Darien Lamen
Horrifying. Gut-wrenching. Crazy. That’s how elected leaders describe the arrest of 18-year-old Genele Laird by Madison police officers outside of East Towne Mall early Tuesday evening. A cellphone video of the violent encounter between police and the African American teenager was posted on Facebook shortly after the incident. By nightfall, community leaders, state and local elected officials, protesters and Laird’s family were gathering outside the Public Safety Building demanding answers.
According to police, officers responded to a call at 5:15 p.m. from mall security about a woman described as "out of control and making threats” in the food court. Laird allegedly confronted an employee at Taco Bell claiming that her phone had been stolen. Security claims she then displayed a knife and made threats to the Taco Bell employee. When asked to leave, Laird allegedly threatened to kill the security staff.
The video recorded by “RichBoy Robinson” begins with an officer confronting and then restraining Laird after she exits the mall. Laird appears to try to break free from the officers but is unsuccessful. “Get your hands behind your back,” says the officer. “Arrest me then, bitch,” replies Laird. A second officer pulls up in a squad car with its sirens on. He exits the vehicle and joins the struggle, which quickly escalates. The second officer strikes Laird in the leg several times with his knee, as the officers bring her to the sidewalk.
As the struggle continues, one of the officers punches and then Tasers Laird as she begins to shriek. After the officers subdue her, Laird complains about being unable to breathe. She threatens to bite an officer who in turn threatens to Taser her again. The police then place a “spit sock hood” over her head.
Laird can be heard weeping, saying “I don’t want you to see me like this.” The teenager is then deadlifted by four officers and placed in a squad car.
Laird was taken to jail, tentatively charged with “disorderly conduct while armed (a knife has been recovered), resisting police (causing injury), battery to police officer, and discharge of bodily fluids,” according to the police report. Two officers were treated and released at the hospital for injuries.
Numerous public officials were horrified by the video.
“I was outraged and very sad. There’s no other way to explain it,” said Ald. Barbara Harrington-McKinney. “She was a teenager. To see someone pounded into the ground...it hurt.” Harrington-McKinney and her council colleagues, including Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, Marsha Rummel, Maurice Cheeks, Samba Baldeh and Rebecca Kemble, had returned to city hall after seeing the video following the council’s Tuesday night meeting.
“It was terrifying,” said Kemble. “What I saw was one police officer restraining [Laird] physically and then another police officer charging in — at full speed — and just pounce on the woman without even talking to the other officer.”
Michael Johnson, president of the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County, arranged for Laird’s family to meet directly with Police Chief Mike Koval shortly after 10 p.m. “No press, goodbye,” said Koval, while inviting the group into a private conference room. He did not make any statements to reporters Tuesday night.
Laird’s aunt, Mallory Christianson, was part of the group that met with Koval for an hour. “She did not deserve to be kicked. To be hit. To be Tased over and over,” Christianson said. “She did not deserve this.”
“It looks like excessive force was used against this young woman,” said state Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison), who also attended the meeting with Koval. “The police have discretion on what they charge. Unfortunately, it looks they are charging her with four felonies. The family also made a plea that she get medical attention if she has not seen a physician. Obviously, we are going to know a lot more in coming days.”
Around 30 protesters assembled outside the Dane County Public Safety Tuesday night to demand Laird be released from custody and the officers involved in the incident fired. “Thank god that this happened in broad daylight and it was recorded,” Alix Shabazz from Freedom Inc. told the crowd. “We demand the charges be dropped [for Laird], and the officers charged with assault of a child. I know she’s 18, but she’s somebody’s baby.”
Matthew Braunginn with the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition called Koval a “racist bully” and blamed him for the incident. “This is his police department, this is part of his training,” he said. “Koval needs to go, needs to be fired. This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff said the meeting with Koval was at least the beginning of a conversation. “It was very nice of the chief to take the opportunity to meet with the family right away,” said Bidar-Sielaff. “They were able to ask a lot of questions. There weren’t a lot of answers, but at least there was an ability to hear directly from the police chief.”
Johnson is also appreciative that Koval responded quickly to the invitation to meet with the family and concerned community leaders. He said it is important for the “family to know that there is going to be due process.” But Johnson also defended the teen.
“This young lady has no criminal history. Her cell phone was stolen, she was agitated. I think we have to make sure that we are fair and that we don’t villainize this young lady. She’s sitting in a jail tonight.”
Urban League president and CEO Ruben Anthony Jr. condemned the police behavior in a statement Wednesday. “I am outraged to my core. The abuse this young woman faced at the hands of these police was savage and excessive,” he wrote. “This type of treatment is unacceptable and undermines the work that many of us have done to improve relations between the police and communities of color.”
The incident comes as the police department is under heightened scrutiny for its training and use of force policies. Two weeks ago, the Common Council authorized spending up to $400,000 on a consultant analysis of the department, which Koval aggressively pushed back against in a blog post and at a council meeting. The review had been called for in part because of the killings of two young unarmed men by police, Paul Heenan in November 2012 and Tony Robinson in March 2015.