Monticello police officials have been accused of pulling three Black female high school students from a car on February 7 and roughly forcing them to the ground before handcuffing and arresting them.
Lawrence County NAACP legal redress representatives are working to file federal charges against the city’s police department before the court arraignments scheduled for April 17.
Monticello police detained the 17-year-old driver and her two schoolmates, both also teenagers, as they were leaving a drive-in fast-food stand in Monticello following a Feb. 7 basketball game at Lawrence County High School.
Thaddeus D. Edmonson Sr., Lawrence County NAACP legal redress chairman, said that one of the police officers involved escalated a minor infraction into a major felony due to his lack of conflict training and an obvious disrespect for the rights of young Black women
“As the driver was pulling out of the driveway, the cop approached her and told her that she didn’t have her lights on,” Edmonson said. “Instead of reasoning with her about not cutting her lights on before leaving the parking lot, the cop jumped out of his car while cursing her, grabbing her, and then throwing her to the ground.”
Even after throwing her to the ground, Edmonson said, the cop remained very aggressive, continued to curse the driver out, put the handcuffs on her, and kept her in the back of his van for about an hour, waiting for her parents to arrive because she was an underage minor. The young driver is facing felony charges in the Lawrence Circuit Court on April 17, according to Edmonson.
“We were able to notify the FBI, the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney and all of them to come together so we could talk,” he said. “What can a person do when the police treat them like that?
“There were two other girls with her,” Edmonson said. “The officer called out to some firemen there on the scene and they jumped out of their truck and threw the other two young ladies to the ground.”
The uniformed men were all white, Edmonson said. The three girls were Black.
“They (the girls) kept asking what the charge was and why they were stopping them. ‘What did we do wrong?’”
Things escalated from there, the NAACP representative said. But it was the police officer who really caused the whole incident, he said.
“I think it’s outrageous that in 2024 they still use police brutality against young Black kids like that,” Edmonson said, “just driving a car. That’s absurd to know that people will violate your civil rights, violate your human rights, and everything to try to be Mister Tough Guy. There was no cause for that. He could have easily told her ‘your lights were not on. You need to turn your lights on.’ You don’t often get a felony charge for your lights not being on. That’s crazy.”
Edmonson pointed out what he considered to be ironic about the police encounter and conflict that is about to be addressed before the court in mid-April.
“The funny thing about it is that they just had a six-week course on what you do when stopped by police, taught by a lawyer who volunteers his time teaching them how to get out of their car and not touch their steering wheel, and get their license and all that stuff out.
“The police need more training on how to handle a person, and not to be so vicious and nasty, and not to put your hands on a person,” Edmonson said. “You just don’t put your hands on a Black woman. You just don’t do that. Not in my book.”
Edmonson pointed out that the NAACP has 82 branches across the state. The Lawrence County branch is just one. When problems such as the one occurring at the Monticello fast food drive-in occurs, he said, the NAACP does not automatically step into the middle of things.
“I’m sure there might be many other incidents like these,” he said. “But if the people involved are not members of an NAACP branch, we’re not allowed to volunteer and go in to do anything like we used to do. These young ladies and their parents are members of the local branch. And we have to stand up for them,” he said.
