It was obvious to the store clerk who called the police on Rodney Harmon that the Black man was suffering from possible mental health issues when he walked out of the store with a gallon of milk and a can of beer without paying, claiming he owned the store in Florida. And it should have been obvi ous to the two Ocala police officers who responded to the scene, because Harmon was talking gibberish and making little sense.  A Black man named Rodney Harmon was suffering a diabetic episode when he walked out of a store with a can of beer and a bottle of milk, but was body slammed by Ocala police officer Dalton Ower (top right), who then falsely charged him with battery on a police officer. (Photo: youtube.com/@dillavery2696) The 62-year-old homeless man was drinking the beer while standing outside the store when Ocala police officer Kristen Whitston tried to wrestle it from his hands, but he did not want to let it go.  Ocala police officer Dalton Ower then came running up, twisting Harmon’s arm behind his back before slamming him to the ground and sitting on top of him, causing the beer to splatter on both officers.  “How’s that, bud?” taunted Ower, bending Harmon’s in what police describe as a “pain compliance” maneuver. “You feel better now? Do you feel better to fight us for no reason?” “Now you got me covered in beer for what?” Harmon mumbled something indecipherable, probably asking why they were arresting him. “You just stole a gallon of milk. And you’re drinking a beer,” Ower said. “That’s my store,” responded Harmon while lying facedown on the ground. “I own the whole store.” When Whitston walked into the store to speak to the man who called the police, he told them he did not want to file charges but wanted the police to get him some help, saying he was very familiar with him. And a paramedic who responded to the scene and measured Harmon’s blood sugar told the officers he needed to be transported to the hospital. But the cops insisted on transporting him to jail. When a supervisor showed up to ask for details, the cops told him Harmon purposely spilled beer on them, making no mention of his diabetic condition.  The supervisor told them to charge him with two felonies, including battery on a police officer and resisting arrest with violence, as well as having an open container, which is a misdemeanor. Whitston wrote the following in her affidavit to justify the felony charges. I approached him and attempted to remove the beer from his hand.  He grabbed my wrist and advised he would “put a mark on me”, while pulling away and bowing up his chest. Harmon raised his arm with the beer and spilled it all over the officers.  Officer Ower arrived and took him into custody, taking him to the ground due to resisting our efforts to arrest him. But dashcam video shows the beer splattering on the cops as they manhandled him, contradicting their claim that he did it on purpose. Watch the combined body and dash cam video below. ‘Borderline Deadly Force’ The incident took place on Sept. 8 last year, and Marion County prosecutors dismissed the resisting arrest and open container charges, leaving the battery on a police officer pending. The videos first surfaced last month on a YouTube channel called Long_Ranger FL, which posted the entire footage from Whitston’s body and dash cameras. On Jan. 4, the video was uploaded to The Civil Rights Attorney YouTube channel operated by an attorney named John H. Bryan, who provided his analysis of the arrest, writing the following in his description: After realizing the man is diabetic, they called paramedics and their supervisor. The paramedics said the man needed to go immediately to the hospital, but the cops said no. So the paramedics left without the elderly man who was suffering an apparent medical emergency. Then when the supervisor got there, the cops said nothing about the medical emergency, and then lied about the man throwing his beer on him, which is easily disproven by the video footage. So instead of medical help, this man got violence instead, and then a bunch of criminal charges. In his video analysis, Bryan accused Ower of being overly aggressive with Harmon by body slamming him to the ground, pointing out that Harmon’s head came close to landing on the concrete. “As many of you know, I’ve done more than one video showing basically this identical scenario where the subject was either killed or very seriously injured,” he said. “This is a very serious use of force, borderline deadly force because there’s a very real possibility if you strike that person’s head into the asphalt, especially where their hands are not available to shield their fall, there’s a very real possibility of killing or very seriously injuring somebody doing that.” Bryan explains that the courts used what is known as the “Graham factor” to determine whether a police officer’s use of force was “objectively reasonable” based on the following criteria. Severity of the Crime: How serious was the offense the suspect was involved in? Immediate Threat: Did the suspect pose a danger to officers or others? Active Resistance/Evasion: Was the suspect fighting back or trying to run away? “Not paying for beer or milk, ok, very minor crime,” he said. “None of that would justify using a very substantial amount of force.” “It just blows my mind that in video after video I’ve done involving elderly people being arrested or confronted by police officers, they continue accusing the individual of being on drugs,” Bryan said, highlighting the case of another Black man with dementia who was body slammed and accused of being on cocaine. “It never crosses their mind that the individual could be suffering from dementia or could be suffering from low blood sugar and be a diabetic,” Bryan continued. “It’s always either drugs or you’re just some criminal disrespecting me. Instead of recognizing the obvious that this man had dementia, they repeatedly accused him of being intoxicated and not just physically but verbally abused this guy.” Harmon was scheduled for trial on Jan. 8, but online court records show the trial for battery on a police officer was postponed until April 30.  If convicted, he could serve up to five years in prison for the third-degree felony. ‘Borderline Deadly Force’: Florida Cop Body Slams Black Man Suffering Diabetic Episode Over Shoplifting Allegation, Then Flips the Script, Video Shows ...read more read less