Brittany Chrishawn, the producer of the award-winning police brutality film “Illville,” gets attacked and left with broken teeth after police trespass on her property.
Brittany Chrishawn, an award-winning African-American filmmaker and social justice advocate who produced a film that explores police brutality, has been brutalized herself by police officers in Jacksonville, Florida. Her film Illville most recently won an award at The Cannes International Pan African Film Festival 2020.
The police allege that Brittany assaulted an officer with a plastic spoon while he was seated in his car in her driveway, but there’s video footage showing the officer getting out of the car to collect the plastic spoon from the ground to use as evidence against her.
We live in a time where police misconduct has been exposed for the epidemic that it is, but far too many stories of victims who’ve survived police brutality go untold, and these are the victims who have to endure fighting wrongful convictions without the strong support of the public eye and national media outlets. This story deserves the public’s attention because victory with this case will provide a benchmark for people of color who may be subjected to this type of police misconduct in the future. It will be a great step forward in this age-old fight for basic human/civil rights.
On May 13th, 2020, JSO officer Carmona parked in Brittany’s driveway for no legal reason; the police report claims he thought the property was vacant so he parked there to check his email. Brittany Chrishawn Williams-Moore approached the officer’s vehicle to ask the officer if she could help him, but she ended up having to call 911 to report the officer for refusing to give a reason for him being there and refusing to leave.
But when more officers arrived on the scene, Brittany was arrested with the use of excessive force by multiple male officers, one of them being JSO Officer Tyler Landreville who’s known for having already killed 2 African American men in Jacksonville – Vernell Bing in 2016 and Frankie Feliciano in 2019.
“We both felt the same fear that we imagine all black people feel right before they die at the hands of law enforcement,” said Ausar Moore, Brittany’s husband who witnessed the encounter.
He continues, “I was a little relieved when the supervising officer and other officers arrived at the scene. But instead of the supervisor making officer Carmona leave, two officers including one who previously killed two African-Americans in Jacksonville ran into our house without a warrant, tackled my 97-pound wife, and banged her head against our wooden floor breaking her two front teeth in half. Until this day, she is still suffering from injuries related to the incident such as a disorder called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) which is dubbed ‘the suicide disease’. I am disgusted with how this system routinely oppresses people of color and sharing our story is the best way I know to correct the flaw within the legal system.”