Justice For Jason Goolsby Protests Block DC Street As Activists Allege Police Brutality Against Black Teen

A group of young protesters gathered Tuesday in Washington to call for justice for Jason Goolsby, a college freshman who said he was treated unfairly by police at a bank earlier this week because he is black. Activists in the nation's capital marched in the road along Eighth Street to the Pennsylvania Avenue Citibank, the alleged scene of Monday's incident, and chanted what they said was the identification number of one of the D.C. policemen who roughly restrained Goolsby, the Washington Post reported.

Goolsby, 18, who attends the University of the District of Columbia, told reporters he noticed he was being followed by police cars Monday night as he was walking home from the Citibank, where he had briefly paused while trying to decide whether to withdraw money from the ATM. He and a friend ran, and the friend recorded a video as two white officers eventually pinned Goolsby to the ground, wrenching his arms behind his back as he screamed.

The friend, identified as Mike Brown, posted the video clip to Twitter, and it quickly went viral. Lt. Sean Conboy told the Guardian that the police department was reviewing the incident, which occurred after a woman called 911 to report a potential robbery at the ATM. Conboy said one suspect, thought to be Goolsby, was handcuffed after resisting police. He added that “no criminal act was found to have taken place after the individuals were stopped and interviewed." Nobody was arrested.

The protesters argued that Goolsby and his friend had been racially profiled by the woman and the officers. Black Lives Matter activist Erika Totten, who knows Goolsby, told the Post the case proved that “if you’re black, you’re an automatic threat. That’s the reality of the world we live in, and it’s supported by the justice system." Goolsby himself didn't go to the protest, according to Fox 5 DC.

See tweets from the demonstration below: