Ohio Woman Arrested and Tased After Police Demand She Mask Up at Son's Outdoor Football Game

Alecia Kitts traveled to see her son play football in Logan, Ohio. Footage shows her seated with her family at the proper social distance from other families without a mask on. A police officer approached her because she wasn’t wearing a mask as required by the school district. After she struggled and resisted arrest, the officer in the video tased her into submission in front of her children and arrested her.

One witness, according to the Ohio Star, said that a child sitting on the metal bleachers got shocked when the charge traveled through the metal.

According to Tiffany Kennedy, the woman who shot the above video, Kitts had not been warned for not wearing a mask prior to the officer approaching her. Kennedy also said that Kitts has asthma and that’s why she was not wearing a mask.

“There is no reason to tase someone and arrest them for not wearing a mask,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy also pointed out the female officer who is shown running toward the Logan officer and Kitts at the end of the video was not wearing a mask – pulling one out of her pocket as she was in pursuit.

“Alecia’s mom said that when the officer tased her, the current went through the bleachers and zapped the kid sitting there too.”

Kitts appears to be socially distanced from others in the crowd and sitting with her family. “There were only 25 or 30 fans from our town on our side,” said Kennedy.

Police declined to comment (see update below). The description on the video posted to YouTube reads:

Only in LOGAN OHIO does a person get TASED AND ARRESTED for not wearing a freaking MASK Here u can also see very clearly that NEITHER of these cops even had a mask on, yet they’re arresting this girl for not wearing a mask 😳🙄 TURN VOLUME UP 👮‍♀️ Police brutality at its finest

There are two important facts to sort through. First, Ohio has a mask mandate but only when you are indoors or cannot socially distance. The school has its own rules on masking, but it is unclear whether they could have someone arrested for not following policy. Surely, it would have been less traumatizing for the children who witnessed this or were hurt by it if they had just escorted her out instead of having her arrested.

Secondly, there’s no excuse for resisting arrest, even when it’s an unlawful arrest, which this may be. Resisting arrest leads to getting hurt. It’s always a better strategy to go with police willingly while retaining a good lawyer who will fight it out for you in court. Resisting arrest puts lives in danger. Don’t do it.

Update 7:24 p.m.: The Logan Police Department issued a press release on Wednesday telling their side of the story:

PRESS RELEASE On September 23rd at approximately 5:30 P.M. School Resource Officer Chris Smith was working a special…

Posted by Logan Police Department on Thursday, September 24, 2020