I see no cause for arrest.
But it has absolutely nothing to do with her death 3 days later.
Roid Rage?
Ping.
After handing her the warning ticket, he should have just said, “Have a nice day” and walked back to his car. End of issue.
He does seem to be quite agitated, while she appears to be reasonably calm.
It’s been quite some time since I was a Prosecutor and,, like everything, we had our “bad cops”, but it was NOTHING like what I’ve been seeing this past few years. Hell, I remember any number of Defendants saying, “well, the cop WAS nice.”
ZERO cause for arrest here. This one stinks to high heaven.
This LEO has been selected by the Governor, whose hand has reached down and has taken a small town thug and made him Lord of a 100 mile stretch of Interstate.
Sarcasm indicates some degree of humor. Nobody is laughing. Public officials MUST be held to a higher standard, and face more rigorous punishments. (I'm for drawing and quartering, first offence, but I'm a traditionalist.)
Fixed it for you
Yes, she should have been ticketed for failure to signal and that should have been the end of it.
No, the officer shouldn’t have told her to get out of the car or anything that followed that order. His chief should have sent his butt walking out of the station with a pink slip that same day. There is no excuse for his behavior.
No, she shouldn’t have been in jail for 3 days.
No, she, alone, killed herself.
This is not passing the smell test.
It’s almost looking like she was trying to set up a confrontation?
Listening to the audio, it seemed like the officer was trying to push her buttons.
An unfortunate mix of 2 already agitated people. Once the officer started being overly aggressive, his over-blown sense of authority was not going to let him back off. It escalated.
Yes, she was mouthy and rude, but being told to put out her cigarette and being pulled out of her car was over the top.
For a turn signal violation?
As an aside, people don’t commit suicide over traffic issues and a stint in jail. She was either already psychologically unstable or it wasn’t suicide.
Good example of how something routine can go seriously bad in no time at all.
I saw part of it. One scarey, crazy cop.
I didn’t hear him read to her the Miranda Rights.
The stop for I
Legal lane change, following too close, etc. are reasons used to stop motorists so the authorities can check for illegal drugs. If the person stopped acts irrational or defensive then it can easily escalate. This is not endorsing the practice but realizing it happens. There is always way more to the story than what we get from these snippits.
My take: Officer approaches vehicle from behind, driver changes lanes to get out of his way but does not signal. Officer pulls her over. He was going to issue a warning. Sometimes minor infractions lead to discovery of more serious issues like warrants, etc. Officer approaches cautiously. No warrants. Issues warning. Good to go.
Black woman wants to communicate her disgust for being pulled over. Officer is expecting her to be grateful for not giving her a ticket. She starts mouthing off. He gets offended. He decides to assert himself, but she becomes more and more defiant.
The officer might have diffused this by not getting angry.
The woman might have also avoided getting more than a few minutes delay and a warning by showing a little more respect.
Bottom line. Both the cop and woman ended up with a bad day.
Woman ended up dead after that. Apparent suicide. Nothing so far makes me think it was anything but suicide.
Just sad.