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today's video will be different from
anything I've ever shown on this channel
before today's video is a demand for
accountability and a call for
comprehensive reform of the city of
Columbus's Public Safety Office of the
Inspector General I'm calling for the
immediate firing of Jack Aline M
Hendrick the Inspector General Scott
hurler the investigation supervisor and
Benjamin rice a case manager with the
office of Inspector
General I'm calling for their immediate
termination and removal from office
because of their obvious anti-p police
bias lying on official reports and
overall
incompetence on September 19th
2023 investigator Ben rice completed his
investigation into alleged misconduct
against Columbus Police Officer Michael
Shannon the report he filed accused
officer Michael Shannon of violating the
division's biased based profiling
directive for failing to treat an
African-American teen with
impartiality the report stated officer
Shannon harassed this African-American
teen without Reasonable Suspicion
therefore violating the teens rights and
violating Columbus Police policy a
sustained complaint of biased based
profiling can be a death sentence for an
officer's career this is a very serious
matter and the facts and circumstances
must be very carefully considered before
putting them into an official report
this report is factually inaccurate on
multiple fronts the body camera has not
yet been released to the public but I
have seen it the teenager was not an
African-American the kid is as white as
I am you cannot find an officer guilty
of biased based profiling a black person
if that person is white was a person
stopped or was a person um singled out
in any particular fashion uh by that
person based on race sex sexual
orientation gender identity or
expression color religion ancestry
national origin age disability family or
military status or any other status
that's projected by federal state uh or
local uh law or ordinance and the
entirety of the policy is 3.07 uh
bias-based
policing the other problem with this
report is that officer Shannon never
stopped the teen he simply drove
alongside the teen as the teen was free
to walk down the sidewalk this
interaction between officer Shannon and
the Teen is what is known as a
consensual
encounter I also have the entire packet
from Mr Rice's investigation Mr rice
never talked to the teenager or the
mother who filed the complaint I have
the intake call from Michelle Stevens
the teens's mom she never stated or gave
any impression that her son was
African-American the officer was never
asked any question about the teen's
race Mr Rice simply made up these facts
in order to fit his anti- police agenda
he most likely assumed the teen's race
after listening to this video of the
Teen complaining about the officer po
time is dude just keep stopping me and
harassing
me bro it's sad I just got to walk
around and record now cuz this dude
won't leave me
alone harassment at that
point nothing but
it
I'm guessing he assumed the kid was
black because he sounded
black if you don't know officer Mike
Shannon he's an exemplary officer with
20 years of service to the citizens of
Columbus and has a spotless record on
March 13 2010 he was shot in the line of
duty and lost a significant portion of
his femur bone as a result
officer Mike Shannon is so dedicated to
the city and his role as a police
officer that he turned down an easy life
of collecting 100% disability and fought
for seven years to regain his physical
abilities and returned to work as a
patrol officer with his seniority and
experience he could easily take a job
inside as a detective but he remains on
patrol and works for the community
response team which is made up of
officers who do not respond to calls for
service but whose sole purpose is to
proactively patrol the streets of high
crime neighborhoods I also have the
recordings from the interview conducted
with officer Mike Shannon about the
incident officer Shannon stated the teen
stuck out because he kept looking over
his shoulder as the officer drove by
patrolling the neighborhood the teen
later identified as Logan Stevens was
wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up
over his head on a a hot 90° day officer
Shannon stated this appeared to be
suspicious because on hot days people
who pull hoodies up over their head and
cover their face are often involved with
criminal activity he recognized the teen
but he couldn't remember his name
officer Shannon asked the teen for his
name and the Teen refused so Mike drove
away and searched the Department's
mugshot database under his own badge
number and was reminded that he had had
in fact arrested Logan in the past
officer Shannon also stated in his
interview that Logan was present during
a shots fired call that he investigated
about a year prior why did you initiate
it uh because Patrol in the area for the
several different types of crimes that
going on in the hilltop um I observed
him walking and he gave me several over
the- shoulder looks like checking where
I was at in relation to him which to me
seemed fairly suspicious as well as he's
wearing a long sleeve hoodie with a hood
up and it's at about 90° day severe
humidity um like extremely hot all very
suspicious Behavior so I just watched
where he was going so I uh pulled up and
just began a conversation with him Cally
throughout my passenger window and just
asked
him uh I forget how I started it it's on
the cam on my camera I think um but just
inquired know how I was doing cuz he was
looking very looking me uh several times
like watching my track which in my
experience someone's kind of being
suspicious about that or wonder what I'm
doing so they might be doing something
wrong okay so you're pulling up behind
them you guys see looking over his
shoulder wearing the hoodie and you're
like oh what you started the
conversation this something you
typically do yeah I mean just I knew he
was a young kid so I was just inquiring
what what was going on with him and
didn't uh didn't gather the car didn't
block his path just pulled up alongside
of him as he's walking drove alongside
him for a little bit went and asked some
questions he immedately became evasive
and kind of conf confrontational about
it and try to explain to him what I was
doing sure so this is the normal part of
your job absolutely okay did you know
his name before your interaction with
him I I didn't he looked familiar that's
kind the reason I asked his name I was
trying to figure out who he was cuz
again who who he was I might try to run
his warrants to see if he had anything
going on with him or what his history
was later on okay so you didn't know his
name before no okay what does suspicious
look like to you in this circumstance
this circumstance okay as I already
described he's sees me and immediately
watches me several times over his
shoulder to see what my what path I'm
taking with my cruiser uh also wearing
the the hoodie with a hood up when it's
so hot you know most normal people when
it's hot in the summertime are going to
be in as cool as close as possibly can
um hoodies up kind of dness eyes around
makes me wonder what's going on um with
with his actions and what he was up to
okay when did you learn of his name uh a
few minutes after the initial contact
broke contact he was said he was going
to the store um I was over actually
watching a different house another went
on to another task but while I was
waiting to see if I saw anything on that
I was pulling up information if I could
find him and I found him in our mug
shots I was pretty sure it was the same
person okay so I uh uh you know Asain
what I thought was his name at that
point
okay uh yeah throughout that body warant
camera he doesn't ever knows give you
his name and you said later on you went
through mug shots and how were you able
to find that search uh cuz I mean you've
only got a face to that point right but
I believe you I I believed I'd already
arrested at one point I couldn't
remember his name um I knew roughly
where he lived at so you can do a a
parameter search on there for my badge
number and the Precinct of arrest and
juveniles and just start tracking back
down through okay and I saw the name and
I was like oh I bet that's him okay and
he'd actually had a recent mug
shot uh that was pretty close to what he
looked like now okay cuz it' been a year
since I'd seen him sure in the past okay
this is the probably the second
interaction I've had with him didn't
recognize him because it's been over a
year since I last seen him mhm okay that
situation did involve gunshots being
fired at somebody and he was detained
for that I had spoken to his Mom I had
spoken to his mom a number of months ago
I don't remember when it was when she
was having problems with her significant
other having a domestic situation and I
was helping to try to track him down ran
across to the mother while she's talking
to the other officers and I'm asking how
Logan was
doing and concerned for him so I had
zero animosity against this young man
sure from from the jump okay I was mom
was telling me how he was doing good
down with the relatives for the summer
doing well didn't recognize him cuz he
changed a lot since I'd seen him
so I appreciate that is that
is 100% Going Back like I have zero
animosity towards this kid regardless of
Officer Shannon's prior experience with
the teenager and the officer's knowledge
of the teens's criminal history Mr rice
wrote a report accusing officer Shannon
of harassing the teen for being black
and wearing a hoodie Jacqueline M
hendris the Inspector General signed off
on this report and sent it to the
Columbus police civilian review board
who agreed that this was an obvious case
of bias based profiling and recommended
the chief of police take disciplinary
action against officer Mike Shannon
we're looking in the division directores
manual uh from which that policy was
taken um they do have a definition
section in the back of that however um
the definition for um harassment is not
uh defined back here yeah I mean that
this is biased
uh you know seems really evident uh at
least in the description that you're
that he didn't have a you know a
foundation for uh pursuing this police
this uh uh minor I was just
wondering what the definition of
harassment was well you know because we
have two allegations and I'm just
wondering the first part of this
accusation is easy to debunk Mr rice
stated Logan was an African-American
when he clearly is not it's plain as day
to anyone who watched the body camera
footage Mr rice stated he watched the
footage he's either lying or he's
incompetent either of those should
disqualify him from keeping his job the
second point is also ease it to debunk
Mr rice stated in his report that Logan
was harassed without probable cause or
Reasonable Suspicion but all officer
Mike Shannon never stopped Logan he
simply drove next to him and talked to
him through the car window officer
Shannon can be heard on body camera
several times telling the teen he is
free to go officers don't need a reason
to talk to people as they walk down the
street officers are allowed to talk to
any citizen they want Mr Reese and the
office of Inspector General accused Mike
Shannon of violating a policy that does
not exist the technique used by Officer
Shannon is clearly defined by the courts
as a consensual encounter this is a
concept that officers have drilled into
their heads every year during their
annual inservice training I've pulled up
a recent case from the Ohio court of
appeals to help the viewer understand
the definition of a consensual
encounter the Fourth Amendment to the
United States Constitution protects
individuals from unreasonable searches
and seizures
however not all interactions between
police officers and citizens are a
seizure under the Fourth Amendment the
United States Supreme Court has
recognized three categories of police
interactions with members of the public
one a consensual encounter which
requires no objective
justification two a brief detention
which must be supported by Reasonable
Suspicion and three a full arrest which
must be supported by probable cause a
consensual encounter occurs where the
police merely approach a person in a
public place engage that person in
conversation request information and the
person is free to not answer questions
and walk
away in determining whether a particular
encounter between a police officer and a
citizen is a seizure and thus implicates
the Fourth Amendment the question is
whether
taking into account all circumstances
surrounding the encounter a reasonable
person would feel free to decline the
officer's request or terminate the
encounter hopefully the Columbus
Division of police will soon release the
B camera footage as it will clearly
exonerate officer Shannon who told Logan
several times you don't have to talk to
me you can keep walking home that's your
right the office of Inspector General
and Columbus Police civilian review
board were created as an independent
investigative board to help build
Community Trust in the process but it
appears that the ig's office and
civilian review board are working under
the belief that they must find
violations where they do not exist even
if it means lying about the
facts the current system is beyond
flawed and it lacks basic Integrity
right now now the IG and civilian review
board do not have binding
recommendations this means the chief of
police is not required to follow through
on their
investigations this will be a huge point
of contention during negotiations for
the next contract between the city of
Columbus and the fop the union that
represents the officers of the Columbus
Division of police the fop is going to
use the faulty investigations like this
and many others before this to show that
the city of Columbus Office of the
Inspector General is not competent and
should not be completing these
investigations with binding
recommendations and the city most likely
mayor Andrew gther is going to speak out
publicly against the union stating as he
has already done so many times before
the fop is standing in the way of
accountability and reform and you can
either stand with the fop where you can
stand with the citizens of
Columbus unfortunately for mayor Andrew
gther he has played this game of
political divisions for too long and
there is too much evidence standing in
his
way as long as processes like these are
allowed to stay in place Columbus will
continue to be a department of Last
Resort for prospective police applicants
the actions of Mayor Andrew gther the
Inspector General and the civilian
review board will continue to harm this
city and the citizens will suffer the
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consequences