Joseph Kent, the Baltimore protester whose brusque detainment during police-brutality protests was captured on national television, is still awaiting processing, according to city officials.
Kent was apparently detained for violating the city’s 10p.m. curfew, which was instituted after violent clashes between police and civilians stemming from anger at suspicious death of Baltimore resident Freddie Gray in police custody. Mashable, which named Kent as the man who was detained, also reported that he is a 21-year-old student at Morgan State University and had been a prominent figure in similar police-brutality protests in Ferguson, Mo.
When footage of Kent’s detainment first aired on CNN, the anchors seemed oblivious to what had happened.
Social media soon lit up with tweets condemning law enforcement’s apparent disregard for due process while detaining Kent.
https://twitter.com/TalibKweli/status/593296117795782657
#JosephKent was kidnapped by Baltimore law enforcement officers on live television. pic.twitter.com/diU8FZbDD7
— Broderick (@BroderickGreer) April 29, 2015
#JosephKent seconds before being snatched by police as a passing Humvee shielded them from media pic.twitter.com/nsQZi74x16
— respectful huff (@alexqarbuckle) April 29, 2015
Employees at Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Facility told the Daily Dot on Wednesday morning that a man named Joseph Kent was indeed processed around midnight on Tuesday.
The CBIF, which was clearly busy, offered little other information, noting that “his paperwork hasn’t been entered into our system yet” and that Kent was “still waiting to see the commissioner.”
Screengrabs via CNN | Remix by Max Fleishman