Neighborhood outcry stops Asheville police’s brutalization of a Black local and a community mobilizes against police brutality
Above: Asheville police piled on top of Devon Whitmire on May 13, with one officer pressing down on his throat with her elbow. The brutality only stopped due to neighborhood outcry.
[This article features direct descriptions of racist police brutality]
Blade reporter Matilda Bliss contributed to this story
Early evening on Saturday, May 13, three Asheville police officers surrounded Devon Whitmire in a parking lot at the Livingson Apartments public housing complex.
He had his arm in a sling from an injury. The cops said they’d identified him “based on your tattoos” and wanted to take him to jail. As he tells them to leave him alone, one of the police officers threatens “partner, you’re going to get tased.”
They grab for his hands and he recoils, tying to to move them away.
A video recorded by Whitmire’s fiance shows the police then seize Whitmire, shout that he has a gun and throw him to the curb. His injured arm and chest land hard on the concrete.
It’s not clear from what’s on video if police thought Whitmire was someone else. The only open warrant he had, even according to the police department’s own p.r., was for a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats.
Whitmire spits at the police and writhes to try to keep them from piling on top of him, but they handcuff him even as he and his fiance shout that he’s still recovering from a broken arm.
Two minutes into the video a police officer has his elbow pushing Whitemire’s throat against the curb and two other cops are on top of him, a situation that can easily seriously injured or kill someone. The cops claim they’re searching for a gun, but he shouts loudly “I’ve got no motherfucking gun.”
No gun was ever found.
So far what’s happening in the video is an all too-familiar sight when it comes to police brutality, multiple cops piling on a handcuffed Black man they’re accusing of a minor crime or because he “fit the description.”
Seemingly aware of this, one of the police officers moves to block Whitmire’s fiance from filming and starts shouting at her to “back off.” In a 2020 survey APD officers said “knowing your decisions will not be scrutinized” was one of their top priorities. In 2021 they arrested two Blade journalists “because they’re videotaping.”
Slide from a 2020 APD survey where they declare they don’t want their decisions scrutinized. Officers have repeatedly acted to try to stop journalists and members of the public from recording their actions
“Why the fuck is you on him like that?” she asks repeatedly
But this time the neighborhood intervened. Within minutes, dozens of Southside residents had poured onto the street, shouting at the police to stop piling on Whitmire.
“He can’t breathe,” someone shouts as a female officer puts her elbow on Whitmire’s throat and bears down with her weight.
“Get your arm off his neck!” someone shouts.
“Y’all are doing too goddamn much now!” a man in the crowd says.
“Just another Black man,” his fiance shouts.
“You’re going to kill him!” comes another cry.
This outrage worked; after locals started yelling they finally lift Whitmire off of his chest. Thrashing at the police officers who’d just nearly killed him, his leg hits a cop’s groin.
The APD claims this was enough to send the officer to the hospital, but he appears unaffected in the video. Cops lie.
In addition to horrific and widely known police murders like those of Eric Garner and George Floyd, last year Fletcher and Henderson County cops piled on Christopher Hensley in a similar fashion and killed him. There is a very real chance that Devon Whitmire would not be alive if those in Livingston Apartments had not intervened.
On May 15 an APD press release blasted locals telling them not to kill a man wanted for a misdemeanor as “a hostile crowd gathered, yelling at police.” They also claim that Whitmire told them he had a gun, even thought the video footage shows him and his fiance repeatedly, loudly telling them the exact opposite.
Even though Whitmire only directly struck one officer in the video, the APD charged him with two counts of “Assault on an officer inflicting serious injury,” three counts of “assault on a government official” three more of “malicious conduct of a prisoner” and resisting arrest. Apparently a Black man trying to breathe with an elbow on his
Rally against police brutality
The brutality of Whitmire’s arrest, shown in the video, and the APD’s smearing of the crowd that stopped them from inflicting more has drawn widespread outrage.
Livingston is in the heart of Southside, Asheville’s largest Black neighborhood, and the one hardest hit by poverty and a long history of redlining. The APD has a long history of treating the area like occupied territory and its residents like the enemy.
From Jerry Williams to Johnnie Rush to tear-gassing anti-racist protesters, bigoted violence has long been a mainstay of city hall’s cops. Instead of curbing this, local officials have vocally supported the APD, giving it carte blanche as it’s cracked down on multiple frontline communities, mutual aid workers and journalists. It’s not hard to see how that creates an environment where Asheville cops feel zero hesitation about pushing a local Black man’s throat into concrete.
If this year’s budget proposal passes Asheville city hall will have increased the APD’s budget by over 25 percent since 2020, despite nearly half the police force leaving during that time. During the same period they’ve cut or barely funded services like transit and neighborhood grants, hitting local Black communities particularly hard.
Today there’s a rally against police brutality, demanding “stop police violence” and “justice for Devon Whitmire,” at 4 p.m. in front of the Buncombe County Courthouse.
“Neighbors and community members came together to call out the police violence they were witnessing and to protect Devon’s life,” the rally’s statement on social media reads. “For this APD called them ‘hostile.’ Now the community is demanding answers and accountability from these Asheville cops. We won’t let police continue to perpetrate violence in our communities.”
In a video on social media Michael Hayes, one of the rally’s organizers, says “the fact of the matter is there were no de-escalation tactics” and the police’s claims about Whitmire fitting the description “does not give you the right to assault a community member.”
“We’re not going to stand for any injustice in our community,” he continues. “We’re not going to allow violence to be perpetrated by the police or anyone else in our communities This is not going to be another summer of 2020 with George Floyd, with our young Black men being killed by police officers.”
“These four officers need to be removed and charged with for assault,” another man in the video says in remarks directed at police chief David Zack. “If you’re not going to do that then you need to resign.”
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Blade editor David Forbes has been a journalist in Asheville for over 15 years. She writes about history, life and, of course, fighting city hall. They live in downtown, where they drink too much tea and scheme for anarchy.
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