April 10, 2021

Video: Cops Draw Guns on a Black Army Officer, Pepper Spray Him, Force Him to the Ground

Caron Nazario is suing in federal court.

Caron Nazario, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, after he was pepper-sprayed by police during a traffic stop in Windsor, Virginia, on Dec. 20, 2020, from newly released body cam video. Windsor Police via AP

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Caron Nazario, a Black and Latino second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was coming home from work when he was stopped by two police officers in Windsor, Virginia, pepper-sprayed, assaulted, and subjected to death threats, according to highly disturbing video footage that is now the subject of a federal lawsuit.

Nazario was driving along U.S. Route 460 on December 20, 2020, when he was stopped for allegedly not having a rear license plate on a newly purchased Chevy Tahoe. (The temporary plates were taped to the inside of a rear window on the passenger side.) When he pulled over at a nearby BP gas station, two police officers pointed their guns at Nazario, who was dressed in uniform, and told him to step out of the vehicle.

“What’s going on?” the 27-year-old Nazario asked the officers.

“What’s going on is your fixin’ to ride the lightning,” responded officer Joe Gutierrez, apparently making a reference to an execution by electric chair.

“I am honestly afraid to get out,” Nazario said.

“Yeah, you should be,” responded Gutierrez. “Get out!”

“I have not committed any crime,” said Nazario, who had his hands up but was afraid to exit the vehicle.

“You’re being stopped for a traffic violation and you’re not cooperating,” Gutierrez shouted. “At this point right now you’re under arrest, you’re being detained for obstructing justice.”

Gutierrez and a second officer, Daniel Crocker, then attempted to force Nazario out of the car. “Get your hands off me,” Nazario said. “I didn’t do anything.…This is not how you treat a veteran. I’m actively serving this country and this is how you’re going to treat me?”

At that point Gutierrez pepper-sprayed Nazario and violently wrestled him to the ground, placing him in handcuffs. “This is fucked up,” Nazario said. “This is fucked up.” 

A lawsuit filed on April 2 by Nazario in federal district court in Virginia alleges that the officers violated his First and Fourth Amendment rights.

“These cameras captured footage of behavior consistent with a disgusting nationwide trend of law enforcement officers, who, believing they can operate with complete impunity, engage in unprofessional, discourteous, racially-biased, dangerous, and sometimes deadly abuses of authority,” the lawsuit states.

The footage has sparked an outcry on social media, widely circulating at the same time that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for murdering George Floyd.

The lawsuit can be found here:

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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