Frankie Taylor was arrested by Eastpointe police on August 10, 2015, on suspicion of drunk driving. Following his arrest, he was taken to the station, where he refused to allow a blood test.
"If you keep acting like a child, you're going to get strapped in that chair and you're going to stay there," an officer can be heard saying in the video.
Things escalate dramatically at this point, and Taylor is beaten while still strapped to the chair, and eventually tasered. Taylor can be heard screaming in pain and terror throughout the footage.
"I don't feel like that I was a threat to the officers to the point that they had to hit me until I was unconscious," Taylor told Fox2.
Instead of providing the injured man with medical treatment, Taylor was then transferred to Macomb County Jail. He was taken to Detroit Receiving Hospital only several days later, but it was too late to save his eye.
“He has permanent loss of eyesight in one eye. His vision is severely compromised,” Taylor’s attorney James Rasor told the local Fox affiliate. “He has these horrible nightmares.”
Rasor also alleges that beyond the excessive force, his client was also discriminated against for being black, and was denied a phone call while calls were granted to white detainees.
"You want to protect people from this type of brutality by police forces," said Rasor. "White folks were allowed to use the phone by police officers; even one who had urinated in his pants was allowed to use the phone. Frankie Taylor wasn't, and the only difference is that Frankie Taylor happens to be African-American."
