San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MAN WHOSE LA MESA ARREST SPARKED BACKLASH REFLECTS
Video of officer grabbing, shoving him at transit center ignited local protests days after Floyd killing
Amaurie Johnson does not want to think about how differently things could have turned out if a friend had not recorded his arrest on video last May 27.
Johnson, who is Black, was waiting for his friends at a La Mesa transit center when Officer Matthew Dages, who is White, approached him and accused him of illegally smoking. Johnson was not smoking, and he complied with Dages, giving him his name and date of birth, though he also questioned and protested against what he viewed as a discriminatory stop. During the encounter, the friends Johnson had been waiting for pulled up in a car, and a passenger began recording on a cellphone. The video showed Dages grabbing and shoving Johnson as he detained and later arrested the San Diego man on
suspicion of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.
Dages claimed Johnson slapped his arm. The bystander footage, and Dages’ body-worn camera video, does not appear to support that claim.
“I would be charged right now, it would be my word versus his,” Johnson, 24, said during an interview last week, pausing for several seconds to contemplate the idea. “That’s pretty much the status quo with policing policies in America. Nobody holds (officers) accountable unless you force them to (with video evidence).”
La Mesa police decided about a week after the arrest not to seek charges against Johnson. Chief Walt Vasquez fired Dages a few months after that and in January, the district attorney charged the former officer with a felony count of lying in his report on Johnson’s arrest.
Dages has pleaded not guilty to the charge, and the criminal case is still pending, with a preliminary hearing set for next month in Superior Court. A federal civil rights lawsuit Johnson filed against the city of La Mesa has been put on pause pending the outcome of Dages’ criminal case.
Dages’ lawyer, Kasey Castillo, issued a statement when her client was charged saying the former officer denied the criminal allegations and “looks forward to clearing his name.” She also said Dages had no prior history of discipline and had accumulated several performancebased commendations during his nearly three years with the La Mesa Police Department.
For Johnson, “It’s been a very trying year,” he said last week. “I haven’t been able to go to court yet (in Dages’ case), so this story is still going at the moment. I haven’t received closure.”
Though Johnson was not physically injured during his arrest, he and others have argued that it highlighted the routine bias and discrimination that Black people are subjected to by law enforcement. Even more critically, it occurred just two days after video emerged of Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck.
The day Johnson was arrested was the first night that protests over Floyd’s murder turned destructive in Minneapolis, but largely before that protest movement had grown nationwide.
Outrage over Dages’ treatment of Johnson was largely the reason the first local protests against police brutality and racism were centered in La Mesa, including an often overlooked demonstration march of several dozen people on Friday, May 29. That same night, much of the local media was focused on the San Diego police shooting of a murder suspect in City Heights. It was the first local police killing in the wake of Floyd’s death, and tensions were high as residents claimed officers “executed” the man, and one person in a passing SUV asked officers, “How does it feel to get away with murder?”
But the next day, a second protest in La Mesa could not go unnoticed, as hundreds more demonstrators poured into the city. The day took a turn toward violence by the late afternoon, and by early the next morning, looters had ransacked downtown La Mesa businesses and burned two banks and the historic Randall Lamb building to the ground.
Days later, at the request of Sheriff Bill Gore, armored trucks rolled through La Mesa carrying heavily armed California National Guard troops.
Acting La Mesa police Chief Matt Nicholass, a 23-year veteran of the force, said the department recognizes the strained relationships with the community. But he said he is hopeful structures like a new oversight board and a revamped use-of-force and de-escalation policy will make a difference in the city.
Nicholass, who took over when the former chief retired last August, said the department will explore opportunities for more training to prevent a repeat of last May, referring to both Johnson’s arrest and the unrest.
“The spark of (the May 30 protest) was the behavior of one officer and after a due process meeting, that officer was removed from the La Mesa police force,” Councilman Bill Baber said last week. “That is a positive step forward.”
Johnson said the issue is systemic, and removing Dages doesn’t fix deeper issues. “Am I happy he’s not an officer anymore? No, he shouldn’t have been one in the first place.”
In the statement released in January, Dages’ lawyer said the former police chief had once deemed her client a “role model” officer.
She said Dages contested the findings of a third-party investigation that determined the officer had overstepped his police powers and was dishonest on the job. He did not dispute that he failed to turn on his body camera early in his contact with Johnson and was discourteous toward him. In a meeting with Vasquez, Dages expressed remorse for the comments he made to Johnson, Castillo wrote in a January email.
Dages asked a judge in March to review decisions by the city and an appeals board regarding his termination. The request states he wants his job back, back pay and “benefits lost, with interest.” He also seeks to clear his personnel file of records related to the discipline.
In the weeks that followed those first La Mesa protests, hundreds and sometimes thousands of demonstrators continued to flock to the streets in cities across San Diego County to demand an end to police brutality and respect for Black lives.
“Throughout the last year, eyes have been opened to the true nature of police brutality,” Johnson said, though he argued that for himself, his own experience served only as a reminder of what he already knew.
“Being a Black man in America, I was always aware of how they see me and treat me like I’m not even human,” Johnson said. “It’s a very haunting experience. I’ve always known, but it is different living that experience and when your own experience invokes some passion in the masses.”
Johnson said that because his ordeal was so public, others have felt comfortable sharing similar experiences with him over the past year. He said racism is more prevalent in San Diego County than most people realize, and he has plans to start a podcast for locals to share their stories.
Despite the negatives of Johnson’s own experience, he said he’s seen some positive changes, like friends who are not minorities now understanding more about racial bias. “When something happens to someone you know, and you know their good character, you realize a person doesn’t have to be a bad person to have something bad happen with the police,” he said.
He was also encouraged by the large, diverse crowds that showed up in La Mesa to support him, and in the weeks that followed in cities across the county.
“We need to keep that passion we had, and we’re going to need a lot more than that,” Johnson said. “I enjoyed seeing everybody come together, moving in the right direction together. And that’s the way we need to stay. Do it all together, collectively, fighting for equality.”
“Being a Black man in America, I was always aware of how (the police) see me and treat me like I’m not even human. It’s a very haunting experience.” Amaurie Johnson • San Diego resident