Alabama high school band director Johnny Mims is speaking out after being tased by police for not stopping the performance after the football game. A band director at Minor High School in the Birmingham suburb of Adamsville, Alabama, Mims, says that Birmingham police used excessive force against him on Sept. 14 when they shocked him with a stun gun three times for allegedly refusing to comply with an officer’s orders while clearing the field.
“I didn’t deserve to be tased,” Mims said on Wednesday to “Good Morning America.” “I didn’t deserve to be tased, regardless of how people say it or how people feel about it. I never deserved that. I’m a good citizen. I was on the ground.
“So to go and tase me twice or three times, that’s excessive,” he continued. “I’m a band director. I’m the bus driver. So I wasn’t I wasn’t running. I can’t go nowhere. I got students that I’m accountable for.”
Tased for Making Music?
The tasing occurred at P.D. Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham during the “fifth quarter,” a band face-off that began at HBCU games where the schools go back and forth playing music and entertaining the crowd after the game. The tradition is time-honored in conferences like SWAC.
According to Mims, the school bands both agreed to play three songs during the allotted “fifth quarter” segment, but police approached Mims, asking the band to leave the stadium during the third song while he stood on the podium.
“It is a big cultural thing that happens amongst bands. Something that everybody looks forward to,” Mims said. “A large proportion of our fans come just to see the bands and so it’s something that’s not uncustomary.”
When Mims told the police that they would leave after the band finished its last song, the altercation occurred.
The Receipts
In the body camera footage released by the Birmingham Police Department, Mims repeatedly says to the police, “Get out of my face.”
A sergeant responded, “Cut it! We got to go.”
“I know. We’re fixing to go. This is our last song,” Mims said in response.
When an officer responds, saying the consequence was Mims going to jail, he gives a thumbs up, replying, “That’s cool.”
As the band continues to play against the orders from the police, the sergeant yells to put Mims in handcuffs, and an office says, “I’m fixing to tase you.”
“He hit the officer. He got to go to jail,” an officer said.
“I did not swing on the officer, man,” Mims says in response.
Police allege that Mims refused to place his hands behind his back and pushed an officer. In the video, an officer deployed his stun gun on Mims three times. Birmingham Fire and Rescue treated Mims at the scene, and he was then transported to the hospital.
Mims said that the Jefferson County School District placed him on administrative leave during a press conference on Wednesday. His attorney claims that Birmingham police only released partial footage.
“They failed to give all versions of the bodycam information to your all,” said Mims attorney Juandalynn Givan to ABC News. “You will see that my client never struck or attempted to strike a Birmingham police officer.”
“I want these charges dropped against my client. His reputation has been impacted. They have impugned his character,” Givan continued. “We want justice for our client and we want his voice to be heard. We want him respected and we want an apology from the city of Birmingham.”
