WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - Members of a nonprofit organization in Palm Beach County are furious about a video that shows a violent arrest made by Florida Highway Patrol troopers and U.S. Border Patrol agents in May.
FHP and Border Patrol performed a traffic stop on Singer Island, off the coast of Palm Beach County, May 2.
An 18-year-old landscaper, who is a U.S. citizen, was taken into custody along with three of his coworkers, including his mother.
Cellphone video captured authorities becoming physical with two of the people taken into custody, forcing them to the ground.
“That’s not how you arrest people,” a third man can be heard telling officers.
One of the people detained by authorities was seen being grabbed around the neck and held in a chokehold.
The Guatemalan-Maya Center, a nonprofit advocacy group that assists the migrant community in South Florida, said the incident was a nightmare for the people who went through it, and aggressive arrests like this are happening more frequently than people think.
Lindsay McElroy, who works as the lead immigrant justice organizer for the Guatemalan-Maya Center, is outraged.
“I just thought it was so atrocious, but I also wasn’t surprised, because it’s really representative of what’s going on throughout the United States right now,” she said.
The video also showed one of the people detained was shocked with a Taser by authorities.
“That’s not how you arrest people. If you all are going to arrest people, you all got to arrest people regular,” one man said as three officers held another man and deployed a Taser on him before he fell to the ground.
McElroy said watching the man be shocked with a Taser was heartbreaking.
“Honestly, I was appalled by the video, and I was also heartbroken, you know, to see a young man get tased like that so painfully, to the point where he actually started bleeding,” she said.
McElroy said the 18-year-old who was apprehended, identified as Kenny Laynez, is a Florida resident and U.S. citizen and was detained by authorities that day for six hours.
“Kenny was treated horribly. Kenny is a United States citizen, who was born in West Palm Beach, in St. Mary’s,” said McElroy.
At one point during the video, agents can be heard laughing and talking about a $30,000 bonus they hope to get.
“Just remember, you can smell that, too: a $30,000 bonus,” one of the agents said.
McElroy said incidents like these are just the tip of the iceberg.
“This is happening because there’s such hateful rhetoric coming from the current administration, because there’s such hateful and dangerous policies that are being implemented that are really stripping people of their basic human rights,” she said.
According to The New York Times, many immigrants are staying home in fear of roundups, causing labor shortages in several fields, including construction, agriculture and senior care.
FHP and Border Patrol have not commented on the incident.
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