A host at the Atlantic City boat show filed a complaint against a police officer who he says attacked him and unjustly arrested him. Aaron Bland recorded the incident and posted it online, including the Atlantic City Police Department’s Facebook page.
“We’re in here supporting the town’s economy and we can’t even walk to the store,” Bland said. “It’s ridiculous.”
Bland, who is from Maryland, told NBC10 the incident occurred Saturday around 9:30 p.m. after he had worked as an emcee at the boat show. Bland said he and his co-worker Meg Jones were walking on Atlantic Avenue near Tropicana when he was approached by an officer who told him he looked like someone she was looking for.
“I’m like, ‘I don’t look like anyone that has anything to do with you,’” Bland said. “That’s when I reach in my pocket, pull out my phone, unlock it to start recording. That’s when she grabbed me and started hitting me.”
It’s difficult to see what’s actually happening in Bland’s video though he is heard repeatedly telling the officer he didn’t do anything wrong while Jones screams for her to stop.
“Get off of me!” Bland screams in the recording. “Stop touching me! I didn’t do nothing! I didn’t do anything! You have no right to touch me!”
Bland and Jones told NBC10 more officers soon arrived.
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“They tackled him to the ground,” Jones said. “They had their knees in his throat. They’re restraining him very, very aggressively.”
Atlantic City Police Chief Henry White told NBC10 Bland refused to cooperate with the officer who stopped him, pushed her and ran away. White also said Bland was taken into custody and charged with resisting arrest and obstruction of justice.
“What could I possibly be obstructing if I didn’t do anything in the first place to be under arrest to resist arrest for?” Bland asked.
Bland denied pushing the officer and insisted he was backing away the entire time. He also said he suffered several scrapes after the confrontation.
In a complaint he filed with the police department, Bland said he was beaten without provocation. Chief White however doesn’t believe his officers did anything wrong and claimed there wouldn’t have been an incident if Bland had cooperated in the first place.
“If I can’t walk down the street then it’s a problem,” Bland said.
Chief White told NBC10 Bland’s complaint will be investigated by the department’s Internal Affairs unit which is standard practice for all matters in which officers are involved.
