Police Arrest Blind Man Tannie Burke, Dump Him In Dark Vacant Lot, And Leave Him There By Himself

Police in Florida’s Miami-Dade area arrested a blind man, 27-year-old Tannie Burke, allegedly for possessing a marijuana cigarette — but after driving him aimlessly around the region for about 20 minutes, they told him to get out of the car in a vacant, darkened lot about a mile from his home, forced him to sign an arrest form he could not see, and then simply left him there.

The incident happened on the evening of August 27, but was exposed only this week by a Miami TV station, WFOR-TV.

Burke said that while the four plainclothes officers were driving him around, they seemed highly upset that his stepfather, Marvin Armstrong, had recorded the arrest on his cell phone camera, and vocally protested the officers’ treatment of his sight-impaired stepson throughout. That video can be seen above.

The cops found no marijuana in the possession of Burke or either of the two men cited with him. A single marijuana cigarette was found on the ground nearby where the trio was sitting when the police approached them.

Neither of the other two men were taken into custody, and the misdemeanor pot-possession charges against Burke, who has no criminal convictions, were dropped.

Burke was born completely blind in one eye. He can perceive some indistinct shapes with the other, but only in daylight. The four police dumped him in a lot where it was pitch black.

“There were no street lights and no houses. It was just dark,” Burke told the TV station. “I told them in the car I was blind and I couldn’t see.”

He also said the officers took his cell phone, so he could not call someone to pick him up.

On the videotape, as the police take the blind man to their car, where he is unable to get inside, Armstrong is heard to yell, “He’s blind dumb***. If you don’t tell him he’s walking to the car how the hell is he going to know?”

Burke said that he somehow felt his way to a nearby road, and walked with one foot on the grass and one in the street to be sure that he did not wander into the road, or too far from it. Eventually, he said, he came across a kind stranger who helped him find his way home.

Burke believes the cops dumped him in the middle of nowhere to retaliate against his stepfather for taking a video recording of the arrest. In the car, Burke said, the officers told him that Armstrong was “mouthy” and “we don’t like that.”

The Miami-Dade Police Department says they are now investigating why their officers would arrest a blind man and abandon him far from home — creating a clearly dangerous situation.

[Image via WFOR-TV]