Body cam video catches Barstow cops slamming black pregnant woman to ground, letting white woman go free

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Officials with the city of Barstow, California insisted this week that officers had acted properly when they used force to arrest a pregnant woman who refused to show them her identification, even though the charges were later dismissed. In police body camera video obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), an officer is responding to an apparent traffic dispute between Charlena Michelle Cooks, who is 8 months pregnant and black, and an unidentified white woman. The officer first talks to the white woman, who accuses Cooks of acting “all crazy.” “I don’t see a crime that has been committed,” the officer admits after examining the woman’s car. After promising the woman a police report, the officer heads over to talk to Cooks. Cooks explains that the argument occurred because the woman disagreed with the way she was driving in the parking lot. Cooks also said that the woman frightened her daughter, who was in second grade.
“She called the police for whatever reason, I don’t know,” Cooks says. “Should I feel threatened by her because she’s white? Because she’s white and she’s making threats to me?”
At that point the officer asks for Cooks’ name, but she insists that she does not have to tell him.

“I actually do have the right to ask you for your name,” the officer replies.
“Let me make sure,” Cooks says as she makes a phone call to someone.
The officer says he will give Cooks two minutes to verify his right to ask for her identification. But less than 20 seconds later, the officer and a colleague are performing a painful wristlock takedown on Cooks. The pregnant woman screams as she is forced belly first into the ground.
“Why are you resisting?” the officer demands.
“Please! I’m pregnant!” Cooks exclaims. “Please, stop this!”
ACLU SoCal staff attorney Adrienna Wong pointed out that Cooks had a right to refuse to show her ID.
“It would be a wrongful arrest, but it would be an arrest,” she noted. “Even if an officer is conducting an investigation, in California, unlike some other states, he can’t just require a person to provide ID for no reason.”






http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/body-cam-video-catches-barstow-cops-slamming-black-pregnant-woman-to-ground-letting-white-woman-go-free/

Raggamuffin wrote:

Nems wrote:I think, in a country where the cops are trigger happy, if a cop asks you a question answer it. Not rocket science.

Well yes, that as well, regardless of what your "rights" are.

I've asked the question before - is it possible that so many black people are shot by police because they tend to run away more, or answer back more? If I was over there and I encountered a police officer with a gun, I wouldn't make a move!

I think its a mixture of lots of factors on both sides. Not least being mutual distrust.
Having been stopped by a Florida cop I can verify I near wet myself and did exactly what I was told!
When I did speak he did the hey you are English thing and was lovely.

Nems wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

Well yes, that as well, regardless of what your "rights" are.

I've asked the question before - is it possible that so many black people are shot by police because they tend to run away more, or answer back more? If I was over there and I encountered a police officer with a gun, I wouldn't make a move!

I think its a mixture of lots of factors on both sides. Not least being mutual distrust.
Having been stopped by a Florida cop I can verify I near wet myself and did exactly what I was told!
When I did speak he did the hey you are English thing and was lovely.

Oh that's nice. I still wouldn't make any sudden movements though. At Heathrow once there were police with guns and I was really scared.