What happened behind closed door in Power & Light arrest? Police must release video | Opinion

We have serious concerns about the recent arrest of 25-year-old Daysheion Renee Ponds of Kansas City — as if wrestling the 5-foot-2-inch, 150-pound Black woman to the ground and grabbing her by the hair didn’t look excessive enough. We have no idea what Kansas City police officers did when they took Ponds behind a solid wooden door. In a short video provided to The Star, we hear her screaming from inside a private security office while we get a glimpse of her lying face down on the floor when the door is opened.

To quiet any notion that officers did anything nefarious to Ponds out of sight, the Kansas City Police Department must release any video associated with the arrest.

We’ve viewed footage recorded by a bystander. The 2 minute, 24 second video tells only part of the story. To get a better understanding of what occurred leading up to the incident, Kansas City police should make public any footage it has from officers’ body-worn cameras.

A full accounting of the widely viewed incident should include surveillance footage captured on security cameras at Kansas City’s Power & Light District, too.

The purpose of body cameras is to provide a fuller picture of law enforcement’s interaction with the public. Without it, we must question what occurred to Ponds in the private security room officers took her into.

In an interview with Star reporter Glenn Rice, Ponds said she posed no threat to arresting officers, and the force they used on her was excessive.

“I couldn’t have hurt them in any way and the whole time that they were hitting on me and beating me,” Ponds told Rice. “I was in handcuffs, so I couldn’t have done anything extreme to them.”

Ponds told Rice she suffered a concussion, memory loss, a swollen eye and a bruised face. She was taken to jail and faces municipal citations for disorderly conduct, larceny and assault.

Incident began with dispute over bar tab

The commotion began Jan. 28 over an unpaid bar tab, according to police. Ponds argued with a bartender who summoned security and police officers, according to Rice’s report.

“They did things to me that they didn’t have to and it definitely traumatized me,” Ponds said. “It’s something that I’ll never forget. It’s stuff that I stay up all night thinking about.”

In the video, we first see Ponds struggling with security personnel and a police officer, who take her to the ground. Then an unidentified Kansas City police officer intervenes. Inexplicably, the officer wraps his hand around Ponds’ hair and pushes her face-first into the brick floor.

“If you act like an animal, we’re going to treat you like an animal,” he yells at Ponds. His behavior appeared over the top to our eyes. His language was unprofessional, unacceptable and follows a racial trope used against Black people for centuries.

We must question that officer’s temperament to serve the public.

We then hear someone — presumably a second Kansas City officer seen on the video — say: “Just turn her over. Turn her over.”

The second officer placed a knee on the back of Ponds’ leg, a tactic we assume was used to prevent the woman from moving.

Later, we see Ponds led into the security office in the northwest corner of the entertainment district, and out of the public’s view. What occurred in that room remains a mystery. In the name of transparency and fairness, we challenge the Kansas City Police Department to show us its unedited video footage from before, during and after Ponds’ arrest.

Kudos to the bystander recording the episode. We all can hear Ponds screaming from behind the closed door. If not for the videographer pounding on it from outside, we may have never seen Ponds on the floor.

“Yo! Why is she screaming?” the bystander is heard saying on video. “Let me come in and see.”

Apparently unbothered, a Kansas City officer peeks outside before slamming the door.

If police acted according to policy, the video will show that to the public. And that is among the many reasons the police department must release any and all camera footage they have of Ponds’ arrest.