By Randy Travis
Published November 2, 2020
CLAYTON, Ga. - The national movement for police reform spurred a small-town Georgia cop to do something about what he saw as police abuse.
But the way he did it would cost him his career and put two friends on opposite sides, both insisting their actions left the other no choice.
The Clayton, Georgia police department has only 12 sworn officers to patrol a mountain town of 2,100 people.
For 15 years, Ryan Hamilton had worn the Clayton police uniform; the last four years he served as assistant chief.
Last summer, he heard about an arrest made by one of his sergeants. So Hamilton watched the dash cam video to see what happened.
“Never seen that kind of treatment of someone,” he admitted.
The video showed Sgt. Travis Gibson trying to get a suspected drunk driver to stop.
“Pull over dumb ass!” Gibson yelled over the unit’s loudspeaker while the pickup truck led them on a low-speed chase.
The national movement for police reform spurred a small-town Georgia cop to do something about what he saw as police abuse.
The 73-year-old driver seemed confused. After he pulled over, Alton Owens told the officers he couldn’t figure out how to remove his seatbelt to follow their command and get out.
On the tape, Gibson said Owens tried to grab his vest, so he fired his Taser and struck Owens three times on the head while the elderly man struggled on the ground. He had no weapon.
Owens was charged with a host of crimes including suspected DUI.
“The guy was 73 years old,” said Hamilton. “He could have been somebody’s grandpa, father, anybody. Nobody deserves to be treated like that.”
Clayton assistant police chief Ryan Hamilton texted a clip of the video to his fiancee who works for the DA, but only after the police chief told him he didn't think what happened was noteworthy.
With the summer’s police brutality protests fresh on his mind, Hamilton brought the video to his boss. Chief Andy Strait did not share his concern.
“It’s never pretty when you have to make an arrest,” Strait told the FOX 5 I-Team. The chief took no immediate action.
“You gotta do what’s right,” Hamilton explained to us. “And I did what’s right.”
What he did would cost him his job.
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