Louisiana Officer Appears To Plant Drugs On Black Man In Video…

The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office is under fire over a viral video that appears to show a police offi­cer plant­i­ng drugs on a suspect.

The arrest of a Black male in Bridge City that was caught on cam­era has sparked fury and debate across social media after a cop is seen mov­ing what appears to be small bag­gies of nar­cotics near the sus­pect, who was report­ed­ly sell­ing drugs in the neighborhood.

JPSO spokesman Capt. Jason Rivarde said deputies were called to the area Monday after­noon over the ille­gal activ­i­ties and found a male fit­ting a 911 caller’s descrip­tion of a drug deal­er near the inter­sec­tion of Fourth St. and Westewego Ave., Fox8live​.com reports.

The Sheriff’s Office issued a state­ment after fac­ing back­lash on social media, not­ing that the sus­pect —iden­ti­fied as Dominique Griffin — bit one of the offi­cers while resist­ing arrest.

“The video in ques­tion is part of the evi­dence that has been col­lect­ed in this case. It has been alleged by third par­ties that evi­dence on the scene was plant­ed by one of our deputies. Our on-scene deputies have been inter­viewed in this mat­ter and gave rea­son­able expla­na­tions to the actions depict­ed in the video,” a state­ment from the JPSO said.

JPSO spokesman Capt. Jason Rivarde said deputies were called to the area Monday after­noon over the ille­gal activ­i­ties and found a male fit­ting a 911 caller’s descrip­tion of a drug deal­er near the inter­sec­tion of Fourth St. and Westewego Ave., Fox8live​.com reports.

Read more:https://​the​grio​.com/​2​0​1​9​/​0​7​/​1​2​/​e​x​-​f​l​o​r​i​d​a​-​d​e​p​u​t​y​-​a​r​r​e​s​t​e​d​-​a​f​t​e​r​-​a​l​l​e​g​e​d​l​y​-​p​l​a​n​t​i​n​g​-​d​r​u​g​s​-​i​n​-​c​a​r​s​-​o​f​-​u​n​s​u​s​p​e​c​t​i​n​g​-​m​o​t​o​r​i​s​t​s​-​d​u​r​i​n​g​-​t​r​a​f​f​i​c​-​s​t​o​ps/

The Sheriff’s Office issued a state­ment after fac­ing back­lash on social media, not­ing that the sus­pect —iden­ti­fied as Dominique Griffin — bit one of the offi­cers while resist­ing arrest.

“The video in ques­tion is part of the evi­dence that has been col­lect­ed in this case. It has been alleged by third par­ties that evi­dence on the scene was plant­ed by one of our deputies. Our on-scene deputies have been inter­viewed in this mat­ter and gave rea­son­able expla­na­tions to the actions depict­ed in the video,” a state­ment from the JPSO said.

Sheriff Joseph Lopinto stat­ed dur­ing a press con­fer­ence that the deputies involved in the arrest main­tain that the bag­gies in ques­tion con­tained pills, which were removed from Griffin’s pock­et dur­ing the arrest and placed on the ground. But Black Twitter ain’t buy­ing it.
Meanwhile, a search war­rant obtained for Griffin’s cell phone alleged­ly revealed mes­sages about planned drug transactions.