“The first thing I thought was they killed my baby”: NYPD officer throws pregnant woman to the groun

[demmiblue]

Source: Salon

In a horrific new video (embedded at the end of this post), Sandra Amezquita, a 5-foot-4, five months pregnant Sunset Park resident, is thrown to the ground belly-first by a police officer.

The cops had been arresting her 17-year-old son, Jhohan Lemos, for possession of a knife he had clipped on his belt. Amezquita and her husband responded to Lemos’ cries as he was being beaten. Photographs obtained by New York Daily News show Lemos with a swollen shut eye and a number of serious scrapes and bruises.

According to police watchdog group El Grito de Sunset Park, police officers had actually been harassing Lemos for a prior robbery arrest and planted the knife. “According to this young man,” said Dennis Flores of police watchdog group El Grito de Sunset Park, “when they put the razor blade in his pocket, they told him, ‘We’re going to make sure this time, it sticks. So the mom saw this, started yelling out, and the cops grabbed her and slammed her against the floor like we see in the video. And they put a Taser to her stomach.”

“The first thing I thought was they killed my baby and they’re going to kill my wife,” said Amezquita’s husband Ronel Lemos.

http://www.salon.com/2014/09/24/nypd_officer_throws_pregnant_woman_to_the_ground_in_disturbing_new_video/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

[CaptainTruth]

1. Horrific.

I'm not a religious person but all these incidents of police violence have pushed me to the point where I hope there really is a hell ... so brutal cops can burn in it for eternity.

How do we make it stop?

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. we were just assured recently that pregnant women

Have fetuses inside them. Not babies.

[ljm2002]

3. Generally speaking, "fetus" vs. "baby"...

...is a legal distinction. Most couples who are expecting, do think of it as a baby. But legally, there is a distinction to be made.

Hope that clears it up for you.

[Dreamer Tatum]

4. it was always crystal clear to me nt

[ljm2002]

5. Then what was the point of your post...

...if I may ask?

You seemed to count yourself among the "We" when you said

"we were just assured recently that pregnant women

Have fetuses inside them. Not babies."

as if this story somehow contradicts that notion. Please elaborate.

[Dreamer Tatum]

9. On the contrary. I love DU.

My problem is with inconsistency and hypocrisy.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. None of which I'm seeing on this thread. So you must be arguing with yourself. The way you

always generalize this site because of something that someone might have posted at some point in time, says the opposite.

[demmiblue]

25. Yep.

I think that it is apparent to most.

[Dreamer Tatum]

8. It can't be a baby when there's an outrage, and a fetus the next.

My personal belief is that it is what the mother says it is, but that
is MY opinion, and not that of most others who assured all of us
that, despite any assumptions to the contrary, women in fact carry clumps
of cells.

And I have yet to meet a woman anywhere at any time who referred to
the entity in her womb as anything other than a baby.

[sufrommich]

11. So? Women who have abortions refer to the fetus,women

who choose to remain pregnant refer to their baby. Why is this a problem?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

15. Not that it makes a difference, but in this case it was the husband who said baby. Anyway good

point.

[Dreamer Tatum]

19. "My husband called it a BABY? Well, I'm going to need to sit down and talk to him.

I am adamant that this is a clump of cells, not a baby. He is really annoying with that
baby shit."

-No woman, ever, anytime, any universe.

[ljm2002]

13. So that's your take from this story...

...that because the man in question referred to it as a baby, this shows how hypocritical DUers are? Really???

Let's break it down.

A woman is quite clearly pregnant. She gets into it with a cop. The cop slams her to the ground, belly first. It would seem the cop's judgment might be in question here.

Now, had the woman miscarried as a result of this action, without further harm to the woman, I would not want the cop charged with murder. That is because I recognize the legal distinction that I noted above. However, causing a miscarriage (i.e. abortion) is causing damage to the woman, and should carry a greater penalty than if no miscarriage occurs (which it did not, thankfully).

A woman choosing to have an abortion is a different situation, having to do with what the woman wants. It's like if a cop injured a man and caused him to become infertile somehow -- that would be causing more damage to the man than just bruising him. It would have no relevance to the question of a man choosing to have a vasectomy.

It doesn't seem that hard to understand.

[Dreamer Tatum]

16. You just illustrated my point perfectly, thanks.

Now, had the woman miscarried as a result of this action, without further harm to the woman, I would not want the cop charged with murder. That is because I recognize the legal distinction that I noted above. However, causing a miscarriage (i.e. abortion) is causing damage to the woman, and should carry a greater penalty than if no miscarriage occurs (which it did not, thankfully).

What if, somehow, someway, in SOME crazy manner, the woman affected thought of it as her baby, and what if (just hypoethetically, mind you) she is fresh out of fucks to give what you think?

I think if all evidence points to the baby being regarded as a baby, murder or at least manslaughter charges are appropriate.

[ljm2002]

22. Thank you for clarifying your point...

...and we disagree fundamentally on when the law can or should consider it a baby.

BTW, I have not seen anyone on DU complain that expectant mothers think of the fetus as a baby.

What the law thinks is a different matter entirely. Abortion rights do hinge on that distinction.

[Greybnk48]

6. It's an established medical/scientific distinction

based on fetal development. The Law uses the medical/scientific distinction as well, but it does not originate in Law. The general public, many of which don't have this knowledge or training, often don't make this distinction and will call a fetus a "baby" before it even has developed organs including a brain.

[Union Scribe]

12. The thought occurred to me as well.

I wonder if any of those who got so angry in that smoking-while-pregnant thread will be here to yell about this guy saying baby.

[Dreamer Tatum]

14. It's funny how we have established that women's rights are absolute

and not subject to the pronouncements or opinions of menfolk. Which is correct, of course,
until it comes time to attach a name to persons who are in utero. Then, instead of
deferring to the preferences of the person (ie, woman) who has elected to carry it, we
jump up and down and howl that no, it's not a baby. It's a fetus. And when that
inconsistency is exposed, we get, "well, harumph harumph, it's a legal medical
distinction harumph harumph."

I say give it a try - find a pregnant woman and see if you can, for any amount of money,
get her to regularly and without irony refer to her baby as a fetus. Throw her a fetus shower,
and let's see how many people show up.

[sufrommich]

17. Here's an easy way to think about this:

It's none of your fucking business whether or not a woman considers it a fetus or a baby.

[Dreamer Tatum]

18. And, by generalization, neither is it yours.

Except I sense that you feel differently.

[sufrommich]

20. " I sense that you feel differently"

What are you on about? What do you want? Some public shaming for women who use the term fetus?

[Dreamer Tatum]

21. Hold on. You just chided me that something is not my fucking business

and therefore dismissed me.

But I'm the one shaming YOU?

You're free to use the term fetus. By your own "none of your fucking business" rule, we are spectators, not allowed to even opine.
I can't shame you unless I have the power to shame. I don't.

[sufrommich]

23. No,I'm asking you what the problem is with using the term"fetus"

because it looks an awful lot like the anti choice construct that women should be forced to use the term baby when they choose to terminate a pregnancy.How hard is it to understand that women who choose to stay pregnant would of course refer to a fetus as a baby as it is indeed going to be a baby?

[Dreamer Tatum]

24. Your last sentence is my point.

So you agree with me. She thinks it's a baby so we and the law should too.

It is entirely consistent with the fetus dichotomy.

[immoderate]

29. Why not call it a-human-in-a-prenatal-developmental-state?

That would solve the problem. What is the problem? An argument of how to label things? Go forth and equivocate!

--imm

[BlindTiresias]

28. Shine on you crazy diamond.

[gopiscrap]

26. Fucking Goddamn pigs

that's the third story about cop misbehavior and criminality I have read today. Fucking cops are out of control and many in this country are mindless sheep not standing up to their brutality and abuse!

[BlindTiresias]

27. Really happy

The bulk of the replies in this this thread have been about the baby vs. fetus distinction and not the fact the cops were being brutal fuckers.

[notadmblnd]

30. Someone did a great job of hijacking the thread didn't they?

It's so damn sad isn't it?