On a Thursday evening in July 2016, twenty-year-old Shase Howse was making a short round trip to a convenience store a block away from his home when a police officer stopped and frisked him. Shase lived in Glenville, a black neighborhood on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio, with his mother. He eventually made it back to his house — or at least to his porch. Shase was on the phone with his mom, who was out for a bike ride around the neighborhood, and he was searching his pocket for his keys when multiple plainclothes police officers pulled up in an unmarked car.

They asked him if he lived in the house. He said yes. They asked again and he said, “Yes, what the fuck?” They told him he had a “smart mouth and a bad attitude.”

I will leave the details of what happened next to be read in the words of Shase and his mother. In short, the police charged the porch and then tackled, beat, and arrested Shase. His mother heard this happening over the phone, rushed home, and pleaded with them to stop. The officers took Shase to the Cleveland City Jail, where he was held over the weekend. His mother borrowed money to pay his $1,000 bail bond.