Livestreaming your own arrest can be a powerful demonstration against the overreached our police state— and it can help to protect your rights. But you should probably make sure you don’t have drugs in your vehicle first? Or not admit to it on camera? But whatever, you do you.
Dominque Desha Green was pulled over Sept. 9 in Dallas, Texas, for not wearing a seatbelt or using a turn signal when leaving a local AutoZone. Claiming that was he stopped “for being black on a Friday,” Green, 24, starting filming the encounter with Facebook Live. The entire 13-minute saga is a comedic tragedy in slow motion.
Green starts out confident and brash: “Bro, I’m not committing a crime, I’ve just been sitting right here,” he tells the officer. “I don’t have to listen to you, you are a public servant. … You work for me!” Fair enough.
Green calls the cop a “dumbass” after he leaves the car. Then, things take a turn. Green admits, on camera, “I do got some shit I gotta hide.” Around the 10-minute mark, you can hear him shuffling something. That, cops later said, is when Green was moving cocaine in the driver’s side door—or what Green called his “stash spot.”
“I’m glad I didn’t get out of the car. I got a pocket full of all kind of shit,” Green remarked shortly after.
The video ends with Green protesting his arrest, claiming he’s about to “wild out.” According to the police, that’s exactly what he did. Authorities claim Green resisted arrest, spat in an officer’s face, made threatening comments, and tried to kick out the window of a police car. It was only after the cops reviewed his own livestream, however, that they added the charge for drug possession, bringing the total number of citations to 11.
Dallas Morning News reports that Green is being held in the county jail, with bail set at $229,500, and social media embarrassment set at “maximum.”