Fuck the Police
June 28, 2014 1:19 PM Subscribe
Video released in arrest of ASU professor
Arizona Professor Body Slammed By Police During Jaywalking Stop, Now Charged With Assaulting Officer
An Arizona State University professor who was arrested by campus police last month is claiming self-defense, and the incident is getting a whole lot more attention now that 3TV has obtained video of it. According to police reports, Ore said she was trying to cross College Avenue in the same fashion as several others trying to avoid construction.
Arizona Professor Body Slammed By Police During Jaywalking Stop, Now Charged With Assaulting Officer
OFFICER: Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID
ORE: Are you serious?
OFFICER: Yes, I’m serious. That is the law. If you don’t understand the law I’m explaining the law to you...
ORE: …I never once saw a single solitary individual get pulled over by a cop for walking across a street on a campus, in a campus location. Everybody has been doing this because it is all obstructed. That’s the reason why. But you stop me in the middle of the street to pull me over and ask me, ‘Do you know what this is? This is a street.’…
OFFICER: Are you aware this is a street?
ORE: Let me finish
OFFICER: OK, put your hands behind your back
ORE: Don’t touch me, get your hands off me…
OFFICER: …Put your hands behind your back right now. I’m going to slam you on this car. Put your hand behind your back
ORE: You really want to do that? Do you see what I’m wearing? Do you see?
OFFICER: I don’t care what you are wearing.
ORE: Don’t talk to me like that. This entire thing has been about your lack of respect for me.
The situation devolved from there. The video depicts Ore being slammed to ground by Ferrin
... Ore will be charged with “assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, refusing to provide identification when requested to do so by an officer, and obstructing a highway or public thoroughfare.” After reviewing the video and other evidence, ASU determined there was “no evidence of inappropriate actions by the ASUPD officers involved.”
Unfortunately, this kind of incident is not uncommon. Last year another African American academic was subject to harsh treatment by the police when she was pulled over for a broken license plate tag holder.
A 2003 study in the Justice Policy Journal found “racially discriminatory policing is a white versus people of color problem, specifically interpersonal conflict between white police officers and people of color.” Further, recent Supreme Court cases have empower a “racist police officer to elevate the effects of racial profiling by allowing him discretion as to whether to issue a citation or to take a person into custody for minor traffic violations and fine-only misdemeanors.”
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is carefully framed to provide maximum outrage, which does not lead to good discussions. -- restless_nomad
Ah, Maricopa County. I've never been so glad to move away from anywhere in my life.
The Phoenix metroplex is a police state disguised as a retirement community. The sooner the water runs out, the better IMO.
posted by hippybear at 1:23 PM on June 28, 2014 [4 favorites]
The Phoenix metroplex is a police state disguised as a retirement community. The sooner the water runs out, the better IMO.
posted by hippybear at 1:23 PM on June 28, 2014 [4 favorites]
This kind of thing makes me so angry I can't see straight.
posted by 4ster at 1:26 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by 4ster at 1:26 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oh, it was a campus cop, too. You know, the ones who couldn't pass the municipal police exam yet wouldn't give up on their lifelong dream of slamming people on cars.
posted by Spatch at 1:26 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Spatch at 1:26 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
OFFICER: Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID
ORE: Are you serious?
OFFICER: Yes, I’m serious. That is the law. If you don’t understand the law I’m explaining the law to you...
That's not the law. The law states the citizen only needs to provide her true full name after being told that failing to do so is unlawful. It says absolutely nothing about identification.
posted by Talez at 1:29 PM on June 28, 2014 [5 favorites]
ORE: Are you serious?
OFFICER: Yes, I’m serious. That is the law. If you don’t understand the law I’m explaining the law to you...
That's not the law. The law states the citizen only needs to provide her true full name after being told that failing to do so is unlawful. It says absolutely nothing about identification.
posted by Talez at 1:29 PM on June 28, 2014 [5 favorites]
Holy shit. I'm beginning to think we need a constitutional amendment to end police impunity.
posted by clockzero at 1:31 PM on June 28, 2014
posted by clockzero at 1:31 PM on June 28, 2014
Are we going to start needing freedom rides to Arizona?
posted by wormwood23 at 1:33 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by wormwood23 at 1:33 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
You can't just wrestle and kick a police officer because you feel like the stop was unjustified.
posted by desjardins at 1:34 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by desjardins at 1:34 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
It looks like she is physically resisting the officers and they did what they always do when you do that.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:34 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Drinky Die at 1:34 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
...and yeah, I know Arizona is crazy and racist and all, but still, if you resist arrest then bad things are going to happen.
posted by desjardins at 1:35 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by desjardins at 1:35 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Can the question "how do I handle my increasing frustration with being powerless to change a world that enrages me without surcease, and that is only getting worse" stand as a legitimate comment in this thread, or do I have to take it to AskMetafilter?
posted by tzikeh at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2014 [6 favorites]
posted by tzikeh at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2014 [6 favorites]
OTOH though if the charges are focused on calling that kick assault I dunno, it does look like he is reaching somewhere where you might feel a need to defend yourself on instinct, especially if you feel exposed. They should have found a slap on the wrist charge and moved on.
posted by Drinky Die at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2014
posted by Drinky Die at 1:36 PM on June 28, 2014
You can't just wrestle and kick a police officer because you feel like the stop was unjustified.
Why can police officers just escalate any interaction with a citizen into physical assault, arrest, and multiplying criminal charges with complete impunity, though?
posted by clockzero at 1:38 PM on June 28, 2014 [16 favorites]
Why can police officers just escalate any interaction with a citizen into physical assault, arrest, and multiplying criminal charges with complete impunity, though?
posted by clockzero at 1:38 PM on June 28, 2014 [16 favorites]
Unfortunately didn't need to click through to form a reasonable guess that the arrestee was black.
posted by threeants at 1:38 PM on June 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by threeants at 1:38 PM on June 28, 2014 [3 favorites]
I'm a middle-class, white guy, and even I know that you don't get to physically hinder a police office putting handcuffs on you.
Is there a link to the entire video anywhere? I'd like to know how the escalation started.
Also, her reaction is understandable at the end, but it sure looked like the officer was going to adjust her dress, not "reaching toward her anatomy".
posted by madajb at 1:43 PM on June 28, 2014
Is there a link to the entire video anywhere? I'd like to know how the escalation started.
Also, her reaction is understandable at the end, but it sure looked like the officer was going to adjust her dress, not "reaching toward her anatomy".
posted by madajb at 1:43 PM on June 28, 2014
>Why can police officers just escalate any interaction with a citizen into physical assault, arrest, and multiplying criminal charges with complete impunity, though?
Because generally as agents of the state it makes sense to create big disincentives to target them.
Replace "ASU professor being racially targetted" with "drunken frat boy" and the case for "manhandling a cop will carry a severe penalty" becomes clearer.
This of course is not to say that this blanket kind of discretion doesn't inevitably fuck over minorities, the poor, etc - just that it's not an illegitimate view point in of itself.
posted by pmv at 1:47 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Because generally as agents of the state it makes sense to create big disincentives to target them.
Replace "ASU professor being racially targetted" with "drunken frat boy" and the case for "manhandling a cop will carry a severe penalty" becomes clearer.
This of course is not to say that this blanket kind of discretion doesn't inevitably fuck over minorities, the poor, etc - just that it's not an illegitimate view point in of itself.
posted by pmv at 1:47 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]
Aren't police trained to avoid escalation and defuse situations? This whole situation seems avoidable if the cop didn't escalate it into shouting, bogus claims of the law, and arrest off a silly jaywalking charge.
posted by mathowie at 1:49 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by mathowie at 1:49 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
All the officer had to say was: "Sorry, I'm just doing my job. Please don't walk on the street." He had plenty of opportunity to say it.
posted by popcassady at 1:50 PM on June 28, 2014
posted by popcassady at 1:50 PM on June 28, 2014
Are there any "Police State Studies" courses in the universities yet?
posted by telstar at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2014
posted by telstar at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2014
I'm weighing the prof's success at escalating the situation against the cop's failure to de-escalate it. I'm thinking any citizen should get a free kick to balls of any cop who can't keep fucking J-walking stop from getting out of hand.
posted by klarck at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by klarck at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2014 [8 favorites]
Why can police officers just escalate any interaction with a citizen into physical assault, arrest, and multiplying criminal charges with complete impunity, though?
They could both be wrong in this situation. But if you physically resist an officer, they're going to force you down. Even if their motives are pure, they have to do it, it's for their own safety. It's a dangerous job and you don't know who is going to turn out to be a threat.
posted by desjardins at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
They could both be wrong in this situation. But if you physically resist an officer, they're going to force you down. Even if their motives are pure, they have to do it, it's for their own safety. It's a dangerous job and you don't know who is going to turn out to be a threat.
posted by desjardins at 1:51 PM on June 28, 2014 [2 favorites]
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posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 1:20 PM on June 28, 2014 [1 favorite]