Sheriff offers job to Black man detained by mistake [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A jogger was detained in Florida two weeks ago for fitting the description of a burglary suspect: a Black male, with a white tank top, dark shorts, and a beard.
• Joseph Griffin, a registered nurse and former military veteran, was out jogging in Deltona when the encounter happened.
• Griffin was offered a job in the county sheriff’s office for the way in which he handled the incident with the deputies who detained him.

A black jogger was detained by Florida deputies two weeks ago because he fit the description of a burglary suspect — a Black male, with a white tank top, dark shorts, and a beard. He was immediately cleared when the real suspect was apprehended.

Joseph Griffin was offered a job at the sheriff’s office, according to reports.

The former military policeman was stopped by Volusia County deputies because they were looking for a suspect matching his description, WSAV reported.

The shocked registered nurse pulled out his cellphone and began livestreaming the incident on Facebook Live.

“You’re not in any trouble or anything. There was a burglary that happened, you kind of fit the description. Let me just make sure you’re not him, OK,” the deputy can be heard telling Griffin on the 17-minute body camera footage.

“Really?” Griffin responds.

The deputies kept assuring Griffin that he is not under arrest but just fits the description of the man they are looking for. One deputy even offers to hold Griffin’s cellphone to continue recording the encounter.

He was handcuffed by one of the deputies and told his viewers, ” If something happens to me, y’all better raise hell.”

After a chopper flies overhead, Griffin adds, “It’s just a lot going on today,” likely referring to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the death of George Floyd while in custody of Minneapolis police.

“We’re the same, you know me, I’m take care of you,” the deputy says as his bodycam records the incident, which ends when police arrest the real suspect.

Sheriff Mike Chitwood later said Griffin would join the office during an implicit bias training session, adding that the could have a new job if he wanted.

“I also just want to say again how proud I am of the deputies who handled this call. Granted, nothing like Facebook Live existed when I was starting out, but I don’t know if a young Mike Chitwood would have kept a live video running for somebody I was detaining,” he wrote.

“These guys did it because in that moment, they understood what it meant to Mr. Griffin, who was going out of his way to be cooperative and respectful,” Chitwood added.

Source: New York Post