Dr. Spiehs says he wants to look into "biased policing" in latest video
Article/Media and Criminal Justice - 4 minute read
Dr. Justin Spiehs is no stranger to the Lawrence Police Department, having many encounters with the police throughout his time protesting mask mandates on kids and running for Douglas County Commissioner District 1 as a Republican in the deep blue county.
In a video he posted to his YouTube channel on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, Dr. Spiehs recounts his history of interactions with the local police department.
In the video he mentions him and his friends being shot by airsoft guns, people trying to run them over—including once in front of police, and even having a gun pulled on him only to have the police let the gunman go before even talking to Dr. Spiehs about the incident.
He believes this all stems back to an incident where a man approached him after illegally parking in a crosswalk. The man had gotten out of his car and ripped a sign out of the hands of Dr. Spiehs who was sitting at a corner, protesting mask mandates on kids. A video of the street footage was uploaded, but it was edited to take out the first part of the incident where Dr. Spiehs was confronted by the man, only showing Dr. Spiehs defend himself as he takes his property back. The video was titled, ‘Washburn University Professor JUSTIN SPIEHS Attacks Man in the Middle of the Street’ and it was uploaded by an anonymous user that goes by the username ‘washburn.’
“I believe that factored into five, six weeks later when I got arrested up at the West Middle School vax clinic,” Dr. Spiehs said in his video. “I told the police chief this, too. If that guy at Sunset Hill would have been charged and taken seriously, the West incident could have been avoided because it would have been a deterrent for people to say, ‘oh, I’m going to go up and I’m going to confront this guy’ or ‘I’m going to do this to him,’ or ‘I’m going to act that way to him.’ It would be a deterrent, but that deterrent was never in place so every time we went out there we had to worry about whether or not somebody was going to go out and do something to us.”
Biased reporting from left-leaning news sources such as Lawrence Journal-World, Lawrence Times, and Kansas Reflector also did not help. Even when they knew violence was being threatened or committed against the Republican candidate, all of them refused to report on it. However, if they could find a way to make him look bad, the left-leaning news sources would report. With the extensive media bias in the Democrat dominated county, it was inevitable that people would feel negatively toward this political candidate, often calling for his arrest.
One Lawrence resident, Michael Eravi, who has admitted to having some different political beliefs than Dr. Spiehs, gave the Republican a chance, live streaming an interview with the political candidate on his own YouTube channel, Lawrence Accountability, which focuses on holding local government officials, including police, accountable for their service to the people of Douglas County.
Dr. Spiehs said in his video that he wants to know why nothing has happened to those that have committed crimes against him as no one has asked him if he would like to press charges.
“I want to know why,” Dr. Spiehs said. “Why isn’t it taken seriously? Why didn’t anything happen? Why weren’t there any consequences for the people that did stuff? I damn sure know I would have been arrested and had consequences for sure if that happened.”
Dr. Spiehs also said he wants to get to the bottom of the biased policing and get some answers as to why things have occurred as they have. He is currently serving probation for an arrest at West Middle School vax clinic for assault with a deadly weapon—the deadly weapon being the stick that held his protest sign.
His video ends with the reporting KCTV5 did on him that started his appearance in news media. In the reporting, they admit that Dr. Spiehs did not start the scuffle.
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"He is currently serving probation for an arrest at West Middle School vax clinic for assault with a deadly weapon—the deadly weapon being the stick that held his protest sign."
Aggravated assault (a felony) was the original charge. He pled to a misdemeanor, which is the sensible thing to do. The charge was total BS, not only because a lightweight stick is not a deadly weapon, but because assault implies someone is trying to hurt someone else. Dr. Spiehs wasn't trying to hit anyone with it. No one even claims that. He is described as "waving it".
This is a totally chilling charge. Any of us could be charged with a felony the way things are going - just jaywalk, spit on the ground, look at someone funny, don't look at someone...
The court systems in progressive areas are pretty explicit about believing that the over-representation of blacks and hispanics in jails is a result of racism - and some DAs and judges are taking steps to give blacks and hispanics extra chances. On the other end you see the FBI targeting conservatives and Christians. What if that's happening at the local level as well - what if that's seen as another way to achieve racial "equity" in the prisons? Or is it just a way of silencing the political opponents?