A major local trial enters a new phase tomorrow after prosecutors rested their case today. Noel Carter was beaten, kicked and tased by OPD officers who were moonlighting for Venue 578 downtown. Video shows Orlando police officers beating and kicking Carter downtown, with one officer repeatedly winding up and kicking him as many as six times as he sits on a curb. The case should be focused on Orlando’s police brutality and excessive force against Noel Carter, but instead it is Carter who is facing two felonies and two misdemeanors for resisting arrest and battery on a law enforcement officer.
Tomorrow, August 18th, Carter will take the stand at the Orange County Courthouse. His testimony is expected around 10AM in court room 9D. Various community groups, including the Fight Back Coalition, National Action Network Central Florida Chapter, Advocacy, Action & Accountability Alliance, Women of Color Leadership Coalition, Community Empowerment Partnership and Believers Outreach Ministries among others announced they are standing in solidarity with Carter during his trial.
The video of officers beating Carter was so bad, it was covered on national news and Chief John Mina was grilled on CNN about the officers’ actions. “If it were you or I that kicked someone and used a weapon against them while they were sitting passively, we would be arrested. That doesn’t happen to the police,” Carter’s attorney Natalie Jackson said at the time of the incident. “I don’t have to tell citizens what they see. It’s there. It is the police who are asking us not to believe what we see on the tape.”
While cross-examining Officer Mays, the defense team emphasized the fact Carter was not aggressive, while officers escalated. “This had nothing to do with you effectuating an arrest, but everything to do with you putting a beating on him,” defense attorney Patrick Lawlor said. Attorney Jackson told jurors Noel Carter “became public enemy No. 1 of the Orlando Police Department.”
Even though Mayor Dyer and City Commissioners have remained quiet on the case, Noel Carter spoke directly to the City Council and defended himself from comments made by Chief Mina against him in the media. “Chief Mina has made it his personal agenda to assassinate my character – to demonize me at any opportunity seen fit,” Carter told the City Council last year.
Sadly, Carter is not Orlando’s first case of excessive force – there is an ongoing problem with excessive force and police brutality. The Orlando police brutality and excessive force video has now received over 5,600 views online.
Attorney Jackson tweeted about the new phase of the trial beginning tomorrow.
Defense attorneys will now make the case that Carter is a victim of police brutality and misconduct, not guilty of multiple felonies and misdemeanors. Stay tuned.
There is a society breakdown in effect right now. Hearing of the huge barrage of police abuse would finally lead a person to believe that what he was hearing is what is happening and guess what, it may be to some small extent. BUT!!! What if the defense reasoning for an excuse for the resistance wins? The defense stance? “Noel Carter legally resisted the use of excessive force.” Houston, we got trouble down here!!! IF this one is pulled off it will justify every thug to resist as much as they can knowing they will be handled with kitten gloves which gives them the upper hand. There is a society breakdown in effect right now.