ASU Professor's (of color) Brutal Arrest for Jaywalking

[TorchTheWitch]

55. the officer is only partially wrong in the law

In AZ you aren't required to SHOW identification documents. You are, however, required when asked to identify yourself by telling what your full name is. The officer saying that she was required to SHOW her ID and that it is the law isn't true. She IS, however, required to identify herself by full name which she didn't do.

Her arrest was lawful since she didn't identify herself as requested though she wasn't required to show any ID document - she WAS required to tell him her name, and at no point in the entire confrontation did she do so.

Her complaints of his disrespecting her really grate on my nerves since throughout - and the officer allowed it to go on for quite some time - was her doing the disrespecting by continually talking over him even when she asked him a question not allowing him to answer, and preventing him from doing so because she never stopped for breath during her entire monologue. I can totally understand the officer finally getting fed up and arresting her. And once she was arrested (which she should have expected to happen given that she refused to listen to him) continually talked over him, refused to identify herself and harassed him for being disrespectful to HER when it was HER doing the disrespecting by continually talking over him and refusing to comply with identifying herself. She even tried to engage some passer-by who wasn't a police officer, and she didn't care if he was or not further ignoring anything the officer said to her.

Once under arrest there's no question that she continually resisted arrest. Though it may not have been smart for the officer to threaten if she continued to resist that he'd slam her on the hood of the car he CAN do that if it is necessary to get the person under arrest to stop resisting. Why she complained to the officer about what she was wearing just to be handcuffed is anyone's guess... if just being handcuffed does something to your clothing to expose your private regions than you aren't wearing enough clothing, for heaven's sake. And if she was worried about being exposed by wearing a short skirt than she should have simply STOPPED resisting arrest instead of harassing the officer by saying "do you see what I'm wearing?" as if that somehow makes one immune to being handcuffed. Kicking him in the shin afterward was just flat out dumbassery, and it's no wonder that she was charged for assaulting an officer because of that. If after being forced to the ground in order to handcuff her that her skirt road up and exposed her nether regions I can it both ways that the officer might want to cover her by pulling her skirt down over her exposed nether regions or NOT doing that since that might be interpreted as being sexual contact... according to her attorney manipulating her upraised skirt so her nether regions would not be exposed she took to be sexual contact rather than the officer trying to cover her exposure to preserve her dignity. Personally, I'd rather have an officer attempt to cover my exposed nether regions rather than leave them out there for anyone to see.

Further, in the video she continually tells him to move his leg when he had her pinned against the back of the car trying to handcuff her. His leg would have been between hers since that's proper police procedure and necessary to keep the resisting person from being able to use their legs to kick at the officer while being handcuffed. If she didn't like his leg being there, tough, she would never have been handcuffed in the first place if she just told the officer her name and quit disrespecting HIM by continually talking over him. She put her own self in this position from the start.

Not one bit of this would have happened if she just said who she was by NAME (saying you're a professor at the university is NOT identifying yourself, and it wasn't for identification purposes that she said that - she said it because she expected to be treated with kid gloves just because she's a professor) and didn't disrespect the OFFICER by listening to him and not continually talking over him while he was trying to talk to her and get her to follow lawful orders. If it's one thing I can't fucking stand from anyone is being talked over, and doing that to anyone is not only disrespectful it's maddening when it happens to you. I can totally understand why her doing this to the officer finally got him fed up with her and putting her under arrest... he lasted a hell of a lot longer with her harangue than I would have. I would think a professor at a university would also understand that, particularly one that supposedly is an expert in cultural studies and communication.

Her being thrown to the ground in the video is because she almost got loose from the officer, and is normal police procedure to reasonably force someone resisting arrest to comply. I'm not seeing that she was "thrown" to the ground but that she was forced to the ground. And there is no question whatsoever that she resisted arrest. When you continually resist arrest just what the hell do you expect is going to be the result?

The officer said she was walking down the middle of the street, and she didn't refute him. She didn't say she was crossing the street or walking on the street as close as possible to whatever was obstructing the sidewalk. The officer isn't blind, and could see it was necessary to walk on the street at the side to avoid the obstruction, so I'm not seeing why he would have stopped her for obstructing a public thoroughfare if she wasn't in actuality walking down the middle of the street. And she at no time refuted him when he said she was walking down the middle of the street thereby obstructing a public thoroughfare. Therefore, I believe it is logical to assume she was in fact walking down the middle of the street obstructing a public thoroughfare and why the officer stopped her in the first place.

The only thing the officer got wrong here was telling her she had to SHOW ID because it was the law. Clearly, though she wasn't interested in the fine point of the law in showing ID documents or merely telling an officer your full name since she never brought this up but continually talked over him right up to her being handcuffed... and never once gave him her name.

As for his threatening to slam her on the hood of the car if she didn't stop resisting though maybe not the smartest thing to say, it's certainly better to threaten it in order to get someone to stop resisting rather than just doing it because you otherwise weren't able to stop someone from resisting. It's plain he didn't WANT to slam her on the hood or anything else physically harmful than necessary to arrest her. And he wouldn't have had to go through ANY of that if she just DIDN'T resist arrest.

Sorry, not feeling sorry for this woman at all. Just as I didn't with the white student that did the same thing in Texas. Refuse an officer's lawful orders, talk over them and resist arrest, too bad for you.

It's simple really. If you live in a state where identifying yourself by your full name to a police officer on request is the law and one asks you to, DO it. DON'T yap over what the officer is trying to say to you, and DON'T resist arrest.

FYI, there is no state that requires a person to show ID documentation unless they are driving or on an airplane. There are 24 states (including AZ) that a person is required to identify themselves by name to an officer upon request if there is reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_Identify_statutes#Obligation_to_identify

http://www.knowmyrights.org/knowledgebase/faq/police-encounters/when-do-i-have-to-show-id