© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Video shows moment cops detain black man for vehicle 'vegetation' and appear to yank him out of car
Image source: TheBlaze

Video shows moment cops detain black man for vehicle 'vegetation' and appear to yank him out of car

Rudy Samuel, a 31-year-old black man from Kansas, livestreamed the moments after being pulled over by police for a traffic violation on May 13.

Now the local police department is facing allegations of racism over what happened in the Facebook video, which has gone viral since Samuel posted it.

What did happen in the video?

Samuel's video kicks off with him telling his Facebook followers that he'd been pulled over in Winfield, Kansas.

"OK, getting pulled over in Winfield, Kansas. Again," Samuel began. "Officer said I failed to put my signal light on within 100 feet. And it was 100 feet. But whatever."

"My insurance is good, and my registration is good," he can be heard saying quietly on the three-minute-plus video. "I don't know what's taking so long."

For much of the video, Samuel sits patiently and waits for the officers to return to his vehicle.

Then one of the officers returns to the car.

"Hey, Mr. Samuel? What caught my attention was this vegetation stuff right here," the officer can be heard saying as he pulls an unidentified and barely discernible piece of something from between the window and its seal.

Samuel, apparently thrown entirely off guard by the officer's remarks, answers, "What ... vegetation? Let me see that. That's tree stuff, man."

He laughs and continues, "Test it. That's gotta be from the tree, man. Y'all pulled me over for no ... that's from a tree, man!"

As the officer walks away to place the "vegetation" in a bag, Samuel can be heard saying, "I don't even smoke. This man says 'vegetation' on a car window."

The officer returns to the vehicle, and this is when things become hostile.

"Sir, you walked up to my car and said you pulled me over — what was the original reason you said you pulled me over?" Samuel can be heard asking as the officer approaches the car.

The officer then asks Samuel to step out of the vehicle.

"Sir, do you have a reason for me to?" Samuel asks, and the officer once again points to the "vegetation in the window."

The officer says once more that he needs Samuel to step out of the vehicle. It then appears that at least one of the officers physically pulled Samuel out of the car.

The cellphone from which Samuel is recording falls to the ground, where it lies with its camera obstructed.

"You're being detained!" the officer tells Samuel, who still sounds completely flabbergasted by the entire ordeal and responds, "For what?"

"So I can search the vehicle," the officer answers. "You got that vegetation in the window."

A short time later, the recording cuts off as Samuel's voice grows fainter and fainter into the background.

Samuel's video has been viewed more than 70,000 times at the time of this writing.

What happened after the video?

The Huffington Post reached out to Samuel, who deferred to Peter Wright of the Kansas-based Freedom 1 social justice group.

According to the outlet, Samuel called Wright his "spokesperson." Wright said that officers released Samuel without a citation after detaining him.

"This has happened to him before for no reason," Wright said. "This young man has a good background. He’s a father, he’s engaged to be married, and his grandfather is a minister. This was racially motivated."

According to Wright, Samuel is considering a lawsuit against the police department.

"He has a biracial family, and they’ve moved out of Winfield due to threats," Wright said. "He wants people to know what happened. He’s lucky to be alive, because so many guys in situations like this are not able to tell their story."

Winfield Police Chief Brett Stone told HuffPost that the incident is "under investigation."

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?