( Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
A former Louisville police officer recently pleaded guilty to unreasonable force after hitting a demonstrator in the back of the head during an ant-police brutality protest last year.
The incident occurred after Corey P. Evans attempted to make arrests for unlawful assembly and curfew violations after the May 2020 protests erupted in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. He was with the department for six years before resigning a month later.
This is not the first time that Evans was accused of attacking a citizen.
In 2018, Evans was caught on camera punching Jarrus Ransom, a 32-year-old Black man who was pulled from his car by Evans during a traffic stop.
Some police officers have been found to use excessive force in more cases towards the African American community.
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, police are twice as likely to use force against people of color. Black people experience the threat or use of force over 5% of the time while whites experience it 2% of the time.
“The effort put forth by the assigned agents, detectives, and prosecutors was crucial to the successful prosecution of the case,” said Michael A. Bennett, a U.S. attorney in Kentucky, adding, “the work of those assigned to a case such as this fosters confidence in the system and promotes trust between our citizens and the officers who are sworn to protect them.”
The trust that he spoke of between the citizens and officers is all that people in the Black community want. Although, it is hard to build this trust when situations like this persist.
“While the vast majority of law enforcement officers are hardworking professionals who work conscientiously to protect the public, Cory Evans was simply not one of those officers,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Edward J. Gray.
Evans is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 23 and could face a maximum sentence of 10 years and a $250,000 fine.