Posted on 06/30/2013 2:05:27 PM PDT by grundle
She did not drive over two officers
In a situation like that I might well have been hysterical too.
What the young woman, Elizabeth Daly said was that a person or persons approached her (I am not clear if this was as she was walking to or as she was getting into her car), in plain clothes, came running toward her and waving some sort of badge, at least one had a gun drawn, but it was dark, late at night and they (not even cops but (Alcohol Control Board (ABC) agents) evidently didn’t identify themselves very clearly if at all.
ABC even says, “Other agents did not join the incident until the subject refused to cooperate,” ABC said. “Rather than comply with the officers’ requests, the subject drove off, striking two officers.” (It should be noted that neither of the two officers were injured and I doubt they were actually struck).
“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” Daly wrote in an account submitted to the court. “I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were ... terrified.”
“One jumped on the hood of her SUV; another pulled out a gun, Daly said, as her roommates seated inside looked on in horror.”
“Daly’s roommate in the front passenger seat told her to “go, go, go”—and that’s what she did, apparently “grazing” two of the agents in the process.”
(That friend in the front seat of Daly’s vehicle BTW, had recently heard stories from dozens of sexual assault survivors at an annual Take Back the Night vigil on UVA campus and was on edge according to Daly and her friends’ statements to the police).
“The students called 911 as they left the parking lot, police said, and were pulled over by another agent driving a vehicle with lights and sirens, Charlottesville Commonwealth Attorney Dave Chapman told the paper.”
“Daly apologized when she realized who they were, Chapman said, but agents arrested Daly and charged her with two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and one count of eluding police—each carrying a maximum penalty of five years in prison and $2,500 in fines. She spent the night in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.”
It should be mentioned as it was in another article posted that there had been a recent rash of sexual assaults and armed robberies in the area surrounding the campus so it makes sense that they would have been afraid.
So you have a young woman who didn’t do anything wrong and had no reason not to comply with a “real” LEO if that said LEO had calmly approached her, properly identified himself and or was in uniform. But instead she was saw an unidentified person waving something at her that she could not have possibly known if it was a badge, real or not, and running toward her, she is near getting into her vehicle¸ then the rest of the 6 plain clothes ABC agents run up¸ one jumping on the hood another drawing a gun, she starts the engine as according to Daly, she can’t roll down the windows otherwise, then they start trying to break the windows, she drives off in a panic while her friends dial 911. When a police officer in a marked car with lights on, pulls them over, she complies without problem or incident and profusely apologizes for not realizing the ABC plain clothes agents were not armed thugs trying to rob them or worse. It’s a good thing they didn’t have a dog in the car with them. / s
At that point everyone should have apologized and let out a big breath of relief and had a good laugh, but no, they hauled her off to jail where she stayed until the following afternoon, charging her with several felony counts which in a sudden fit of common sense or the realization they screwed up, were dropped.
And I would also ask what sort of “reasonable suspicion” did these ABC agents have for approaching her in the first place? Do they hassle everyone who comes out of a convenience store with a box that may or may not contain beer? Did they not have a plain clothes agent inside the store that could have clearly seen that she was buying water? Do ABC agents know or are they trained to know the difference? Are you required in VA to be carded when buying overly priced water? How did they know she was underage – not all college students are under 21 BTW.
Even better yet, they could have if they had reasonable suspicion, gotten the make, model and license plate of her car and had a real police officer in uniform and in a marked car stationed nearby and in on the “sting op” to pull them over a block away. I understand why ABC agents might need to carry arms if they are confronted by an armed suspect but I don’t know how the hell ABC agents are empowered to draw weapons on citizens on the mere suspicion that that person “might” be underage and “might” have purchased beer illegally? Is this sort of thing really worth preventing someone who might be 20 years and 11 months old from buying beer – something that I think should be legal at 18 but that’s another topic.
And FWIW, when I lived in the Baltimore area there was a rash of incidents of a man in an unmarked car with a dashboard light and some sort of fake badge pulling over women driving alone late at night on rural roads, getting the woman to stop and making her get out of their car and into his where he sexually assaulted her. The Baltimore County police advised at the time, that if someone in an unmarked car attempts to pull you over and or shows you a badge and you have any suspicion or question whether that person is really a police officer, you should remain in your car and call 911 on your cell phone if you have one and verify their identity and if their identity is not verified by 911 give your location and if you feel you are in immediate danger or have no way to call 911, calmly and without speeding or driving recklessly, drive to the nearest police station or to the nearest well lit and populated area.
There have also been cases of people coming to a house, showing a badge and claiming to be the police and when the unsuspecting person let’s them in, they are beaten and robbed. There is also a long running scam in many areas of the country where someone in a work uniform with a fake ID badge and driving an unmarked van, comes to a house claiming to be from the utility company saying they are there to inspect their furnace or meter or check on a gas leak or electrical problem. The person, usually an elderly person, lets them in and they are tied up and robbed or the perp lets an accomplice in through a back or basement door. BGE in Maryland in response to such incidents said, “Meter readers always are in uniform and carry picture ID’s and drive vans with BGE markings and always come at the same time every month and if you are not comfortable letting them in, you can call in your own meter reading, and if your meter is on the outside, they will never asked to come inside your home. We will call you first if we need to send someone out to your home, if you have not called us, do not under any circumstances let that person into your home, instead ask them to wait outside, ask for their ID number and call us to verify they are really from BGE.”
In other words IMO the young woman and her friends did absolute the right thing under the circumstances, they called 911 and attempted to drive away from a situation they had good reason to believe was life threatening and when they saw a marked police car, pulled over and complied with the officer’s instructions. She shouldn’t have spent one minute in jail and charges against her should have never been filed in the first place, VA should take the guns away from the ABC agents and or at the very least, fire all these yahoos involved so they can get a job they are more qualified for like at the local mall.
Sorry, we don’t provide a laugh track.
After reading that article, I have to wonder, WHY? As a former police officer & military veteran the description of events sounds like a gang attack. This young lady had no idea who these people were or their intentions. One troubling part of this entire situation, how would they know if she was underage? Were they running plate numbers in the parking lot? No, this sounds way above common sense, this almost appears like a shakedown!
“I spent some time in Tokyo living with some ex-pats”
________________________________________________________
Every part of the Philippines is loaded with expats, but I do not go out of my way to meet them. Most every small town has an expat hangout, but I do not visit them.
I have my small group, my landlady’s husband, and a new expat
from Cape Cod. We gather each afternoon in our small shaded beer garden, just above the beach, and have a few San Miguels.
A few others stop by from time to time.
By the way, Cebu is listed by Travel and Leisure magazine as the third best island in all of Asia, following Bali, and the Maldives.
I can’t post what I’m thinking right now. It’d get me a visit by the jackbooted thugs.
Considering how often badgelickers pop up here, you cannot expect everyone to go charging off to check someones posting history to see if it is a live one or just cracking wise.
This is why I think dash cams should be on every cop car. Starting to think they should have to wear one like a headset.
I guess I should have said I’ve met with many expats in Tokyo but didn’t live with them. We’d meet at a club or someplace for a day’s outing.
Of course they’d get “accidentally erased” should there be embarrassing moments. I now have a dash cam on the car I drive when at home.
Fair enough. Still, the absurd ought to speak for itself, posting history or not. I won’t feed anyone punch lines like baby food.
99% of cops give the other 1% a bad name.
You win, ahma creepy ass crackah!
Are all cops in VA really this stupid malicious?
(fixed)
It’s a good thing this was VA and not TX. If non-uniformed “thugs” of dubious identification pulled a firearm on me, I woundn’t have fled; I’d have stood my ground and defended my “castle” (in Texas, your car is an extension of your castle - and you don’t even need a concealed carry license to use a firearm to defend your castle).
This could have been a fatal mistake on the part of the police. And. THIS is what happens when you come to believe that your enforcement powers trump the rights of the people. I support police, but seven officers pulling a gun to enforce a potential MIP on a 20 yr old college co-ed is dangerously reckless behavior.
Somebody high up should be fired. Everyone else should be sent back through basic training or reassigned away from interaction with the public.
You and Paula Deen.
Chapman is an a-hole and so are those “agents”
America is becoming more and more like a Fascist State.
Uh-oh. You are gonna get some posts directed your way by the Cop-suckin’ jock sniffers for callin’ them thugs jackbooted...
Most Minnesota LEO’s are about the same. One of the reasons why I have absolutely no respect for Minnesota.
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