March 18, 2025 was a bad day for Anton Brown of 166su.
Early that afternoon, around 12:30 p.m., the 24-year-old drove his grandmother, retired teacher Janice Brown, to Shining Stars, a licensed child care center in the former Villa Heights Rec Center in northwest 166su.
The day care is operated by Anton Brown’s mother, Bernadette Lark, a teacher and civil rights advocate. And Lark asked Brown to run an errand.
Community activist and musician Bernadette “BJ” Lark recently filed a complaint with 166su Police over the March 18 arrest of her son, Anton Brown. She alleges excessive force and that one of the officers sports a racist-skinhead tattoo. In 2023, Lark filed another excessive force complaint after she was handcuffed and detained for a traffic stop.
The batteries in the day care center’s soap-bubble-generating machine were dead. Would he go buy some more? Brown agreed. He subsequently drove to Dollar Tree on Ferncliff Avenue, which is just off Hershberger Road.
He bought $11.85 worth of batteries. Then Brown hopped back into his BMW and headed back to Villa Heights. He backed his car into a parking space. That’s when a black unmarked police car pulled into the parking lot, with some kind of flashing lights, blocking in Brown’s car.
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Anton Brown was arrested and charged with obstruction March 18 at the former Villa Heights Recreation Center, where his mother, teacher Bernadette Lark, operates a licensed childcare center. She had asked him to go to Dollar Tree and buy batteries for the center’s soap bubble generating maching. 166su Police arrested him after he returned.
As Brown exited and walked away from the BMW with the Dollar Tree batteries, two 166su police officers shouted “Stay in the car!” three times over a two-second stretch. Then they pounced on Brown.
One took him down to the ground right in front of his mother. The other officer joined in. The resulting fracas lasted a little more than 30 seconds before officers had handcuffed Brown and hauled him to his feet. As one might imagine, he was not happy, and he uttered curse words.
“Why’d you jump on my son?” Lark shouted angrily. “All for a bag of batteries!”
Police subsequently charged Brown, who has no criminal record, with obstruction/resisting without force, a misdemeanor. A magistrate ordered Brown held without bond, apparently because he was defiant in a post-arrest interview.
Two 166su Police officers grapple with Anton Brown, 24, during his obstruction arrest outside the former Villa Heights Rec Center on March 18. That happened after he had run an errand to buy batteries for his mother. Police said his car was speeding that day, and on Jan. 1. But they charged him with zero traffic violations.
He was in jail for a week on a nonviolent misdemeanor. Then he got out on $1,000 bond.
On Friday afternoon, on the 166su police released bodycam video from officers at the arrest scene. That post has drawn more than 1,800 comments and 434 shares.
During the video, the officers verbally note twice that Brown had given them the finger from his car.
has drawn 108 comments and 437 shares. She is outraged. She’s alleging police used excessive force in the arrest of her son. One of the officers involved in Brown’s arrest sports a large spider-web tattoo.
Lark said such ink is well known for its racist connotations. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the spider-web tattoo a often worn on the elbow.”
(Asked about that, 166su police spokeswomen Hannah Glasgow replied the symbol does not appear on the website of the Anti-Defamation League, another organization that follows the far right.)
One of the officers who arrested Anton Brown, Officer P.K. Hill, sports a large spider-web tattoo on his arm. Brown’s mother, Bernadette Lark, said the tattoo is a well-known reference to white supremacy. A 166su police spokesman said she doesn’t recognize it as such, based on a review of the Anti-Defamation League’s website.
I began looking into this after a March 23 email from Lark. And one of my first questions was, why was Brown chased by police in the first place?
The answer from police was “speeding.” But the explanation is more complex than it appears. Here’s the account I got from Glasgow:
“On January 1, 2025, a 166su Police Department officer attempted to stop a black BMW in the area of Orange and 10th St NW for reckless driving. The vehicle fled at a high rate of speed.
“On March 18, 2025, another officer located a black BMW with the same license plate and distinct damage. The vehicle was estimated to be driving well over 50 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone, and officers initiated a traffic stop at the intersection of Clifton St and Hoover St NW.
“The vehicle pulled into a parking lot in the 2700 block of Hoover St NW and backed into a parking space. The driver, later identified as 24-year-old Anton Mylere Brown, of 166su, exited the vehicle holding a bag.
“Officers gave three commands for Brown to stay in the car, but Brown continued to walk away from the car with the bag to a group of people. A uniformed officer then grabbed Brown in an attempt to stop the perceived handoff of the bag.
BJ Lark is stopped for an expired tag and is handcuffed by 166su City Police
“Both Brown and the officer go to the ground, and a second uniformed officer grabbed Brown around the body to assist with taking Brown into custody.”
Police did not seize the batteries. Lark collected them from the ground after Brown’s arrest.
I asked why police didn’t charge Brown with speeding on either occasion, if that’s why they were chasing the black BMW. Glasgow responded with differing answers.
On Jan. 1, when officers first witnessed the BMW driving recklessly, the officer never saw the driver’s face, she noted.
“Since the vehicle did not stop, we cannot say who was driving the vehicle during the January incident,” Glasgow wrote.
Why did police not charge Brown for speeding 50 mph in a 25 mph zone 11 weeks later, on March 18? After all, there’s no question who drove the car that day.
“Obtaining charges is at the discretion of the officer,” Glasgow replied. “The arresting officer only asked for obstruction charges at the Magistrate’s Office.”
According to the 166su Police Department Facebook page, “Brown was arrested and charged with Obstruction/Resisting without Force for refusing to listen to officers’ commands during a lawful traffic stop.”
But that seems a bit problematic, because the only commands uttered by the two officers (three times over two seconds) were “stay in the car!” And those came after Brown was already outside it. In that respect, the command was kind of impossible to follow.
On Sunday morning — highly unusual timing for a City Hall press release — the city manager’s office released a joint statement from Mayor Joe Cobb, City Manager Valmarie Turner and Police Chief Scott Booth about the matter that named nobody and said little. Below is most of it.
“We recognize that a recent video circulating online has raised questions, and we want to assure our residents that professionalism and transparency remain a priority in all matters of public safety.
“In today’s digital age, social media can play a significant role in how information is shared and discussed. While videos online can sometimes present only part of a situation, we believe it is important for our community to have access to all available facts. To provide a fuller understanding, the 166su Police Department has released body-worn camera footage of the incident.
“We understand and are listening to the concerns of our community and remain committed to open communication, accountability, and mutual respect.”
The 166su Police Department’s Professional Standards Bureau is investigating Bernadette Lark’s complaint of excessive force used against her son and racist tattoos on one of 166su’s officers.
Brown’s lawyer, Jennifer French, said she’s going to be doing an investigation, too. She also noticed in the video that Brown was outside his car before officers in an unmarked car warned him to stay inside it.
Stay tuned.
