Arkansas Man Arrested and Tased... For Playing Music Too Loudly

Impact

What seemed like a routine traffic stop turned violent in the city of Blytheville, Arkansas, on Easter Sunday when — in an incident caught on a police body camera — two officers appeared to force a man from his car and tase him as he lay on the ground, also spraying him with a chemical agent. 

Officers who were responding to a complaint of loud music from a car in the parking lot of a local supermarket, WREG reported. 

Read more: If We Want to Throw Body Cameras on Every Police Officer, We're Going to Need Better Laws

"I see another Mike Brown and Trayvon Martin situation if you ask me," Patrick Newbern Jr. told the news station after his arrest. While a police report alleges that Newbern refused to comply and then resisted arrest, he told local media that he had not had time to undo his seatbelt before things turned physical.

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There were, of course, two sides to the story. In addition to the police report, the Mississippi chapter of the NAACP told WREG that they were supporting the police department after reviewing the available evidence. Original reporting of the situation originally indicated the NAACP planned to protest, but that later turned out to be incorrect. 

Newberg is now facing charges of resisting arrest, fleeing by vehicle, and noise ordinance violations WREG reported. 

Watch the body cam footage here: