LAKELAND, Fla. — Another person has come forward, accusing Lakeland Police of brutality.
In recent days three officers have been placed on modified duty, and community activists now want criminal charges filed as well.
"I had the same thing happen," Eric Kent said. "I'm like, this happened to me too."
Kent doesn’t doubt that there is some degree of racism behind the alleged bad behavior of a handful of Lakeland police officers, but he says it’s not the only factor.
After seeing others come forward, Kent, who is white, is now sharing his story as well.
“I’m white, they may be Black, but we both bleed red,” Kent said. “So, that’s obvious from the pictures. My blood is the same color as everyone else is that’s going through this situation.”
Kent says he suffered the same sort of brutal beating at the hands of some of the same police officers whose names keep appearing in complaint reports.
“They had flashlights and guns and tasers pointed at me saying ‘Lakeland Police, come out with your hands up’”, Kent recalled.
Kent says in July 2022, Lakeland Police officers came to his door following up on a complaint from a code enforcement officer he’d had a confrontation with.
Doorbell camera video shows Kent being led down the driveway, handcuffed, and thrown to the ground.
His wife is also threatened with arrest as she pleads with the officer to stop.
"My hands are behind my back, his arm is hooked through my arm, walking with me," Kent said. "He takes a left hook, comes around and hits me in the left eye, knocked me to the ground and as I go down he gets on top of me with his right knee in the middle of my shoulder blades at the base of my neck. And stays on top of me there."
Bloodied, Kent says he considered filing a complaint. But he says another officer at the police station told him things would go better for him if he didn’t.
"He said, 'we’re sorry about this, this didn’t have to happen, but if you just kind of play nice with us maybe we can help you with your case, we can try to make your other deal go away,'" Kent said. "'But, if you wanna make a big deal about this and push it then we’re just going to charge you with resisting and that’ll give us justifiable use of force.'"
Kent reached out to community activists after seeing other similar cases.
Until now, the complaints had all come from minorities accusing the department of racism.
"I hope that we don’t find out today because it involves a white gentleman that we may have an immediate arrest," Clayton Cowart with the Poor Minority Justice Association said. "Because we’ve been asking for that when it pertains to the Black gentleman."
“As sad as it is to say, if it takes this happening to a white person to get attention and bring attention to the cause and have changes made, then, I mean, I’ll be happy to help anyway I can and bring attention to the matter, so this is changed," Kent said.
Lakeland police have now placed three of the officers on modified duty, taking them off the street.
On Thursday, community activists said criminal charges should be filed as well. Kent agrees.
"When you have at least six people within a year's time that the same thing is happening repeatedly," Kent said. "And now it’s been caught on video several times to the extent it has it shows a pattern of behavior, it shows a real problem."