Cops Strip-Searched a Black Teen in the Street in Broad Daylight

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Clarence Green, 23, and his 16-year-old brother were driving down the street on New Year’s Day in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, last year when police detained, and then strip-searched the two young Black men in broad daylight. 

When one of the officers pulled down Green’s underwear, exposing and touching his genitals, the teen told him that he couldn’t do that. A cop responded, “I can.” The cops then did the same to his brother. 

The Green family filed a federal lawsuit against the city, and won a $35,000 civil rights settlement last week, according to local station WAFB.  The case was dismissed after the settlement. The incident, which happened because cops were looking for drugs, was recorded on police body camera footage obtained by WAFB and released this week.

The family’s attorney, Thomas Frampton, told the local outlet that during the stop, the officers committed “at least a half-dozen criminal offenses themselves.”  

“The family still wants accountability,” Frampton told WAFB in an interview. “And accountability is never going to come through money alone.”

After cops strip searched the brothers, they brought the teen to his family home. In bodycam video, Green can be seen asking his mother to call an attorney. That’s when one of the cops tells the handcuffed 23-year-old sitting in the police car, “if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m going to come in and fuck you up.”

During this exchange outside the home, another cop, Sgt. Ken Camallo, can be seen on bodycam footage entering the house and then drawing his gun, then walking around the residence, according to Frampton. 

The Baton Rouge Police Department did not obtain a warrant to enter the Green family home, according to an attorney for the family. 

Green was jailed for months after the incident because cops allegedly found a gun on him, as he was on probation for Oxycodone possession, according to Complex. Green was then released months later with his charges dropped. 

All of the officers involved in this incident have continued to work on the force, and no punishment has been handed down for the cop who exposed and touched the teen and his older brother, or any of the other officers, according to WAFB. There is now an investigation into Sgt. Camallo's role in the incident.  

Louisiana State representative Ted James said he believes qualified immunity, or the inability for individual offices to get sued, is to blame for disturbing overreach of power by the Baton Rouge cop’s last year.

“Officers escape liability and what happens is we, the community, continues to have to pay those lawsuits,”  Rep. James told WAFB in an interview. “And without consequences, it’s just like my little girl. If I don’t establish some type of consequences, she’s not going to correct that behavior and right now, we have a culture in our state, in our city, and across the country where largely officers are escaping any type of responsibility.”

The Baton Rouge Police Department did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment.