Posted on 01/18/2013 3:14:58 PM PST by rawhide
The pregnant Los Angeles woman who was brutally hogtied by California Highway Patrolmen in August 2011 after being pulled over for chatting on her cell phone while driving has finally received retribution in the form of a $250,000 settlement.
According to the LA Times, Tamara Gaglione, 30, was hauled away and charged with misdemeanor evading and resisting arrest and driving on a suspended license.
Those charges were dropped, however, once Gaglione's terrible treatment was revealed in footage from the cruiser's video camera.
It is unclear in the grainy video exactly how aggressive, if at all, Gaglione was toward the cops. What is clear, though, is that Hernandez and Martinez drew their weapons on the unarmed Gaglione as they approached her and forced her onto the ground.
Hernandez later claimed Gaglione did not tell them of her pregnancy until after she was on the ground, but Gaglione said she told the officers as they approached her.
Hogtied, Gaglione was subsequently taken away in a patrol car.
Gaglione filed suit against the department and the officers involved, but the video evidence that eventually won Gaglione $250,000 this past November was not immediately forthcoming. Gaglione's attorney Howard Price claimed that Hernandez failed to check a box on the arrest report stating a video camera had, in fact, recorded the incident.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Yeah, she got off easy. She could have been tazed like these pregnant women were over traffic stops:
The problem is, talking on a cellphone, and most other minor traffic violations, aren’t arrestable offenses. You can detain a citizen to give them a citation for something like that, but it doesn’t merit an arrest.
However, if an officer approaches the traffic stop in a confrontational way, hands on weapon, and barking orders, the citizen might fail to comply with something quick enough, or to the satisfaction of the officer. Then, they can claim “resisting arrest” or some such charge, and have much more leeway to deal with their suspect.
Now, how someone can be resisting arrest for a non-arrestable offense is a matter that might fascinate a Zen Buddhist, but doesn’t seem to phase our judicial system.
I feel safer just knowing this. (do I really need the sarc tags?)
I'm sure you don't mean that if you gave it just a little thought. A person you are trying to arrest is attacking you, trying to get your gun, biting you, and you are just going to be nice to him?
What was it you were saying again?"
Our local Cops did the same AFTER he was on the force and couldn't drive because of the DUI after 4 years time.
Why did they finally get rid of him? Because the State Bureau was finishing their investigation and they were going to send him to jail for trafficking in Oxy and other prescription Meds. Why did he go quietly Because the State Bureau told him if he left quietly he could keep part of his pension.
What was it you were saying again?
In any jurisdiction in the western world a man who attacked and hogtied a woman has already harmed her and has committed the felony of assault. You might find some shred of cover to excuse or mitigate this behavior but these cops should be behind bars.
Again, there are a lot of factors an officer has to consider (I’m not addressing this situation involving the pregnant lady, but just speaking rhetorically.) When there is a difference in size, sex, obvious strength, that is definitely a factor. A woman officer can definitely ratchet up the threat potential assessment when a non-compliant bouncer-sized hulk is the offender and no other officers are around. Not the same with a male officer interacting with a woman offender.
Nighttime, environment, weather, temperature or other weakening factors all play into what the officer does.
None of these extenuating factor seemed to be present here. Unless something happened off camera, before the contact with the officers, this was outright abuse.
Craven animals doing what craven animals do.
I am glad she got paid. But those cops should be out of a job.
Anytime a city or State has to pay a victim for police abuse, those officers should automatically be fired, at the least. They should be prosecuted when they commit crimes against citizens. This was a crime of assault and battery. She presented no danger to them. Her hands were clearly in view. They were mad because she did not turn immediately around as bellowed (which made no sense) so they attacked her like mad dogs. Any excuse for brutality will do for the bad apples.
It’s a good thing she wasn’t a 15 year old girl slightly kicked her shoes towards a police officer. She could have been shot for that.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ToVlIXLqk4
I understand that those are all practical safety considerations that need to be subjective, and so they’re left to the officer’s discretion. However, by doing so, we put the individual police officer in a position where they can create a situation that allows them to overstep the line, and trample on someone’s liberties without just cause.
So, there’s always going to be a temptation to use that power, and there are any number of ways to justify it if anyone complains. If it ever does go to court, the court will favor the officer’s testimony over the citizen’s, so only when there is a video tape like this will there be serious consequences.
The practical consequences are that, even though we technically have 4th amendment protections, any police officer can choose to remove those protections from us at any time. I cannot go about in public, doing nothing illegal, and have any surety that a random officer will not decide to use these tricks of the trade to justify a search of me or my property, and the majority of the time they would get away with it.
A lot of people on FR don’t like authority figures.
Really?
I hadn’t noticed. :)
They're in the information business and they're poisoning their own wells.
One of the reasons we have ‘low information’ people in this country...
:)
I guess I am the opposite. I like to give authority figures the benefit of doubt. Wouldn’t want to be them; appreciate them.
“Not sympathetic to her plight.”
We will all laugh when it’s your turn, boy.
Which the woman in the video was not doing. Watch the video.
The cop who slammed her face-first on the ground should be fired and lose his pension.
Look at segment 0:18 thru 0:22 of the video. The cop didn't just have "hand on weapon". His pistol was DRAWN and POINTING at the woman. I can understand her not complying with his order to turn around -- most women would be frozen with fear if a burly cop was aiming a gun at them.
We don't like violent thugs, and we don't care what gang colors they wear.
99% of the cops make the other 1% look bad.
Bloomberg, Holder and other gun-grabbers are most grateful.
It took six cops to attack one woman.
Feeling safer? Yes. Yes I am.
< / sarc >
Her bewilderment was clear on the video. Those LEOs were looking for an excuse to assault a citizen. A pity they aren’t paying out of their own paychecks.
Indeed. Now is the time for the peace officers to come forward to condemn this.
The p.o.s. had a suspended license and shouldn’t have even been driving in the first place. It’s not that easy to get a suspended license - - you usually have to be reckless multiple times and/or a drunk. That said, the cops (four of them were needed??) looked like sadistic animals and bullies. The whole event was a collision of worthless morons. No sympathy for any of them.
The charge of a suspended license was dropped. The victim of police assault should have been ticketed and fined for texting and weaving through traffic.
Not assaulted by a few boys (Hernandez and Martinez) who apparently get off on slamming women face-first into the asphalt.
Or at lease reduce the budget of the Police department by the amout awarded ... let these idiots feel some peer pressure
.
Or at least reduce the budget of the Police department by the amout awarded ... let these idiots feel some peer pressure
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.