Witnesses say that Ms Heather Ellis sashayed right past those waiting in line – something acceptable only if you are on fire, and even then, you may not stop to cut in line. Ms Ellis was not on fire…yet. She cut in front of those waiting and shoved the merchandise belonging to another customer behind hers on the conveyor belt to make room for her own. I know how this would go over at the local Walmart where the racial mix is extremely diverse. Patrons wouldn’t care whether she were white, black, purple, or teal. It is likely that they would choose to point out her faux pas. If she didn’t mend her ways, she could be identified as black and blue regardless of her original coloring, people take these things seriously here, and in Kennett, Mo where this story originated on that fateful day in June of 2007. Unfortunately the woman who happened to have her items shoved backward on the conveyor was white. It’s reported that Heather Ellis, the then – 20-year-old college student and preacher’s daughter, became belligerent when confronted. Unless and until her attorneys release surveillance tapes, we have only the involved witness accounts to counter Ms Ellis, who maintains that what transpired next was racially motivated.
In a letter to the NAACP, Ellis claims ‘cuttsies’ in line on a technicality. She explained that she was joining her cousin in a faster moving line. Try that move on the Friday after Thanksgiving, you’re likely to get stuffed even if you’re the Queen Mother. My apologies, I digress…but merely from a shoppers’ viewpoint, certainly not a racial one. Waiting your turn is the code of the shopping line, broken only when a polite shopper with a huge cart invites another with only gum, or a personal hygiene product to go first. It’s rare, but I have seen it happen with my own eyes. From all accounts, the customer whose merchandise Ellis shoved back the better to insert hers, was not offering such a deal. Ellis claimed that she was then pushed by the white customer, hassled by
store employees, called racial slurs and physically mistreated by Kennett police officers, whose physical and psychic wounds have healed nicely after three years. The police officers are not likely forget Ms Ellis, even without their
scars. Court documents state that Ellis was requested to calm down, a suggestion she emphatically refused. Likewise, she turned down other requests to simply leave the property, both requests were made by the manager and a security guard. Having failed to quiet or dislodge her they felt they had no option other than to call the police.Heather Ellis elected to kick one officer’s shin, and split the lip of another while resisting arrest in a vicious manner. In many areas larger than Kennett with it’s 11,000 people, police take precautions which ensure they are not injured, at the inconvenience and indignity of the arrestee, this wasn’t the
case in Kennett. Dunklin County Prosecutor Stephen Sokoloff claims that absolutely no evidence can be found for police mistreatment or racism aside from Heather’s own testimony. I would tend to believe this, having seen people treated much
more roughly who didn’t attempt to do bodily injury to police. Never the less, the New York based "Your Black World Coalition is organizing a rally Monday in Kennett, to launch her trial Wednesday on charges of assaulting police officers, resisting arrest, and disturbing the peace. Apparently cutting in line is simply bad manners, dangerous, and against store policy.
This is now a "she said, they said" case. Perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle. As seen in this video, police delivered the despicable Klan card to the family doorstep of Ms Ellis. The family view the action as a threat by the police
department. A spokesman for police said that a trail of the cards had been found, and they wanted to warn, not threaten the victim. Perhaps he made a bad choice. Police claim there is no Klan activity in the area, and that it was probably the
work of a lone nut, it is easy to see why it would unnerve the family of Ms Ellis. However, this is just one instance in which one act is viewed in two very different ways.
"What a shame the system can destroy a young person’s future like this because of bad cops," Ellis wrote to the NAACP in April. Ms Ellis is now a Missus, married to a state trooper, has moved, finished college, and teaches in an elementary school. The video announced her intentions to attend medical school. Her life seems to be fairly well on track from this observer’s perspective. This observer being the first to cry foul when racism or police brutality…often referred to as standard operating procedure by the bad apples, is employed.
Too often sides are taken before the facts are revealed. Rather than an airing of facts, we have two sides, each of which interpret statements and incidents in diametrically opposed ways…the truth often is between the two and unexposed. We hope the truth will out. If racism was involved then it will be exposed to the light of day and justice. If Heather Ellis is doing all people of good conscience a great disservice by crying racism, then this too needs an airing and
a halt. There are far too many instances of true racism, violence, and bigotry to use ‘that card’ as an excuse for anything less. To do so is to further victimize the people who have suffered at the hands of the hateful in this country.
Finally, I believe we’ve all learned a valuable lesson, you don’t have a good excuse to cut in line at Walmart, no matter who you are, or what the circumstance, cousin or no cousin in the fast lane. Heather Ellis details, protest rally planned.