HORN LAKE, Miss. – The Horn Lake business owner found guilty of impeding traffic during a December march protesting police shootings of African Americans nationwide says he will appeal.
Tedarrell Muhammad was identified in traffic camera and police dash cam videos as one of about 50 marches who stopped and blocked a busy intersection during the afternoon rush hour. But prosecutors said Muhammad, unlike the others, disobeyed orders to get out of the street. After being found guilty this week, Muhammad was fined $500 and given a 90 day suspended jail sentence. But Muhammad maintains the case is more than about a misdemeanor traffic charge. Following this week’s hearing, he said he was upset that police came to his business and arrested him in front of his family and customers, rather than citing him on the misdemeanor and ordering him to appear in court. He said his arrest was a common tactic used against young black men on the rise in Mississippi, “you try to destroy them,” he said.
The December protest was part of a demonstration being held at the same time in cities across the nation to call attention to the shootings of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York.
