Delilah Belle Hamlin: A Black pastor was watering his neighbor’s flowers. Then the police showed up to arrest & charge him

Helping your neighbors… No good deed goes unpunished

A Black pastor in Alabama says he was wrongfully arrested and charged with a crime while he was watering his neighbor’s flowers.

Michael Jennings, a longtime pastor at Vision of Abundant Life Church in Sylacauga, Ala., says he was doing a neighborly deed of watering his out-of-town neighbor’s flowers, per their request, when a police officer showed up.

“I’m supposed to be here. I’m Pastor Jennings. I live across the street,” Jennings told the officer with Alabama’s Childersburg Police Department, in newly released body camera footage of his arrest obtained by NPR.

“I’m looking out for their house while they’re gone, watering their flowers,” he added.

Following their arrival, officers arrested Jennings and placed him in the back of a police cruiser — later charging him with obstructing government operations, according to a criminal complaint.

Body camera footage captured of Jennings’ arrest on May 22 was released by his attorneys last week, who are calling the situation unlawful.

The attorneys representing Jennings say the release of the body camera video will furthermore clear the way for “legal action against the officers and more.”

“This video makes it clear that these officers decided they were going to arrest Pastor Jennings less than five minutes after pulling up and then tried to rewrite history claiming he hadn’t identified himself when that was the first thing he did,” said Harry Daniels, an Atlanta-based attorney representing Jennings, in a statement to NPR.