Posted on 05/10/2005 1:51:41 AM PDT by Stoat
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Tuesday, May 10, 2005 Police used Taser on pregnant driver She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved. So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts. "Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to obey an officer and resisting arrest. She was found guilty of the first charge because she never signed the ticket, but the Seattle Municipal Court jury could not decide whether she resisted arrest, the reason the Taser was applied. To her attorneys and critics of police use of Tasers, Brooks' case is an example of police overreaction. "It's pretty extraordinary that they should have used a Taser in this case," said Lisa Daugaard, a public defender familiar with the case. Law enforcement officers have said they see Tasers as a tool that can benefit the public by reducing injuries to police and the citizens they arrest. Seattle police officials declined to comment on this case, citing concerns that Brooks might file a civil lawsuit. But King County sheriff's Sgt. Donald Davis, who works on the county's Taser policy, said the use of force is a balancing act for law enforcement.
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Brooks' run-in with police Nov. 23 came six months before Seattle adopted a new policy on Taser use that guides officers on how to deal with pregnant women, the very young, the very old and the infirm. When used on such subjects, the policy states, "the need to stop the behavior should clearly justify the potential for additional risks."
"Obviously, (law enforcement agencies) don't want to use a Taser on young children, pregnant woman or elderly people," Davis said. "But if in your policy you deliberately exclude a segment of the population, then you have potentially closed off a tool that could have ended a confrontation."
Brooks was stopped in the 8300 block of Beacon Avenue South, just outside the African American Academy, while dropping her son off for school.
In a two-day trial that ended Friday, the officer involved, Officer Juan Ornelas, testified he clocked Brooks' Dodge Intrepid doing 32 mph in a 20-mph school zone.
He motioned her over and tried to write her a ticket, but she wouldn't sign it, even when he explained that signing it didn't mean she was admitting guilt.
Brooks, in her testimony, said she believed she could accept a ticket without signing for it, which she had done once before.
"I said, 'Well, I'll take the ticket, but I won't sign it,' " Brooks testified.
Officer Donald Jones joined Ornelas in trying to persuade Brooks to sign the ticket. They then called on their supervisor, Sgt. Steve Daman.
He authorized them to arrest her when she continued to refuse.
The officers testified they struggled to get Brooks out of her car but could not because she kept a grip on her steering wheel.
And that's when Jones brought out the Taser.
Brooks testified she didn't even know what it was when Jones showed it to her and pulled the trigger, allowing her to hear the crackle of 50,000 volts of electricity.
The officers testified that was meant as a final warning, as a way to demonstrate the device was painful and that Brooks should comply with their orders.
When she still did not exit her car, Jones applied the Taser.
In his testimony, the Taser officer said he pressed the prongs of the muzzle against Brooks' thigh to no effect. So he applied it twice to her exposed neck.
Afterward, he and the others testified, Ornelas pushed Brooks out of the car while Jones pulled.
She was taken to the ground, handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, the officers testified.
She told jurors the officer also used the device on her arm, and showed them a dark, brown burn to her thigh, a large, red welt on her arm and a lump on her neck, all marks she said came from the Taser application.
At the South Precinct, Seattle fire medics examined Brooks, confirmed she was pregnant and recommended she be evaluated at Harborview Medical Center.
Brooks said she was worried about the effect the trauma and the Taser might have on her baby, but she delivered a healthy girl Jan. 31.
Still, she said, she remains shocked that a simple traffic stop could result in her arrest.
"As police officers, they could have hurt me seriously. They could have hurt my unborn fetus," she said.
"All because of a traffic ticket. Is this what it's come down to?"
Davis said Tasers remain a valuable tool, and that situations like Brooks' are avoidable.
"I know the Taser is controversial in all these situations where it seems so egregious," he said. "Why use a Taser in a simple traffic stop? Well, the citizen has made it more of a problem. It's no longer a traffic stop. This is now a confrontation."
Are you referring to what we call DWB (driving while black)?
Who knows? Can't she work it if she is white?
Your child's life depends more on your teaching him how not to run into the street.
And when he isn't near the street, there is no reason to creep at 20 mph.
Please tell me you don't have school age children.
I meant the name...
Bye, nice chatting with you too. Bend an elbow for me. :-)
"Belligerent Woman of Color Syndrome." Basically, it consists of a women who is non-Caucasian arguing vehemently with the police on every single damn point of procedure. The volume of a BWOCS sufferer's argument is inversely related to their veracity and accuracy. Inevitable prognosis is that the BWOCS sufferer will end up in the lockup.
(BTW, I am a Kumeyaay, and am most assuredly non-Caucasian--and I've seen Kumeyaay women do this. It's embarrassing as hell to watch.)
Everyone is racist. The question is always "to what degree?"
Rhetoric? It was a question. Care to answer? How often do you drop your kids off at school?
"Dropping moppets is not needed to comprehend traffic engineering safety principles."
No, that's true. So how many hours have you spent studying school zones so you could know that it was perfectly safe to travel faster than the posted speed limit in a school zone?
"Are you referring to what we call DWB (driving while black)?"
Not necessarily the same. DWB is a more nebulous cluster of symptoms. BWOCS is easily diagnosed by volume, belligerence, and inability on the part of the BWOCS sufferer to de-escalate.
They had to confirm a pregnancy at eight months????? Perhaps the lady in question is a tad overweight which is why it took two policement to push and pull her out of the vehicle.
Pardon my intrusion but, I am astounded at that statement. It's very unbecoming of a freeper.
":I meant the name..."
I haven't seen her picture, so I don't know.
"Nazi's suck..."
That and more. Their existence today amongst here should be alarming to everyone. Still, when we should be screaming aloud at such outrageous and grievous police brutality, best I can do is out a nazi here and there.
I guess that's better than doing or saying nothing.
I can't process that statement. Let's just all pick and choose which laws we obey and which we don't.
>> Driving 32 mph is seen as dangerous only by wussy little mamma's boys.<<
Boy do I agree with that one, with one caveot: Kids can dart out from behind parked cars.
I watched a dog do that once. As soon as I saw him move towards the street from the sidewalk in front of a parked car, I saw the car coming and knew he was as good as dead. He was, and the twenty or so kids who were playing with him and got him wound up in the first place got to witness it.
Grade school kids can also be wound up after school. I am no safety first advocate, to say the least, but when it comes to young children, there have to be some sort of safeguards in place. I think it is why most of the elementary schools I have seen have been on very low traffic or cul-de-sac type streets.
Why? The statement is true. Perhaps you could instruct me on how to state it more eloquently?
Well, I suffer from BWOCS, when my husband doesn't mow the lawn as promised or my kids haven't straightened their rooms and I have asked them 3 times. We all have a little BWOCS inside of us all..... accept your inner BWOC... ;-)
No, that's POMS (Pi$$ed-Off Matriarch Syndrome).
BWOCS is an oppositional-defiance psychosis triggered by the presence of a police officer.
What is BWOC?
See Post #246.
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