Posted on 09/27/2004 8:07:13 PM PDT by freebilly
Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro Transit Police.
The police officer told Aaron, who is five months pregnant, to lower her voice. She told the officer he had no right to tell her how to speak into her cell phone.
Their verbal dispute quickly escalated, and Saoutis grabbed Aaron by the arm and pushed her to the ground. He handcuffed the 23-year-old woman, called for backup and took her to a cell where she was held for three hours before being released to her aunt. She was charged with two misdemeanors: "disorderly manner that disturbed the public peace" and resisting arrest.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So if a moron honking his horn on a residential street at 3 AM stops when he sees a cop pull up, should the cop just shrug his shoulders and keep on going? I say no - the moron has earned a lecture on proper behavior in public, and I hope he gets it but good.
Cops don't have the time to stand around in the immediate vicinity of petty offenders who stop what they're doing just because the cop showed up - they have other things to do. They earn a tongue-lashing at the very least, and the same thing this woman got if they give more than a certain amount of lip.
Can you imagine ending your phone conversation and a cop starting with you by saying that you talked too loud?
It was hardly a "conversation". According to the story, the woman was screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs.
Tell me you wouldn't be tempted to say, "What?!?!?"
She might not have had to eat tarmac pizza if she had confined her remarks to "What". But the *#&*@, #@*#()@, and *###@)!#$!! comments were a bit much.
The charges filed were not "talking too loud," or "being a rude and obnoxious buffoon" but "disorderly manner that disturbed the public peace" as well as "resisting arrest."
Any leo that would throw a pregnant woman down on the ground for cursing him....should be charged with assault. A leo is trained to take insults. He should only become physical if his person is endangered or the perp (and I laugh at the definition in this case) tries to flee.
Is NYC becoming a gestapo?
Ah, the old "If one gets away with it, then ALL should get away with it" shibboleth again. That one's older than the hills.
As for the 'resisting arrest' charge, that's the most common 'tack-on' charge the police use to protect themselves when they know they've over-reacted.
So you think no one ever resists arrest and all resisting charges are BS? Never happens, huh?
He could have ticketed her, that was the best way to go.
And with her bad attitude, she would probably have torn up the ticket in his face or wiped her backside with it. She lost the initiative to be dealt with leniently when she started to exhibit that poor attitude.
The 'offense' was utterly petty.
All the more reason that she should have just shut her mouth. Not to mention the minor little detail that she is pregnant and has more than her own selfish and self-centered little existence to think about. Brawling with the police on the street is hardly something a pregnant woman should be doing if she really cares about the life she is carrying.
So, do you think a person can be arrested for swearing at a cop or calling a cop a 'pig' or refer to him/her as a 'gestapo agent'?
One man's "William F. Buckley-esque sardonic wit" is another man's reason to arrest someone. My skin is thick but I was making a point myself.
I used to be a roommates with a police office who got out of college before me, and am still friends with him, and I fully understand your point about police needing at times to be "the alpha dog on the block." I also have a former brother-in-law with psychiatric issues who was a police officer at the same time that he was an alcoholic and a part-time criminal and he made a number of bad decisions to promote his alpha-maleness over justice. (He has since been forcibly "retired" although he is not someone I trust continuing to carry a gun. Internal Affairs can be a law unto itself."
I suspect that we are going to hear more about this case that will make it clear what should have happened, and I have an open mind about it if this man was not being a miniature ATF/Waco.
No. You get arrested for screaming obscenities into your cell phone (bothering the heck out of innocent bystanders), refusing to shut up when a cop tells you to, then fighting with the cop. If I were the DA in that town, I'd add endangering a child (her fetus) to the charges just for lagniappe.
Sometimes I call my elderly, infirm mother on my cell phone to check her and I have to practically shout because she's nearly deaf.
If you are screaming obscenities on the phone at your elderly infirm mother, then you have vastly greater problems than a little disturbing the peace beef.
I think the people who back the cop on this one would take the complete opposite side if it happened to them.
I don't think so for the simple reason that I would never scream obscenities into a phone in a public place. And if somehow I did, I would certainly shut up immediately if ordered to do so by a police officer.
She could have been ticketed and fined perhaps, that would have been more than enough for the "crime".
That's probably going to happen anyway. We're not talking about Public Enemy Number One here. But maybe the experience will instill in her the wisdom of closing her mouth in future situations like this one.
They are rude and they speak for themselves; and again I want to point out how ironic it is that he (or she) is continuing to create a rude atmosphere with personal attacks that are against the rules of this forum at the very same time that he is claiming a woman deserved to be arrested for criminal rudeness.
Don't take it so hard Blue Jay. Weird Dad and the rest of the DA gang think they have the next Rosa Parks here. This woman was obviously in the wrong. But Some people just don't get it no matter how many times it is laid out to them.
Hence my extremely witty comments. Helps it stick a little better.
Unfortunately, Weird Dad has crossed the line from being on the losing side of a debate to chronicaling my supposed indiscretions like some lovesick nerdy stalker. A possible insight into his High School Years?
Kinda creepy, I may have to sleep with the night light on.
This is the same police force that arrested a woman for finishing a candy bar on the steps down to the Metro (the last of the candy bar was in her mouth as she decended), and fined a 12 year old for eating one french fry. These people didn't do anything criminal. Too often today the police have a power trip and arrest people for just disagreeing with them. I give kudos to this woman who stood up to the ignorant power-hungry thug.
"Saoutis, who is about to complete his first year on the job with the Transit Police, was not available for an interview yesterday, according to Deputy Chief Tim Gronau."
I'd be swearing too if someone were trying to use their authority in that way.
It's easier and safer to go after people like that than the real thugs.
Well, the big cities must be very sensitive to curse words from pregnant women. Me, I just live here in rural Missouri. If I had called the leo's everytime I heard curse words in public here, we would have to add extra police to our force, which we cannot afford.
How does this city afford all these extra manners patrol leos? Our force only responds to real crimes.
It sounds like being unmannerly is a crime now, and the pampered city folk like it, too.
LOL
Keeping the light on only makes it easier for lovesick nerdy stalkers.
Actually, I do.
Life's only harder if you're stupid.
Might I suggest you go out and try it tomorrow? I need some data to support my hypothesis.
The court also relied upon a 1985 ruling by a Pennsylvania superior court that "Merely directing offensive language toward a police officer is not a valid basis for a charge of disorderly conduct." The state appealed.
Holding: The trial court's vindication of Kelly was overturned. The expression "Fuck you, Asshole," when directed towards a police officer, constituted fighting words. The court determined that police officers were not different from ordinary citizens and could be incited to acts of violence when provoked Kelly's word-choice was described as an "opprobrious epithet" that insulted the recipient's honor and self-respect, thereby assuring a violent response.
The trial court was criticized for misinterpreting prior case law as allowing the citizens of Pennsylvania to verbally abuse police officers. In the prior case, the defendant directed offensive language from inside her home. Kelly Hock was inciting a violent response from Officer Shank that, if it occurred, would have been in public.
Dont know how I feel about this one. I was on the bus the toerh day trying to collect my thoughts before work and had to listin to somene yelling in their phone..
Bullshit!
Disturbing the peace and child endangerment WERE "real crimes", last time I checked.
It wasn't the Cell phone it was this womans yelling into the phone. Your first amendement rights only extend out to a point and don't give you the right to violate my right to sit there in peace without you yelling. There are laws in every town about disturbing the peace. Ok, I couldn't resist, your crazy... ;>)
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