A video out of Ohio this week is causing a massive storm of controversy online after it showed a Butler Township police officer repeatedly punching a woman in the face. While the video is certainly enraging to the folks on the police accountability front it also highlights the monopoly police maintain on the use of violence.
America’s security force can and will escalate violence to the point of beating a defenseless woman—over a dispute about cheese.
Butler Township Police Chief John Porter held a presser this week to discuss the video which was taken on Jan. 16. He pointed out that the officer who did the punching has been placed on paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
“The administrative investigation will include interviews and statements from any and all possible witnesses, including any other officers that were involved,” he said. “If improper conduct is found as a result of the investigation, the findings will include a recommendation for disciplinary action.”
According to police, the woman in the video—also known as the victim of police brutality—received an incorrect order while inside a Mcdonald’s. The woman, Latinka Hancock, attempted to dispute her order about the amount of cheese on her Big Mac. Instead of providing customer service, McDonald’s employees provided a 911 call.
Having given up on receiving the correct order, Hancock was already in the parking lot about to leave when officer Tim Zellers and Sgt. Todd Stanley detained her.
Instead of allowing the woman to leave—as no crime had been committed—the video shows police escalated to violence instead. Zellers is seen to the left of Hancock aiming a taser at her face just before Stanley begins waylaying on the woman’s face in a seemingly unprovoked rage.
“According to her attorney…as Hancock was leaving the restaurant, Butler Township police officers confronted her and during the incident she was punched repeatedly in the head, sending her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a head injury,” Ryan Julison, the media contact for Hancock’s attorney, told The Daily Beast.
After beating the defenseless and innocent woman over a cheeseburger dispute, police arrested Hancock and charged her with resisting arrest and failure to provide her ID to the officers.
She now has a police record and a head injury over a hamburger dispute—and we are told that this is justice in the land of the free.
Attorney Michael Wright spoke to the media on Hancock’s behalf, calling it “an incredibly sad day when [my client’s] life has been upended over a piece of cheese.”
“This incident never should have occurred in the first place,” Wright said. “McDonald’s should be ashamed in resorting to calling the police over a disagreement for an order they got wrong. If they can’t manage basic customer service and now opting to potentially put a person’s life in jeopardy over a mishandled Big Mac, it doesn’t seem safe for Black people to go and eat at McDonald’s anymore.”
“Sgt. Stanley deserves to be fired and charged with assault with his outrageous overreaction,” Wright continued. “The way he handled Ms. Hancock was despicable. He wasn’t humane to her. Punching her in the face is absolutely ridiculous.”
We agree.
This is the Butler Township Police Department in Dayton, Ohio.
Police Chief John Porter confirmed that the police will be investigating themselves. pic.twitter.com/Qwu1Ns6uat— Champion City Hate Watch (@ChampionCityHW) January 17, 2023
This article was originally featured at The Free Thought Project and is republished with permission.
