This was first published on 18-July-2015 on another blog. And now it's here.
On 26 January 2015 Charlena Michelle
Cooks – 8 months pregnant – was trying to get her 2nd
grade daughter to school on time in Barstow, California. According to
a school employee who honked at her, Crooks was driving too fast in
the parking lot. The employee said Cooks responded by screaming and
punching the employee's car.
A responding officer told her that,
with no damage to her car, no crime had been committed. He said he
would talk to the other lady and get her name, though he never asked
the employee for her name.
After a short conversation with Cooks
the officer asked for her name and she refused to give it. She took
out her phone to call her boyfriend to find out if had to give her
name or not. The officer told Cooks, "I have every right to ask
you for your name."
The officer said he would give Cooks
two minutes to finish her phone call. He must have changed his mind
because within 30 seconds he grabbed Cooks, pushed her down onto the
ground, and, with his partner's help, handcuffed her.
As the police grabbed Cooks she cried
out, "Don't touch me!" As they pushed her onto the ground,
on her stomach, Cooks screamed, "Please! I'm pregnant. Please
stop this."
One officer asks her, "Why are you
resisting?" and I can hear Cooks say on the video, "Because
you're stupid." Actually that's a pretty good answer. According
to an attorney from the ACLU, "Even if an officer is conducting
an investigation, in California, unlike some other states, he can't
just require a person to provide ID for no reason."
Coincidentally, the Barstow Police
Department was just settling a case where they had arrested two
brothers for refusing to identify themselves. The Department had to
make a cash payment and do retraining which included instructing
officers that people are almost never required to provide ID unless
they are driving a vehicle.
When Cooks was charged, it was only
with resisting arrest. If you get arrested, and the only charge is
resisting arrest, something is obviously wrong. Somebody must have
realized that Cooks did not have to provide ID and therefore could
not be charged with that, after all. When she went before a judge
even the resisting arrest charge was thrown out.
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So it would seem the arresting officer
WAS stupid. Stupid enough to win a place in our bad cops category. He
didn't understand the law, he didn't understand (or was not aware) of
the retraining his department was forced to conduct, once the arrest
was made he couldn't come up with anything illegal Cooks had done
before the arrest, and, finally, what he did charge her with, was
thrown out by the judge.
Later Cooks said, "I don't think
I've ever been that terrified in my life.... I told him I was
pregnant so he could proceed with caution. That didn't happen and the
first thing I thought was I didn't want to fall to the ground. I felt
the pressure on my stomach from falling and I was calling for help.
But these guys are supposed to help me. But who is supposed to help
me when they are attacking me?"
Cooks gave birth to a daughter on 30
March. The baby seems healthy but will be monitored to ensure she did
not suffer any injury during her pre-natal encounter with the Barstow
police department.
For more information click on the links
below.
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