The arrest of Safiya Satchell might have gone down as another anonymous case — were it not for the bystander video that showed a Miami Gardens police officer reach into her SUV, drag her out, press his knee on her neck and stun her twice with a Taser.
This video, as have similar clips of police brutality across the country, is jarring and on Thursday spurred state authorities to arrest now-fired Officer Jordy Yanes Martel on charges of battery.
He was also charged with official misconduct for filing two reports containing false details about his interaction outside a strip club with Satchell, 33, on January 14. He had arrested her on charges of battery on a cop and resisting with violence — charges that have since been dismissed.
“If you’re an officer that has broken policy or acted under color of law with a belief that Black lives don’t matter, you ought to be looking over your shoulder because the chickens have finally come home to roost,” said her lawyer, Jonathan Jordan. “My client deserves to witness justice be served in this prosecution against this former officer where so many others in her position have not been as fortunate,” he added.
Satchell is African American. Martel is Hispanic.
The arrest also comes as protests against police brutality have unfolded across the nation following the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis cop pressed his knee on his neck for more than eight minutes. Martel, a police officer for less than two years, surrendered Thursday morning and was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.
“As a result of Martel’s actions, Ms. Satchel suffered abrasions to her stomach from the Tasers, bruises and abrasions on her arms and bruises on her legs,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle said Thursday afternoon.