By Yasmeen Freightman, Atlanta Black Star | A Birmingham-area high-school band director said the police went too far when they shocked him with a Taser and arrested him after he refused to comply with their orders to stop his band’s performance at the end of a football game.
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During a news conference, Mims stated that the incident should have never escalated, especially in front of his students. He explained that the police interrupted a classic “fifth quarter” situation when marching bands, usually from predominantly Black high schools and colleges, continue to play music after games end in a battle-style performance.
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https://www.yahoo.com/news/alabama-band-director-trying-regain-203000123.html
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A high school band director was tased by cops at a football game after he refused orders to stop his musicians from playing
By Ella Hopkins, Business Insider
The director of a high school band in Alabama was arrested and tased by police after he ignored their repeated requests to stop his students’ music performance at the end of a football game, a statement from Birmingham police department says.
The New York Post reported that Johnny Mims, the director of the Minor High School band, told musicians to keep playing after police instructed him to stop the music.
The band was accompanying a high school football game between Minor High School and Jackson-Olin High School at the PD Jackson-Olin High School stadium in Alabama on September 14.
The police said they ordered both directors to stop their bands’ performances to allow cops to clear out the stadium but that Minor High’s director failed to comply.
He refused police orders to stop, instead instructing his band to keep playing, the police department said in a statement issued on September 15.
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Read the original article on Business Insider
https://www.yahoo.com/news/high-school-band-director-tased-151341350.html
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UPDATE:
Attorney for Alabama band director arrested after football game says tasing was unacceptable and left students traumatized
By Lauren Mascarenhas and Melissa Alonso, CNN
The Alabama band director who was arrested after refusing to stop his band’s performance at a high school football game is grappling with the aftermath of being tased by police, which his attorney says was unacceptable and left students traumatized.
“Regardless of how this may have started, there’s nothing that happened that would have warranted my client being tased multiple times, even while on the ground like some total criminal, at that point in front of 145 students,” Johnny Mims’ attorney, Juandalynn Givan said. “Those kids were traumatized.”
Mims, the band director at Minor High School, told “CNN This Morning” he is working to regain regular use of his arm after police tased him and is concerned about his students who witnessed the incident.
“I have a great doctor that I’ve been working with to try help me get regular use of my arm because I was tased in the shoulder as well as the lower torso area,” Mims said Wednesday. “I use my shoulders for, of course, most of the things that I do.”
The Birmingham Police Department released body camera video of the encounter that shows Mims being tased as people nearby scream.
“It’s extremely upsetting to me that our students, our children, had to witness that scene,” Jefferson County Schools Superintendent Walter Gonsoulin said in a statement Tuesday. “Nothing is more important than their well-being.”
Birmingham police allowed the district to review the bodycam footage Monday night, Gonsoulin said.
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Read this story here:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/attorney-alabama-band-director-arrested-132405188.html
Photo: Johnny Mims | Johnny Mims, a Birmingham-area high school band director, said police went too far when they arrested and shocked him in front his students during his band’s performance after a football game.
Three Takes: Alabama Band Director Injured When Shocked With Taser By Cops
