Dallas police were filmed tasing and arresting Michael Singleton, a Black executive chef based in Oakland and Dallas, as he told onlookers he was being wrongfully accused of possessing cocaine. Singleton has since been released and all charges dropped.

Atlanta-based media network, Punk Black, shared video footage on Instagram yesterday of Michael Singleton, an executive chef based in the Bay Area and Dallas, being tased by police at the Dallas Love Field Airport — while he was standing still with his hands behind his back. At least two witnesses filmed the incident as Singleton repeatedly shouted his name and told onlookers to record what was happening.

Musician Lizzy Ashliegh filmed the below clip and told Punk Black the following:

this man said he was being framed and to film. I later overheard that a lady was misheard by the officers and they went straight into action when they assumed “white powder was involved” I hope what she really said goes back to the cops that took him away.

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A post shared by PUNK BLACK | Alt POC Network (@punk.black)

The video was also shared on fellow Oakland chef Edward’L’s Instagram account, where someone in the comments reported that Singleton has been released and has hired a lawyer:

Mike contacted me on FB tonight after I share this post earlier. He is free and okay at the moment. The charges have been dropped including resisting arrest. He is lawyered up and it is in the courts hands now.

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A post shared by Edward’L (@chefsmelly)

There are currently no other reports or details on the incident.

Here is a transcription of the clip’s audio:

Singleton shouts at the crowd as several officers start to pull his arms behind his back.

Singleton: Somebody tape this. I didn’t do nothing. My name is Michael Singleton.

Police: You have warrants.

Singleton: I got a traffic warrant. (To the crowd) My name is Michael Singleton. I want you to please tape this. They arrested me for the wrong reasons.

As Singleton is standing still with his hands pulled behind his back, police then take a step back and tase Singleton, who falls to the floor.

Witness: No! Why would y’all do this? He was just standing still!

Witnesses can be heard crying and panicking in the background.

Singleton: Oh my God! (to the crowd) My name is Michael Singleton. My birthday’s {redacted}. I’m Michael Singleton. (To the police) I have no warrants. I have a traffic warrant for {redacted}.

Police: That’s right. We’re trying to investigate it.

Singleton: No, you said I have cocaine! I’m not a drug dealer! {unintelligible}

Police: Calm down! Calm down!

Singleton is still on the ground being handcuffed.

Singleton: Hey, Man! I didn’t try to fight you. Why did you tase me?!

Police: You were … {unintelligible}

Singleton: I wasn’t {unintelligible}.. Somebody got me on tape.

Police: {unintelligible}

Singleton: You’re a fucking dickhead, bro.

Police pull Singleton off the floor.

Singleton: I had my hands behind my back and didn’t even fucking move. And I was fucking electrocuted!

Police tell Singleton to sit down then push him into a rolling chair.

Singleton: You keep telling me to do things, but I can’t do anything with my hands, you dumbfuck!

Police: {unintelligible}

Singleton: Hey, fuck you. I just got tased for nothing.

Singleton: (to the crowd) Hey, man, somebody please have this on tape.

Police wheel Singleton away.

Image: Screenshot pulled from the video clip

With police departments in San Francisco and around the country still working out how to best respond to the July 7 mass shooting in Dallas, some officers have taken to proactively arresting people who have spoken ill of police on social media. The Intercept reports that these arrests are usually for speech the police consider to be threatening, and may challenge basic First Amendment rights.

“Arresting people for speech is something we should be very careful about,” security technologist at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Bruce Schneier told the publication.

The arrests are taking place all over the country, and follow a similar pattern. Four unnamed men were arrested in Detroit after at least one of them called the Dallas shooter a hero, Detroit News reports. The paper further details the posts of the men who, despite being arrested, were not initially charged with a crime.

One reportedly wrote on Facebook, "This needs to happen more often," and accompanied his comment with video of police officers being shot. Another allegedly posted to Facebook that "[The Dallas shooter] inspired me to do the exact same thing.”

“I know this is a new issue, but I want these people charged with crimes,” Detroit Police Chief James Craig told the paper on Sunday. “I’ve directed my officers to prepare warrants for these four individuals, and we’ll see which venue is the best to pursue charges.”

The Intercept notes that this response from police is not limited to Detroit, and highlights similar cases in Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey.

“Certainly, posting that kind of thing on social media is a bad thought,” professor Larry Dubin of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law told the Detroit News. “But having a bad thought isn’t necessarily a crime. There are a lot of issues at play here, and I think a lot would depend on what exactly was said.”

Putting aside the First Amendment question, a reporter at The Globe and Mail was quick to point out what appears to be a glaring discrepancy in the justification for the recent arrests.

And Karen Ho wasn't the only one.

Craig, meanwhile, gives us Californians a little heads up that we may soon see similar arrests on the West Coast. "Especially now, in this current climate,” he told the Detroit News. “I don’t think that’s protected speech. In California, if you threaten to kill someone, the state statute says that’s a terrorist threat.”

“When I was in L.A., I personally arrested people for that," he added. "But with social media threats, it’s a new issue that needs to be clarified. So let’s clarify it now.”

Related: In Wake Of Dallas Attack, Bay Area Police Patrolling In Pairs

-- the Jesus Lizard, "And Then The Rain"

* Washington vs Seattle
Saturday, January 5, 2008. 1:30 PM, PST.
Wild Card 2008
Battle Of The Wounded

Washington is still riding the emotional wave of FS Sean Taylor's untimely death, and gashed their way into the playoffs by beating (an admittedly resting-for-the-postseason) archrival Dallas by 21 points. 21 was Sean's jersey number. Now this ragtag just-good-enough emotionally-charged franchise heads northwest to Seattle.

Photo via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

The cold-fish Seahawks have the unenviable task of trying to defeat a team that has become a memorial wake on-the-field. The Hawks are unwillingly become the opposing force in Washington's storyline. No fun.

And no run game. Seattle still misses former LG Steve Hutchison (long gone; poached by the Vikings), and their run game has sucked so hard that it's been given up. The Seahawks have become one-dimensional, dragging their dead run game behind them like a wolf that'd chewed off its leg to get out of a trap. The crazy part? It's worked. Shaven-headed QB Matt Hasslebeck has had a fantastic season executing Head Coach Holmgren's pure form of the West Coast Offense, and it may provide enough firepower to get Seattle through.

Both teams are hurt, but in different ways. Who will survive?

Dick Nolan, former coach of the 49ers, died yesterday at the age of 75.
While battling Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer, according to the Chronicle, he passed away in an assisted-living facility in Dallas. According to Wikipedia, he was quite the coach for the once-glorious football team. "He was head coach of the 49ers for eight seasons from 1968 through 1975, noted for developing the defense and taking the team to three straight NFC West division titles (1970-72), twice missing the Super Bowl by only one game (1970-71). Cool.

His son, Mike, as most of you already know, now coaches the 49ers -- a team that has also recently passed on. We send out mad support to the Nolan family.

Yesterday we got caught up on the Warriors' offseason moves; today we look at what those moves will mean for the 2007-2008 season and beyond (in 300 words or less).

There is no doubt that coach Don Nelson and his sidekick Chris Mullen have reshaped the Warriors, and the team now has a pretty strong pool of players from which Nellie can choose to implement his failed system of up-tempo small-ball.

Nellie's vision of a perfect rebounding lineup. D'uh-oh. Photo from healingdaily.com.

Ho-ho-hold on a minute SFist, you say. What do you mean failed system? The Warriors surprised everybody last year by making a late season run, making the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, and shocking the presumptive favorite to win it all and number one seed Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs. "How the hell is that a failed system," you ask.

All good points SFist readers, but remind us again, who won the NBA Finals? Who played in the NBA Finals? Who played in the Western Conference Finals? Who got waxed by a larger, more fundamentally sound Utah Jazz in the second round (and again last night)? Nellie's run-and-gun Warriors that's who.

What a difference a year makes. Come opening night of 2006, most of Warrior Nation was just hoping that the newly unretired and rehired Don Nelson could somehow resuscitate the franchise from its 12-year playoff coma. A .500 season was all anybody really hoped for; few dared dream the impossible dream of postseason play.

After starting fast and then fading, the Warriors pulled off a master stroke of highway robbery on January 17 when they unloaded franchise goats Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, and Ike Diogu to some rubes in overalls and straw hats in Indianapolis for starters Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. After some gettin'-to-know-you time, the club finished the season ablaze, going 16-4 down the stretch to pluck the eighth and final playoff spot from the Los Angeles Clippers.

And then there was the opening round series with Dallas. Ahhggghhh, sweet playoff upset. The Warriors absolutely owned the Mavs, and oh it felt so good. 2006-2007 season: Mission accomplished.

Photo from USA Today

We also aren't going to watch CBS's premieres of "NCIS" at 8 p.m., "The Unit" at 9 p.m., or the series premiere of "Cane" at 10 p.m. That last one won't be watched because we already saw it, and it's not something we'd need to watch again. Or next week either, most likely. The drama stars Jimmy Smits as a sugarcane/rum mogul who lives his life like it's a Godfather movie--or at least an episode of "Dallas"--complete with warring families and shocking murders conducted after family gatherings. It also features Polly Walker, a British actress, sporting the worst Southern accent we have ever been subjected to, and we've watched "The Closer." Sorry, we just Cane't.

Best show you've ever played and what made it great?
Our last gig in Paris at La Maroquinerie in April 2007. The place was packed with 400 fans who knew all the words and clapped and danced and yelled out to us and made us feel incredibly good. We played really well with in our fancy embroidered suits and we came off stage sweaty as barnyard pigs.

Best venue in the world?
I hate to be such a Francophile, but la Cigale in Paris. It's a huge, old, red-velvet theater and truly a lovely place to share and experience live music.

Best fans in the world?
The best fan we've met so far is a young girl from Houston named Gelli. We just met her last week. She wore our band t-shirt at the show, danced in the front row the whole time, beamed bright smiles at us, and gave us hope for the future of the human race.

What's your favorite song to perform?
Right now it's 'Saltbreakers'. I love it when the guys come in -- who doesn't love a rousing chorus of bearded men? Also, I crank the reverb on the amp and dance around with my guitar.

Favorite collaborators?
My bandmates -- Tucker Martine, Karl Blau and Steve Moore. also the wonderful world-class violist Eyvind Kang. and the Cedar Hill Baptist choir from Nashville that sang on 'To the Country' from the new record.

Lamest Crowd Request ever
When we played to two people in Dallas a few years back and both were from our record label. It's not that the label people were lame -- they were really nice -- but that was certainly the lamest attendance ever.

Laura Veirs & The Saltbreakers
June 5 @ Café Du Nord
Openers: Lake, Ryan Auffenberg
Doors: 8pm
21+

J.D. Power and Associates, the well-regarded surveyor of customer satisfaction rankings and similar, has conducted its 2007 North American Airport Satisfaction Index Study.

Guess which U.S. airport ranked the lowest in the large airport (those with 30 million passengers+/annum) category? Yeah, it's San Francisco International.

SFO was rated tied for the lowest in 7 of the 9 possible categories, with only the food/beverage and retail categories earning a lofty "about average" ranking. In other words, in airport accessibility, check-in/baggage check, security check, terminal facilities, baggage claim, immigration/customs control, and overall airport satisfaction, our local big hub is below average. Dallas/Fort Worth International was the big winner.

Oakland (OAK) and San Jose (SJC/Norm Mineta) fared a little better in their category of medium airport rankings (those with (10 million-less than 30 million passengers/annum) at 18th and 23rd respectively. Score-wise, OAK is the area winner at 679 out of 1,000, while SFO earned 665 points and SJC got 660.

So, if you can stand (or bypass) the poor public transportation to get there, it looks like Oakland's the way to go around here.