Posted on 12/01/2004 3:39:54 AM PST by trapman
Nov. 30, 2004 — She was dragged out of her car at an airport, slammed to the ground and handcuffed by a burly police officer in full view of a security camera, but Diana Dietrich-Barnes says there was absolutely no need for the officer to use such excessive force.
Dietrich-Barnes, 43, was at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Nov. 2, waiting to pick up her mother. After circling the airport several times she stopped to check her mother's itinerary. A few moments later, Officer Terence Alexander approached her sport utility vehicle and told her to move on.
In the airport surveillance video, her car then appears to briefly back up. Then a police officer opens her car door, yanks her out and throws her to the ground, where she is handcuffed. No fewer than seven police officers surround her.
Recounting the scene on "Good Morning America" today, Dietrich-Barnes said she was shocked when she saw the excessive use of force in the video.
"The whole time I'm laying on the ground, I'm upset, I'm yelling and screaming," she said. "I didn't want my mother to see me like that. It would have been a horrible experience for her to come out and see her daughter laying face down on the concrete with a police officer on top of her."
A lawyer for Alexander disputes Dietrich-Barnes' charge that excessive force was used.
"Officer Alexander did not do anything inappropriate, he remained calm throughout the procedure and Ms. Barnes was belligerent, she refused arrest," said Lecora Bowen, Alexander's attorney.
On Monday, Dietrich-Barnes had her day in court. Clayton Circuit District Attorney Bob Keller and the judge agreed to drop the charges after viewing the surveillance video. "A failure to obey a command that was given like that is not one that I felt like rose to felony criminal violation proportions," said Keller.
Alexander, who says he was injured during the incident, is on paid leave while the police department investigates the incident.
Dietrich-Barnes maintains that she was trying to comply with Alexander's orders to back up as there was a truck ahead of her, when he pulled her from her vehicle.
She also questioned police accounts that she injured Alexander with her mirror as she attempted to back up her car. "I have a brand-new Ford Explorer, and they have breakaway mirrors and my mirror was not touched at all," she said.
But most upsetting, she said, was the fact that she was characterized as being belligerent when all she was doing was screaming for help.
"I was hollering," she said. "I was hollering for help, for people to see what was happening to me. This kind of incident has happened at the airport before. So, I wanted people to see what was happening to me."
Meanwhile, Dietrich-Barnes' lawyer, Steven Lister, is considering taking further legal action. "We're examining that possibility," Lister told "Good Morning America." "I would say it's a very real possibility."
Those pesky cameras.
It is amazing to me what people will put up with to fly.
If every airport sat vacant for about a month, I suspect some rational thought processes would re-enter the equasion.
It's pretty damned sad when the surveylance cameras are the only thing that separate you from prison, when the security nazis get through with you.
All charges were dropped. Some rent-a-shmuk and his agency is going to finance this woman's retirement. Fine with me...
I remain amazed at the esteem in which our military is held by FReepers, and the disdain police get from the same source. I jaw-dropped at the responses here. The woman was hacked off at being inconvienced, threw a 'hissy-fit' and backed her 'truck' up, hitting the cop. Then she mouthed off again. What's he supposed to do, apologize for enforcing the law and if she doesn't agree, apologize to her for bothering her about such a trivial subject?
The airport police were just doing their job, following standard procedure. There is no record of any airport policeman ever violating a citizen.
/sarcasm
The officer in question is now on MEDICAL leave, and has his arm in a sling. Oh, the humanity!
His claim is that she backed up and her rear view mirror hit his arm, while the tape seems to show him stepping into the side of the SUV. I'm certain that would require him to have his arm in a sling /sarcasm. A more likely cause of injury is the exertion he made to body slam the lady.
This is a BIG story in Atlanta.
Let's see...a terrorist goes around several times to "case" where would be best to let his car...and then "parks" it, leaves it to go inside the terminal where she would be safe when it went off, but alas, a policeman tells her to "move" it, so she backs the car up so she can hit the policeman to get rid of him, and then she gets out of the car to "get help" and survives a massive car bomb that kills 100 people at the largest airport in the USA....
My husband can't walk far. So I either park in a nearby handicapped parking place, or park the car and go in and wait for him to get in...then he sits at the entrance while I get the car-- or better yet, I pay five bucks for valet parking, and the van takes us right to our car...
STOCKBRIDGE, GA Political Contributions by Individuals
Dietrich-Barnes, Diana Ms. [snip] $300 to NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE on 07/23/03Dietrich-Barnes, Diana Ms. [snip] $250 to NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE on 09/16/03
The officer in question is a long time member of the Atlanta police department, and isn't a rent-a-cop. But it's being reported that he has a series of "excessive force" complaints.
He's now on administrative or Medical Leave (both have been reported by local TV). He has his arm in a sling.
I'll bet Terrance voted Dem. By the way, the public pays these uniformed thugs. When we stop paying, they stop eating. Maybe Chief Pennington ought to explain that to this pathetic excuse for a LEO since he's had 11 prior complaints filed against him for behavior such as this. This time, he had the misfortune of losing his temper in front of the video camera. If I were on the jury, this woman would have just won the plaintif's lottery.
abc and esspecially good moring ameria, are not very reliable or trustworthy sources. So, I would have to be less than trusting of your post.
Ah, but did she donate to real Republicans or snowe, collins, type rinos, like that phony extreme left wing liberal from PA that the President lost so much support by endorsing?
Yes, you're right about the rent-a-cop comment. As I understand it, he's not the only problem on the force there either.
I've got the same break-away mirrors. It would be pretty difficult from me to hit someone with one of them and hurt them.
Evidently the DA and Judge felt the same way overall.
Some cities are trying to incorportate airport police into the local municipal police force. Unions just love the prospect of growing numbers of members.
I have mixed thoughts about it.
That's one of the reasons I don't fly.
I lived in Atlanta for 17 years and this kind of thing is rampant there -- it's one of the reasons I moved away. There are quotas on the police force and in order to meet them, they hire felons and fugitives and keep them -- by moving them around and by calling anyone who brings up their record a "racist". I have actually heard members of the Maynard Jackson and Bill Campbell administrations say that "White men did it for years, all we want is our turn." If you are a regular Neal Boortz reader or listener, you know that Atlanta is considered the private reserve of the Black community and you're never going to get any reform through until the Civil Rights Generation dies off.
ping
Does the airport video show any pro-Republican bumper stickers on her vehicle?
Funny how the 'community" is not invoking the name of Rodney King.
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