Re: Not sure what you are talking about.

This country has been on a steady

rhettm · 2016-09-13T23:45:53.511Z

Decline since we became a country of rights and not responsible. How far are we going to go before this trend turns around?

TallulahtheTiger

Scout Team [171]

TigerPulse: 94%

Posts: 156

Joined: 2016

I have been assaulted & falsely arrested by a cop.

Sep 14, 2016, 12:10 AM

It happened to me on January 13, 2012, in the Earlewood neighborhood of Columbia, where I was walking about 5 blocks from my house.

After finishing dinner that evening at about 8:45pm, I decided to go outside for a walk through my neighborhood, which is about 2 miles north of downtown. Right about 9:00pm, a Columbia city police officer cruising in the other direction turned around & stopped me. Immediately he was quite belligerent & suspicious toward me. "We've had some break-ins in the area", he said in a threatening tone. "Where are you headed?"; "where do you live?". I answered his questions truthfully & as politely as I could under the circumstance. "What's in your backpack?", he then demanded. "Books, magazines, personal stuff", I responded. Then he barked at me loudly, "YOU GOT SOME ID?". My response - "I wasn't aware that I needed one; I'm just walking" - must have really set him off. At that point the officer, already out of his car, charged me, kicked my feet out from under me, slammed me down to the turf & moved to put me in handcuffs. "GET DOWN! GET DOWN!", he yelled. "Why are you doing this to me?", I responded. "YOU RESISTED ARREST", he then claimed. The officer, a 22-year-old male, had already called for back-up. When the 2nd officer arrived, the 2 then started to question me some more. "You got warrants out for your arrest", the 2nd officer said. "No I don't", I responded. They then put me in the back of the police car, searched my backpack & found nothing, & ran a check on me, which came back clean. After this, the 1st officer wrote out 2 citations, 1 for disorderly conduct & 1 for resisting arrest, then drove me to a paddy wagon which transported me to the Richland County jail. Once I got to the jail, the booking officer, upon seeing the citations, sneered at me & remarked, "Oh, a smart a**". After spending the night in jail & waiting what seemed like an eternity for a bond hearing, I was finally released on a personal-recognizance bond at 4pm the next day.

So for this walk through my own neighborhood, I was facing 2 criminal charges, to say nothing of the humiliation, degradation & stress I experienced. I had to hire a lawyer, which cost me $2,500. The prosecutor's office had no intention of dropping the charges; all they offered was to recommend me into Pre-Trail Intervention, which would've entailed pleading guilty, paying the fines & accepting responsibility for my "crimes", paying more money to enter the program, doing 20 hours of community service, submitting to drug-testing & also to the authority of a PTI officer with the power to flunk me from the program & remand me back for trial (in which case I would forfeit all that money). My lawyer, who did believe my story, nonetheless explained that it was rare for anyone to win acquittal at trial on charges such that I faced & that PTI at least assured me of being able to come out of this with no criminal record. Still I refused, & so at arraignment we requested a jury trial.

Six months later I was required to attend a pre-trial hearing. At this point my lawyer learned that the arresting officer was no longer on the city police force, & thus he moved to have the charges dismissed. This motion was granted, & so the criminal case was over. A few months later I filed a civil suit against the Columbia police for false arrest & assault & battery. The evidence we had was in my favor, though not absolutely conclusive. (That evidence centered mainly on the fact that the arresting officer made up a story in his arrest report, having stated as fact that he had observed me staggering drunk & behaving loudly & obnoxiously prior to stopping me. Yet the jail nurse who examined me as I was being booked noted that I appeared completely sober.) My civil lawyer warned me that the police would likely "lose" the dashcam video, which would have corroborated my version of events. Sure enough, we were never able to procure it. Finally, about a year after filing the suit, my lawyer & I met with a lawyer from the city attorney's office at mediation, & we negotiated a settlement for $13,500.

This wasn't the 1st time I'd had a hostile encounter with police while walking through my neighborhood. The Columbia city police apparently have a stop-&-frisk policy that gets applied especially toward young people or black people. They will simply stop pedestrians at random (on a made-up pretext) & order them to spread & submit to a pat-down that usually involves being forced to empty pockets & open backpack. Utter one word of protest at this treatment - give them any backtalk whatsoever - & you'll be taken straight to jail. Seriously, it's just like Ferguson, Missouri, around here! I bought my house in this mixed-race neighborhood 11 years ago, & this has happened to me at least 12 times. For what it's worth, USC Police are just as bad - walking or biking on their campus at night while black is a sure way to get stopped & frisked; & they won't hesitate to arrest for trespassing anyone who can't render a "Carolina Card" (ID for USC students, faculty & staff). I'd had enough of these encounters that I know what to say & what not to say when stopped by a police officer; know what to do & what not to do. And I know my rights.

But knowing one's rights is of little use when facing a cop on a power-trip, a cop who acts on the notion that any defiance, insolence or show of "attitude" is per se a criminal offense, one that even justifies a violent arrest. Most people I know, whatever their background or political views, when I have told them story agreed that the police behavior in my case was outrageous. But a significant minority essentially told me that they had no sympathy for me, that I'd "brought this all on myself", by my failure to be submissive & deferential. They insisted on this point even though I was committing no crime, even though this was never a legal stop, even though it involved a completely unjustified resort to force. Their presumption is that the police are always in the right, that their authority is absolute, that their credibility beyond reproach, that they must always be shown respect & deference, & that failure to do so is a crime. "If I'd only complied," they insist, "none of this would have ever happened". The problems with this dictum of "just comply" are 1) that it presumes that we as citizens should have NO expectation that police will respect our constitutional rights, & 2) that no matter how outrageous the police conduct, the onus is always on the victim.

After my arrest, I did some more reading on this subject, from the ACLU as well as from other sources. I understand now that I got lucky in that I was able to get the criminal charges dismissed & got some measure of justice & compensation. But I learned that most people who find themselves in this predicament don't get such a positive outcome - either they can't afford a lawyer, can't make bail & thus lose their jobs & sometimes even their homes & property, or just can't win in a system stacked so heavily in favor of police, authority, wealth & whiteness.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

I would like to chime in here. Does anyone force you to live in a bad neighborhood? Does anyone force you to stay at home and get paid to be lazy? Do you have the initiative to get out and make your life what you want it to be? Does anyone force you to get involved with gangs and sell drugs? These are all choices. People choose to do these things. I grew up poor on a farm and didn't have a lot growing up. I chose to better myself and create a better life for me and my future family. Through hard work I am where I want to be in life now. For the record I have been pulled over about 5 times in my life by black and white cops. I respected the officers and fully cooperated with their requests because I had nothing to hide. Just by being honest and cooperating with them I received one ticket out of those multiple stops for a tint violation. After I removed the questionable tint the ticket was dropped. You know I feel sorry for anyone who has been wrongly shot by an officer.However I am sick and tired of hearing blacks claim they are being targeted. More white people have been shot by cops than black people. So cry me a river about your poor life that you were dealt. Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in there mouth and I can guarantee you I have been given nothing or any special treatment because I am white. I made the choice to make something out of my life.

This country has been on a steady

Re: This country has been on a steady

Re: This country has been on a steady

Re: This country has been on a steady

Re: This country has been on a steady

then don't break the law or be a pretentious ### to a cop

Nothing to hide, nothing to worry about?

Re: Nothing to hide, nothing to worry about?

Are you serious!?****

welcome to the basket of deplorables :-)

Re - Welcome to the Devil, it's name, SOCIAL MEDIA!!!

Re: then don't break the law or be a pretentious ### to a cop

And yet I have never been assaulted in any way by a cop

I have been assaulted & falsely arrested by a cop.

Wow.

Re: I have been assaulted & falsely arrested by a cop.

I would say being beaten or shot to death by a raged filled

Re: This country has been on a steady

Countries are the problem. We are one human race on one

Re: Countries are the problem. We are one human race on one

but it's where we are headed. Our Globalist overlord betters

Re: Countries are the problem. We are one human race on one

Re: Countries are the problem. We are one human race on one

Re: This country has been on a steady

Re: This country has been on a steady

This country is much better than the country I was born in

You are correct

Re: This country is much better than the country I was born in

Those who murdered the three of them have been

I'm with you.

Re: This country has been on a steady

Not sure what you are talking about.

I live in New Hampshire***

Re: I live in New Hampshire***

It seems you completely missed the point there champ***

as has been the case for centuries

Re: I live in New Hampshire***