Civil Rights Group Issues 'Travel Warning To Black Americans': Stay Out Of Eastpointe, It's Too Dangerous For You

EASTPOINTE (WWJ) - Civil rights activists are meeting with the police chief of Eastpointe after they issued a travel warning against the city for conditions described as too dangerous for Black Americans.

The warning was issued after last year's videotaped beating of Frankie Taylor by Eastpointe officers, in which he nearly lost an eye. The five officers involved have not yet been fired, and the beating is now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

Activists Sam Riddle and Reverend W.J. Rideout will be meeting with Public Safety Director John McNeilance Wednesday afternoon. All hope that a candid discussion will take place regarding what the activists perceive is a pattern of behavior on the part of Eastpointe Police that indicates systemic racism.

Rideout says the meeting is a step in the right direction, but still want the officers involved in the meeting to be fired.

"This is a hateful time in America where people of color are in a constant state of fear regarding inhumane treatment at the hands of racist officers with a badge and gun that are sworn to uphold not violate the law," Rideout said in a statement. "You can't beat a dog in America and get away with it. Yet racist cops like the Eastpointe, Michigan police department have made beating Black Americans standard operating procedure with no consequences."

Riddle says the "travel warning" that the city is too dangerous for Black Americans remains in effect.

"The National Action Network strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Eastpointe," he said in a statement. "The ability of Eastpointe authorities to maintain order and ensure the security of American citizens and visitors is limited."

Taylor was arrested for drunk driving back in August 2015, but when he got back to the police station, he says he was restrained and repeatedly punched in the head until he was "knocked out." WJBK-TV aired footage of the incident on Monday.

"The guy hit me so many times, it made me cry once I seen the tape," Taylor told the TV station.

The video shows five officers trying to restrain Taylor in a chair while one of them strikes him and repeatedly says, "stop resisting." In a filing in federal court, attorneys for the suburb said any force was reasonable, not illegal.

"I was knocked out ... I don't feel like I was a threat to the officers to the point that they had to hit me until I was unconscious," Taylor said.

Taylor subsequently pleaded no contest to resisting police and drunken driving.

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