Everyday it keeps getting worse with no end in sight. We are either on a path to or we are already in a police state. When you see a cop, do you feel safe? I don't, not anymore, not after all of the incidents that have popped up over the country:
Michigan: Autopsy confirms police taser responsible for teenager’s death last year.
Amnesty report slams Taser, cites 103 related deaths from back in 2005.
Police use taser on 72 year old grandma, also last year. There are many more stories of people getting abused by the very same people who are supposed to protect us.
But this one just takes the cake and makes me sick.
Three Seattle police officers were justified when they used a stun gun on a pregnant mother who refused to sign a traffic ticket, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a case that prompted an incredulous dissent.
Malaika Brooks was driving her son to Seattle's African American Academy in 2004 when she was stopped for doing 32 mph in a school zone. She insisted it was the car in front of her that was speeding, and refused to sign the ticket because she thought she'd be admitting guilt.
Rather than give her the ticket and let her go on her way, the officers decided to arrest her. One reached in, turned off her car and dropped the keys on the floor. Brooks stiffened her arms against the steering wheel and told the officers she was pregnant, but refused to get out, even after they threatened to stun her.
She was probably frightened by the way the cops were handling the situation. How would you react if a cop reached into your car, turned it off and dropped your keys on the floor?
The officers — Sgt. Steven Daman, Officer Juan Ornelas and Officer Donald Jones — then stunned her three times, in the thigh, shoulder and neck, and hauled her out of the car, laying her face-down in the street.
Brooks gave birth to a healthy baby two months later, but has permanent scars from the Taser.
To make matters even worse, the baby and it's family will forever remember this incident. Did the cops not care that this woman was pregnant? How did these men even become cops in the first place? I have nothing but questions because it is hard to believe that 3 trained police officers felt the need to tase this pregnant woman 3 times before hauling her out in the street and laying her face down in the street, probably with the signature knee on the neck.
She sued the officers for violating her constitutional rights, and U.S. District Judge Richard Jones allowed the case to continue. He declined to grant the officers immunity for performing their official duties and said Brooks' rights were clearly violated.
Praise this man because I'm sure we all expected her to get completely shafted by the justice system, that the judge would throw her case out. You'd think this case would sail through the court room smoothly, but of course somebody has to be an asshole.
But in a 2-1 ruling Friday, a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. Judges Cynthia Holcomb Hall and Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain held that the officers were justified in making an arrest because Brooks was obstructing them and resisting arrest.
The use of force was also justified because of the threat Brooks posed, Hall wrote: "It seems clear that Brooks was not going to be able to harm anyone with her car at a moment's notice. Nonetheless, some threat she might retrieve the keys and drive off erratically remained, particularly given her refusal to leave the car and her state of agitation."
Furthermore, Brooks posed no apparent threat, and the officers could not have known how stunning her would affect the fetus, or whether it might prompt premature labor — another reason their actions were inexcusable, Berzon said.
Brooks' lawyer, Eric Zubel, said he would ask the 9th Circuit to rehear the case.
"This is outrageous — that something like this could happen to a pregnant woman, in front of an elementary school, at 8:30 in the morning, to someone who posed no threat whatsoever," he said.
It doesn't matter if you pose a threat or not anymore. Since cops can use any justification to suspect a threat. I know there are good cops out there, but it would seem that they are heavily outnumbered by the bad ones. But even when the bad apples get caught you don't see cops speaking out against that person, they huddle up together to protect their own.
Which I think is the problem, it would seem that our cops think we are the enemy.
You can read more at MSNBC.com, we need to remember this.
I wish I could stick around, if there is any discussion on this. But it's late and this just pissed me off enough to diary it before I hit the sack. If you are reading this diary thank you, I really appreciate it. We need to be aware of how are Police treat us now.