A federal lawsuit brought by a Black preacher, detained afterwards

• There was a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday
• A Black pastor was arrested.
• He watered his neighbor’s flowers

In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Friday, attorneys for Michael Jennings, a Black pastor who was arrested while tending to his neighbor’s flowers, claimed that the three Childersburg, Alabama, police officers who arrested him had violated his rights under the First and Fourth amendments.

Attorneys for Jennings included a false arrest claim in the lawsuit.

According to prior reports from CNN, Jennings was detained in May after a neighbor who didn’t know him phoned the police because they believed Jennings was a suspicious person at the home of another neighbor who was out of town.

Jennings claimed in a news conference on Saturday that he felt dehumanized and humiliated while being detained and that both his wife and a neighbor begged police to let him go.

“They carried out their actions that day knowing they would get away with it and without consequence. “I felt small and dehumanized,” said Jennings. “It saddened me that I felt helpless.”

He continued by saying that despite giving the responding officers his verbal identification, cops did not take him seriously. Jennings informed the police he didn’t have any physical identification on him and that he wouldn’t go get it to show the officers.

According to the lawsuit, Jennings was apprehended and lodged in the Talladega County Jail before being freed on $500 bail.

According to the lawsuit, Jennings’ charges were thrown out with prejudice on June 1.

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