Officers Pull Over White Woman For Speeding But Arrest Her Black Boyfriend

A viral TikTok shows Maryland officers forcefully arresting a Black man when his girlfriend was pulled over for speeding.

White woman, Heather Janney, was pulled over for going 45 mph in a 30 mph zone and a three part video depicting the incident was posted last Friday to TikTok. Janney’s boyfriend, Antoine Wedington, who was in the passenger seat, was asked by police for his ID, but he refused. He questioned police if it’s lawful for them to request the passenger for ID since he wasn’t the one being pulled over for the speeding violation. 

Part 1

Janney records the confrontation from the driver’s seat as two cops forcefully remove Wedington from the car. You can clearly see one officer grab onto him, one by his neck and the other pulling his feet. One of the officers did mention Antoine has a warrant for his arrest. Although, it is unclear how they would know that if Antoine never gave them any sort of identification.

Part 2

Wedington asked officers to let go of him so he could get out of the car himself, but they did not let him go for one second. One officer replies, “we gave you multiple chances.” As they finally got him out and handcuffed Wedington, he asked his girlfriend to get out of the car to record but she didn’t need to since she had a clear view of everything. 

Part 3

It seems that viewers were disgusted by how the officers were grabbing Wedington. 

Maryland is not a “stop and identify state,” meaning that police officers can’t demand an individual to provide ID or their name unless the officer has reason to believe that the individual committed a crime. Fox 6 Milwaukee was told by police that Wedington’s previous warrants were for failure to appear in court and a retake warrant from the parole commission. Multiple news outlets have reported more detail about this case including TMZ. TMZ did confirm that Wedington was arrested by police officers for resisting arrest and his two warrants. They did not say the reason why the police wanted his ID in the first place.

The potentially worst part about this arrest is that it might have all happened in front of his child. The videos show a car seat for a child in the back, but it is unclear if the child was actually present.  

The video stopped but Janney posted an update regarding her boyfriend’s status. “He is okay… but still in jail. They charged him with resisting arrest… they assumed his name and that he had a warrant,” Janney said. Janney mentioned how she is currenting looking for a lawyer to help them but can’t give any details on the situation since anything can be used against her boyfriend in court. 

Janney said, “this is racist!! There was no reason for that police officer to ask for his identification when I was the one driving. Warrant or no warrant?! Even if the police visually identified him to have a warrant…I still believe there was no reason for them to take him away from his family like that.”

The TikTok video has received millions of views and viewers supported Wedington. Many were upset at how officers were arresting Wedington for a speeding violation his girlfriend committed. Viewers were proud at how calm Wedington remained.

Viewers were commented how cops hate being proved wrong.

There were also many viewers criticizing those who were supporting Wedington since officers had a warrant for his arrest. This still didn’t give officers the right to forcefully get Wedington out of the car.

 Fox News reported on the statement the Anne Arundel County Police Department released on Saturday via Twitter. Statement published after the TikTok went viral. 

https://twitter.com/AACOPD/status/1320089892379070464

The statement included, “we felt it necessary to provide necessary contextual information which was missing from the video in order to provide clarity to our community members and those who viewed the video.” The Fox News’ article covers all details the Anne Arundel County Police Department released.

Wedington’s arrest was similar to Jacob Blake’s arrest. Earlier in August, Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was arrested during someone else’s incident. Blake was trying to break up a fight between two women and walked away to his car. Police followed Blake and shot him seven times in the back as he leaned on the car. The incident happened in front of three of his sons who were in the car, ages 3, 5, and 8.

Everything was caught on video by Raysean White. A warrant was released back in July for Blake’s arrest on charges of third-degree sexual assault, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Officers said Blake had a knife which was found on the floor of the driver’s side. 

Blake was hospitalized from his injuries leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. Restraints were removed and an arrest warrant was dropped. In October he was released from the hospital and transferred to spinal cord rehab center in Chicago.

Video Created By:Job Kimani

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