Le’Keian Woods

Le’Keian Woods was brutally beaten by police in Jacksonville, Florida. The 24-year-old was riding as a passenger in a pickup truck the police stopped because the driver was supposedly not wearing a seatbelt. Bodycam and bystander video of Woods’ beating as well as a mug shot of his bruised and swollen face went viral on social media, sparking local and national outrage.

Woods tried to run from the scene. His lawyer noted that Woods had every right to flee because the police had no “probable cause” that he had committed any crime. In the bodycam footage, as described by Reuters, Woods “can be seen falling to the ground after he is tased twice. Other detectives arrived and can be seen kneeing Woods multiple times in the head and shoulder area as well as elbowing him in the face.” The arrest report indicated cops struck Woods 17 times. A bystander’s video shows at least three officers on top of Woods, and then, after he is handcuffed, Woods is propped up against a cop’s legs, unable to sit up or stand on his own. Woods was taken to a hospital for treatment of his injuries, including a concussion and a ruptured kidney. The U.S. Department of Justice, and local authorities, took no action against the cops.

Woods was charged with drug violations and resisting arrest. On 22 April 2024, Woods pled guilty to the misdemeanor of resisting arrest without violence for running from the cops. Woods did not concede he was guilty, and he was sentenced to nine days jail time already served. In October 2024 Woods filed a federal lawsuit against four of the cops who beat him.

Woods’ beating was met by outrage and by a series of protests in Jacksonville. His mother Natassia played an active role, along with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee. There is a crying need to rebuild the movement against racist police brutality. We propose to do so around the slogan “Open All Police Archives!” a campaign that Le’Keian’s mother Natassia Woods has endorsed.

Woods’ case calls out for opening the archives as an elementary act of self-defense for black people. In 2019 one of the cops involved in Woods’ beating, Josue Garriga III, shot and killed black Florida A&M student Jamee Johnson after a traffic stop. In 2015 Garriga was also one of the cops involved in the killing of Andrew Williams, a 48-year-old black man. In 2022 racist text messages Garriga had posted in a gang unit chat group came to light. Garriga was arrested in April 2024 for alleged statutory sexual assault.

This is not the case of one “bad apple” but indicative of the role of the police in capitalist America. We demand that any and all statements by the cops and witnesses to Woods’ beating be released. We also demand release of all original unedited video recordings of the beating. We demand opening the personnel files and incident reports of all the officers involved, including text messages and emails as well as files from other Departments they worked for. We also demand that all texts from Garriga’s gang unit chat group be released.