Posted on 06/30/2014 2:17:27 PM PDT by Red Badger
TEMPE, Ariz. (CBS Las Vegas) - An Arizona State University English professor is claiming self-defense against a campus police officer who slammed her to the front of a police car last month.
Dr. Ersula Ore was walking near campus when she was stopped by an officer while crossing College Avenue near Fifth Street.
“The reason I’m talking to you right now is because you are walking in the middle of the street,” Officer Stewart Ferrin said in a video recording obtained by KTVK. “Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID.”
“Are you serious?” Ore asked.
“Yes, I am serious. That is the law,” Ferrin replied.
The professor stated that she was trying to cross College Avenue like several other people around her in an attempt to avoid construction, a police report explained.
“I never once saw a single solitary individual get pulled over by a cop for walking across a street on a campus, in a campus location. Everybody has been doing this because it is all obstructed. That’s the reason why,” Ore told the officer. “But you stop me in the middle of the street to pull me over and ask me, ‘Do you know what this is? This is a street.’ ”
Ferrin asked her if she knew that it was street. Before Ore could finish her statement, he demanded that she put her hands behind her back.
“Don’t touch me,” Ore said. “Get your hands off me.”
The officer demanded for her to comply again.
“Put your hand behind your back. I’m going to slam you on this car. Put your hand behind your back,” Ferrin stated.
“You really want to do that? Do you see what I’m wearing? Do you see?” Ore said.
At the time of the incident the professor was wearing a black dress. The police officer “slammed” her onto the car and she was then wrestled to the ground where her dress rose exposing her body.
Ferrin and Ore suffered minor injuries and she was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, criminal damage and obstructing a thoroughfare.
The video shows Ore also kicking Ferrin while he was arresting her.
Ore plans to fight the charges and her attorney, Alane Roby, explained that she responded in self-defense.
“She was exposed, told officer she was exposed,” Roby stated of Ore to KTVK. “Her dress was up; the officer was reaching toward her anatomy. She felt uncomfortable with hands going there.”
The university released a statement to KTVK explaining that “ASU authorities have reviewed the circumstances surrounding the arrest and have found no evidence of inappropriate actions by the ASUPD officers involved. Should such evidence be discovered, an additional, thorough inquiry will be conducted and appropriate actions taken.
“Because the underlying criminal charges are pending, there is not much more we can say at this time. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has reviewed all available evidence, including the police report, witness statements, and audio and video recordings of the incident, and decided to press criminal charges of assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, refusing to provide identification when requested to do so by an officer, and obstructing a highway or public thoroughfare.”
Yeah, when used by the Amish the word “disrespected” is usually followed by fisticuffs and/or gunfire. See BET.
No big deal, they've been here before. Shoulda seen the hullabaloo when we chose to honor Christopher Columbus instead of Dr. Martin Luther King with a paid state holiday.
Have you forgotten we now live in communists America. Next step is confronted by the gestapo.
Gestapo in the US = cops who interpret the law and the Constitution themselves.
Didn’t Chris land at the Port of Phoenix?
I didn’t know it was against the law to walk in a street without an ID. What if one of those disenfranchised people that can’t get an ID to vote had to walk in the street to get to the polls?
“She made the mistake of “jay walking” like how an illegal would do instead of crossing the street at the cross walk like a citizen would have to....”
Did you see that the crosswalk was blocked by a construction zone?
Sure, she could have walked a block out of her way to get to another crosswalk, but I would just jaywalk too, as would most citizens, I think.
I didn’t see a smug sense of entitlement in that video. She didn’t want to be wrestled to the ground because she was wearing a skirt, and after she was, her reasoning is obvious....they pulled her skirt up in the process.
The officer should be fired, instead they are charging her with assault.
Hm, I'm not sure about this — there are cases where the police are completely unjustified.
Would it be a bad idea to refuse to show ID if the police showed up to your property due to complaints about you having a gun w/o warrant?
I watched the video, and, yes, I’d say she was civil.
I probably would if I was black. Cops in Arizona can’t ask a Mexican looking person for an ID, so why can they ask a black person?
The cop is mentally unbalanced.
Nah, but you wouldn’t believe the number of NY transplants we have there now...
I agree with you.
Cops can ask any person in AZ who is breaking the law to produce an ID, so they know whose name to put on the citation.
As I said, ASU doesn’t just pull any Barney Fife wannabe in off the street and put them in uniform. It is mandatory that their officers receive AZ Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) education and certification.
I’m guessing if a copy showed up at your house... he wouldn’t ask for your ID. Maybe though. I think those are two very different scenarios.
I don’t know which I dislike more, cops or professors.
I’ve met more decent cops than professors. They are all academics, and just KNOW they are better than you and I.
What happens if it is an illegal and they don’t have an ID?
Concur.
They’re everywhere. Always ready to tell anyone who will listen how NY is the greatest city in the world.
Really? Then why are you here wasting my time?
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