An amateur video of a man being arrested while drinking an iced tea in a North Carolina parking lot kicked up a controversy after it went viral online, notching over a million views.
Posted to YouTube on April 29, the video shows Christopher Beatty, who also goes by his hip-hop moniker, Xstrav (short for Xtravagant), drinking an Arizona Iced Tea with his friend Tino Brown in the parking lot of a Fayetteville liquor store. They are approached by a man in plain clothes who says he is a police officer but does not produce a badge.
Later identified by the Fayetteville Observer as Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control Law Enforcement officer Rick Libero, the man then asks Beatty if his iced tea contains alcohol. Beatty, who is black, tells him it does not, and the officer, who is white, tells Beatty to give him the can. Beatty refuses, and the officer tells him: "Leave the property. You have five seconds to leave."
When Beatty refuses to leave (in the video's description, Brown explains the two men were about to enter the liquor store to make a purchase), the officer pushes Beatty against the car and tells him to put his hands behind his back. When Beatty resists being handcuffed, the officer tackles him and handcuffs him on the parking lot's blacktop.
A second video, also with over a million views, shows Beatty being placed in the back seat of a Fayetteville Police car.
"The way Mr. Beatty carried the beverage appeared suspicious," Libero said, according to court records, the Observer notes.
Although the Cumberland County Alcoholic Beverage Control did not return a request for comment, the agency told local CBS affiliate WBWT-TV that Beatty is charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and delaying and obstructing a law enforcement officer.
Beatty was given a $2,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court June 6, WBWT-TV says.
Click the video above to watch, and tell us what you think in the comments section.
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