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Three Seattle police officers were justified when they used a stun gun on a pregnant mother who refused to sign a traffic ticket, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a case that prompted an incredulous dissent.
Malaika Brooks was driving her son to Seattle’s African American Academy in 2004 when she was stopped for doing 32 mph in a school zone. She insisted it was the car in front of her that was speeding, and refused to sign the ticket because she thought she’d be admitting guilt.
Rather than give her the ticket and let her go on her way, the officers decided to arrest her. One reached in, turned off her car and dropped the keys on the floor. Brooks stiffened her arms against the steering wheel and told the officers she was pregnant, but refused to get out, even after they threatened to stun her.
The officers – Sgt. Steven Daman, Officer Juan Ornelas and Officer Donald Jones – then stunned her three times, in the thigh, shoulder and neck, and hauled her out of the car, laying her face-down in the street.
As far as I know you never have to sign the ticket. It just goes against you in court. But I guess these a-holes demanded it and expected it. This is Seattle for you.
Found by Aric Mackey.
The death of civility is a painful condition. Out of my high school classmates that went on to be law officers just one was not an obvious bully (a female).
Arbitrary power in the hands of uncivil brutes looks to be what we are in for, good and hard. There are some decent law officers. Decent ones are worth more than their weight in gold.
Our societies self centered attitudes goes a long way to allowing a greater amount of this behavior. If our respect for fellow humanity was a foremost thought, it seems to me there would be less tolerance for this criminal behavior.
re: If you don’t sign the ticket, you are still under arrest for the traffic violation – and you are going to jail.
Of course, as my father tol me, traffic cops have some “discretion” in a lot of the things they do.
They get to make “judgement calls”.
Most commonly: whether they give you a verbal warning, a written warning, or traffic citation [ticket].
This also applies to whether they arrest you for failure to sign a traffic citation, or tearing it up.
My father used to be amused when people would tear-up the tickets he wrote them, because he would just write them another… as many as were necessary – documenting how many had been torn-up on each new ticket. Judges -love- to read those comments when it comes to trial.
But, he worked with cops who would cuff the driver & put them in the back of the cruiser, call for a tow truck to pickup the car, and take the arrestee to jail… because the law – as written – allows that.
#4 “You know if you do what the Officer ask, you don’t get tasered.”
This is the same mindset that produces the following rationale: If you don’t have anything to hide, you don’t have anything to worry about.
Sheep.
In Nebraska (and likely many other jurisdictions), you are legally required to sign the ticket. It is not an admission of guilt, but a guarantee that you’ll appear in court. If you don’t sign, things get bad, as you’ve just went from committing a minor traffic violation to committing a misdemeanor that will now appear on your record…
(Not that I’m justifying these asshole cops’ actions–the situation didn’t require the use of a weapon that is equivalent to a gun on the “use of force continuum”. I’m encouraging people to check their local laws before claiming “As far as I know you never have to sign the ticket. It just goes against you in court.“)