force is run by the U.S. Marshals office but consists of officers and deputies from various agencies, including the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office.
“I really thought someone was trying to jack me for my car,” Kizzee said after the incident. “We look nothing alike … I don’t know how they could’ve gotten us mixed up.”