Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Police Electrically Shock 16 Year-Old Girl While Arresting 74 Year-Old Relative in Traffic Stop

Every time the Chicago Police arrest a 74 year-old man for speeding and an expired license and then electrically shock his 16 year old relative for allegedly interfering, then people like me and African American Political Pundit want to second-guess the police. Here are the details, as reported to the Chicago Tribune by the police department, and below is my second-guessing:

A 16-year-old Aurora girl was Tasered Monday by a police officer during a traffic stop after she interfered with an arrest, police said.

The teen and the officer who used the Taser were treated for cuts and scrapes to their faces. The teen was taken to the Kane County Youth Home after being charged with aggravated battery to a police officer and resisting arrest in connection with the incident that happened about 4:15 p.m. near McCoy Drive and Kautz Road.

The girl was a passenger in a vehicle driven by a 74-year-old relative that was pulled over by police for speeding. The driver was in the process of being arrested for attempting to obstruct justice and not having a valid license when the teen allegedly left the vehicle and physically interfered with the arrest, police said.

The arresting officer Tasered the girl allegedly after she got into a physical altercation with him. The situation was brought under control after backup officers were called to the scene, police said.

The driver was charged with resisting arrest and speeding. Police are not releasing the driver's name in order to protect the identity of the juvenile.

The teen was treated at Rush Copley and released, and the officer was treated at the scene.
When things like this happen, we ask questions like:

Why didn't they just give a ticket for these civil infractions?
If not, why not just tow the car and let "gramps" go?
Wasn't it the police determination to arrest (and handcuff?) this 74 year-old person that provoked and precipitated this incident?


And we Black people always suspect the worst of police. We suspect, for example, that the police's victims are Black; that the police profiled them and then invented a pretext in order to stop the car; that the police roughly tried to arrest an elderly man in a way that risked breaking both of his arms; and the police beat up and electrocuted the sixteen year-old; and then arrested and charged her with assault on an officer simply to provide an excuse for having beaten the minor girl up, electrocuted her, and sent her to the hospital.

At this point, I don't even know if this girl and her elderly relative are Black. I just suspect they are.