Newly released bodycam footage shows the moment an Alabama high school band director was tased and handcuffed in front of dozens of screaming and crying students after he refused to stop the band from playing following a football game.
The video, published by Birmingham police Monday night, shows the chaos before, during and immediately following the arrest of Minor High School band director Johnny Mims at a school stadium last Thursday.
Both the Minor High School band and the band of the opposing team, Jackson-Olin High School, continued to play after the football game ended in a common practice called the 5th Quarter in which opposing school bands battle one another for the best musical performance after the athletes’ competition ends.
Birmingham police, however, were trying to clear out the stadium and asked the bands to stop playing. The Jackson-Olin band complied and headed home, but Mims refused to silence his band members.
Cops said the football game had ended 18 minutes prior to the beginning of the bodycam footage they released, which opens with an officer running across the field to the bleachers where the band is playing.
The officers inform Mims that it’s time to pack up and go while he repeatedly tells them to “Get out of my face” while the band plays loudly, according to the clip.
“I got my troops coming. They gonna sweep their asses out, OK?” the unidentified cop told the band director as cheerleaders dance on the field sidelines, the footage shows.
“Call your band! Tell them to stop!” another cop shouted.
“Cut it! We got to go. The minutes is over,” a third officer told Mims.
“We’re fixing to go. This is our last song,” he replied before again asking the cops to get out of his face.
The officers tell him that they will contact the school and that he will go to jail and Mims responds with two thumbs up and a “That’s cool.”
Mims then begins counting off and moving his arms to direct his band members.
The stadium lights go out as the band continues to play, according to the footage.
“Put him in handcuffs,” one of the cops yells out.
Mims then directs the band to complete their song to cheers and yells and steps down from the platform, where officers attempt to arrest him in the dark.
A scuffle of people are shown next on the camera and a young woman is held back as she yells “leave him alone.”
“Get off of me!” the band director tells the officers.
“He going to jail. He hit the officer, he got to go to jail. He swung on the officer,” one of the cops said in the pile.
“I did not swing on the officer, man,” Mims defended himself.
One of the cops tells him to put his hands behind his back and then tased him when he refused — as 140 students looked on and screamed, the video shows.
Mims was arrested for disorderly conduct, physical harassment and resisting arrest, police said.
Birmingham police said the interaction between its officers and the band director is under investigation but accused him of pushing an officer.
Mims’ attorney, State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, said that the cops involved showed an “alarming abuse of power” when the situation should have been de-escalated.
