According to a recent report from the Ledger-Enquirer, a Columbus man was charged with interference with government property and was taken into custody by police on Friday.
Trevis Sistrunk, 37, was drinking a beer can on the sidewalk at the intersection of Broadway and 12th Street and was causing enough of a disturbance to warrant a call to local police.
When police contained Sistrunk in the back of the police car for public intoxication and the consumption of alcoholic beverages in public, he began to kick the back window on the driver’s side.
Yet while quality impact-resistant windows can withstand up to 200 mph winds, the cruiser’s back window couldn’t withstand the man’s kicks and separated from the door frame. The repair is estimated to cost $600.
In a similar story from Macomb Township, a 22-year-old man was arrested for vandalizing dozens of headstones in a local cemetery, with some that dated all the way back to the Civil War. When he was contained in the police video, the man, Tyler Bryant, began to kick out the police car window.
Macomb Sheriff Anthony Wickersham commented, “This individual had some strength. Our deputies did have to witness that when they took him into custody.”
Though unlike Sistrunk, Bryant wasn’t able to fully kick out the cruiser window; however, he had been able to kick over multiple cement and stone headstones. The town was able to pick up the toppled headstones, but only with the use of construction equipment and local volunteers.
Maybe these aggressive and criminal citizens will help to draw attention to the security of police cars and the benefits of impact-resistant windows. But most importantly, they serve as a reminder to be considerate to the community.
Wickersham commented that he believes that Bryant was on drugs at the time of arrest. Thankfully, he has since calmed down and hasn’t kicked his way out of any jail cells.
“I think he’s still in jail but hasn’t had any problems back there,” Wickersham concluded.