Welcome to the post-Trump America, where a man gets arrested for “obstructing government operations” for watering his neighbor’s flower bed, but a man who stole classified government documents is free to play as much golf as he wants.

According to NBC News, a Black pastor in Childersburg, Alabama was arrested in May after a neighbor called police to report a suspicious man at a neighbor’s house.  The pastor, Michael Jennings, was charged with “obstructing government operations,” but the charges were eventually dropped.  Now that the bodycam video of the incident has been released, Jennings is considering legal action against the officers involved.

On May 22nd, Jennings crossed the street from his home to his neighbors to water flowers in the neighbors’ garden.  A different neighbor, not recognizing Jennings, called police to report a suspicious man at that house.  When police arrived the neighbor who made the call to 9-1-1, a white woman, came out to tell police that she had made a mistake and had not recognized Jennings when she made the call, confirming that he was just taking care of the vacationing neighbors’ flowers. 

Police, however, demanded Jennings produce identification, which Jennings refused to do.  “You want to lock me up. Lock me up. I’m not showing y’all anything,” Jennings says. “I’m gonna continue watering these flowers. … I don’t care who called y’all. Lock me up and see what happens.”  Officers then placed Jennings in handcuffs on the charge of failing to provide identification when asked by a police officer.

Alabama law allows police to demand identification from anyone “in a public place” so long as police have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has taken place or is about to take place.  Jennings, a former law enforcement officer, said that the law did not apply to this situation because he was on private property, with permission of the homeowners.  A judge agreed with Jennings and dropped the charges.

“Chief McClelland and the Childersburg Police Department may think all they have to do is drop the charges and this all goes away,” said Bethaney Embry Jones, an attorney for Jennings.  “This was a crime, not a mistake. I would hope that the Childersburg Police Department would understand the difference.”