Policeman Pepper Sprays, Arrests Black Teenage Wendy's Waitress for Refusing to Give Extra Change

This video is infuriating. Here's a transcript I've made of the voice-over of the above video, in which a white police officer insists (incorrectly) that he has been short-changed at Wendy's, and then he maces and arrests a 17-year old Black waitress, even after the restaurant manager has proved to the police officer that he has received correct change:

Dayton, Ohio. Seventeen year-old Brandy Martin’s working the drive through. Working for minimum wage is bad enough, but it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

She takes an order for three dollars and sixty-four cents. It’s for a cop, Michael McDonald. He pays her and she gives him his change. Seems routine, right? Wrooong!

After McDonald pulls out, he thinks she short-changed him. He’s sure he gave her a twenty, but he only got change for a ten.

Brandy’s manager checks the cash register while the cop waits. The manager tells the cop, “Randy don’t got no twenties.” ( . . .) But, the cop’s still thinking she’s holding out on him.

Ut oh! Five-O in the house! And he wants his two-all! [Is this really funny to be joking about it?]

The cop pepper sprays her full in the face. Listen close! You can hear Brandy wheezing and trying to breathe. They can’t take her to the police station, ‘cause now she has to go to the hospital.

Let’s go back before all hell breaks loose. The cop pays Brandy. Freeze and zoom in! This spot’s for ones. This one’s for fives, this one’s for tens, and THIS one’s for twenties. It looks to us like Brandy puts the change in the ten-dollar slot. The manager checks the drawer. He don’t see no twenties neither. The tape don’t lie! Brandy is right and the cop is wrong.

Brandy files a case against the police department. The officer is cleared of all wrong-doing, but Brandy gets sixty-thousand bucks! It’s another special day in Dayton, Ohio.

I Googled this case and determined that the police officer in question was later fired from the force, because the video proved that his behavior was outrageous and intolerable:

DAYTON, Ohio -- The police chief on Friday fired a patrolman who arrested a fast-food restaurant worker, then doused her with pepper spray in a dispute over payment for his food.

Police Chief Ronald Lowe said Officer Michael McDonald's conduct violated the community's trust. Inquirer.Com

The EnMasse blog says:

While this particular incident occurred 9 years ago, IMO it's a good illustration of why so many [people of color] (and poor whites as well) distrust police. What makes this tape so different from many of the other tapes showing even worse brutality (too many to list) is that in this one, we know for sure the girl is completely innocent (mouthing off is not a crime) while the cop was clearly in the wrong. In most of the other tapes, we only see the brutality, not whether the suspect in question actually committed what he/she was accused of. EnMasse blog

Would the police officer have been fired and would Brandy have received any compensation in the absence of the videotape, and perhaps the testimony of her white co-workers? I doubt it!

And so begin the efforts of this Police Brutality Blog, to post reports and documentation of police brutality from the United States and other countries, to build a resistance movement so that Blacks and other human beings can work and live without living in fear of police brutality.