wukelacom.com
Tuskegee Basketball Head Coach Benjy Taylor has hired national Civil Rights attorney Harry Daniels as well as attorneys Gregory Reynald Williams and Gerald Griggs following an incident Saturday, January 31, in Atlanta where a police officer handcuffed Taylor and escorted him off the court after Tuskegee’s Division II HBCU basketball game against Morehouse College.
Click HERE for video recorded of the incident.
The incident, which has gone viral on social media, occurred immediately following Saturday’s game when Taylor, concerned about a group of players from Morehouse’s football team acted aggressively towards the Tuskegee players and their parents, asked one of the officers present to remove the football players from the court where they had intermingled with players during the postgame handshake.
Such behavior from the Morehouse football players, particularly their intermingling with the basketball players on the court and during the postgame handshake is prohibited by conference-mandated security protocols. When Taylor asked two police officers to enforce those protocols to diffuse the situation, however, one of the officers chose to place him in handcuffs and escort him from the court.
A father of four and grandfather of five, Taylor has been a basketball coach for 35 years and has been the head coach at Tuskegee since 2019.
“It would be bad for a police officer to treat anyone like this,” said Daniels. “But to do it to a man like Coach Taylor, a highly respected professional and role model, to put him in handcuffs, humiliate him and treat him like a criminal in front of his team, his family and a gym full of fans is absolutely disgusting and they need to be held accountable.”
“Coach Taylor is a good man who did the right thing to protect his team and deescalate a dangerous situation and this officer put him in chains for his troubles.”
The attorneys say they are currently investigating all legal avenues including a possible civil lawsuit.
HBCU Legends reached out to the Morehouse College Athletic Director, Harold Ellis, for a comment, but hasn’t received a response, reported HBCU Legends on SI.
