You Must Be Kidding

I hear the talk all the time about how our civil liberties are slowly being eroded. This is happening because we are letting it happen. The people in charge don't want us to have any power or question their actions at all. This is why a cop at UC Davis gets away with pepper spraying a whole line of peaceful protestors. This is why a cop in Oakland gets away with spraying a tear gas canister into a crowd and almost kill someone. But the column I read today in the New York Times about an innocent, pregnant woman named Malaika Brooks trying to drive her kid to school takes the cake for the worst act of abuse of power I have ever heard.

This poor woman was doing nothing but driving her kid to school when she was pulled over for speeding. She was doing 32 in a 20 mph zone. I would say she deserved a ticket. But that was far from all that happened to her.

She was given a speeding ticket but refused to sign it, mistakenly believing that doing so was an admission of guilt. She was told that refusal to sign the ticket would result in her arrest but she would not change her mind. A sergeant arrived at the scene and instructed the officers to arrest Ms. Brooks. She refused to get out of the car. She told the officers she was pregnant and had to go to the bathroom. They asked her how pregnant she was. As if that makes a difference.

Her son had by now left the car and walked to the school. This spared the young child from having to witness the atrocity that was then committed against his mother. The police tasered her three times in less than a minute, first in her thigh, then in her arm and then in her neck, causing her intense pain, leaving permanent scars and finally rendering her unconscious. 

Thank God she gave birth to a healthy baby. The officers were admonished for excessive use of force, but it has been ruled that no action can be taken against them because the law written to regulate the use of Tasers was not written clearly to cover such an incident. The woman is seeking damages in civil court.

There shouldn't need to be a law. Common sense should tell you that tasering a pregnant woman is cruel and unnecessary. Any judge that says differently should be immediately removed from the bench.

But the deeper question is, what are we becoming? When a helpless woman with an unborn child who poses no threat can be abused in such fashion, the time has come for some serious soul searching. This is supposed to be a democracy, government of the people by the people. Policeman have sworn to protect and serve. How did these officers protect and serve in this case? Suppose the woman had died, which has happened before. Would these officers still face no charges because the law is unclear?

What is clear is that these officers wanted to use their high tech toy to hurt someone. They acted without any conscience whatsoever and, to add insult to injury, they are seeking to have even their admonishment overturned because they are so sure that they have the right to inflict their cruelty upon anyone they choose.

This is becoming a consistent pattern. Public servants who inflict pain upon the innocent public. A new system has to be developed to screen out the psychopaths who want to become police officers. We need public servants who actually place serving  the public before their own ego. We cannot call ourselves a civil society when we allow such injustices to go unpunished. This is the kind of hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy that fuels the hatred of terrorists. Wake up people, your America is vanishing before your eyes.