POLICE STORY (GALVESTON EDITION)
Feb. 10th, 2009 08:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM [via BoingBoing]: Final arguments are being held in the criminal assault trial against Dymond Milburn who was 12 years old when four Galveston police officers allegedly beat her up with a flashlight and threatened to shoot her puppy, while she was in her yard attending to a tripped circuit breaker.
Their excuse: they thought she was a prostitute, on account of she was wearing the Prostitute Uniform of a tank top and shorts.
Which of course makes it okay to beat up 12-year-olds. Which is why she's on trial and not them.
The bizarre thing is that, from what I can tell, the cops made a mistake and beat up an innocent person, and SHE’S the one on trial for assaulting THEM. Note that they were plainclothes cops in an unmarked van, and there’s some debate over whether they properly ID’d themselves as cops. I don’t see how it matters – who would expect a 12-year-old to know if they had real badges or not, and who would expect anyone to just go quietly with four guys trespassing on yr property who don’t even have a warrant? (Though I’m not sure you need one for the front yard.)
On a related note, see this essay from Bruce Schneier. It’s on a different topic – i.e. a recent Supreme Court ruling that people mistakenly arrested due to a computer database error can still be prosecuted if the cops happen to find them doing something illegal – but Schneier’s counterargument is just as relevant: if there’s no consequences for cops making “mistakes” like this, then there’s no incentive for them to avoid similar mistakes in the future, and there’s plenty of room in there for dishonest cops to abuse their power – which is why we have laws limiting police power in the first place.
You have the right to remain silent,
This is dF
++++++++++++++
EDITED TO ADD [11.02.09]: The trial is over and Milburn will go free due to a hung jury. Which is good for her, but still essentially means that Galveston police are allowed to get away with that kind of thing. That said, her lawyer has filed a federal lawsuit against three of the officers involved, and that could go to trial later this year. The smart money says the police will either settle out of court or go to trial and win.
Their excuse: they thought she was a prostitute, on account of she was wearing the Prostitute Uniform of a tank top and shorts.
Which of course makes it okay to beat up 12-year-olds. Which is why she's on trial and not them.
The bizarre thing is that, from what I can tell, the cops made a mistake and beat up an innocent person, and SHE’S the one on trial for assaulting THEM. Note that they were plainclothes cops in an unmarked van, and there’s some debate over whether they properly ID’d themselves as cops. I don’t see how it matters – who would expect a 12-year-old to know if they had real badges or not, and who would expect anyone to just go quietly with four guys trespassing on yr property who don’t even have a warrant? (Though I’m not sure you need one for the front yard.)
On a related note, see this essay from Bruce Schneier. It’s on a different topic – i.e. a recent Supreme Court ruling that people mistakenly arrested due to a computer database error can still be prosecuted if the cops happen to find them doing something illegal – but Schneier’s counterargument is just as relevant: if there’s no consequences for cops making “mistakes” like this, then there’s no incentive for them to avoid similar mistakes in the future, and there’s plenty of room in there for dishonest cops to abuse their power – which is why we have laws limiting police power in the first place.
You have the right to remain silent,
This is dF
++++++++++++++
EDITED TO ADD [11.02.09]: The trial is over and Milburn will go free due to a hung jury. Which is good for her, but still essentially means that Galveston police are allowed to get away with that kind of thing. That said, her lawyer has filed a federal lawsuit against three of the officers involved, and that could go to trial later this year. The smart money says the police will either settle out of court or go to trial and win.
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no subject
on 2009-02-10 02:32 pm (UTC)In what kind of world can a 12 year old be large enough and strong enough to assault a police officer that is twice her size? How can one assault another when they are hanging onto a tree crying for their daddy? What is going on down in Galveston that one of the arresting officers was given the award of Officer of the Year in 2008? By the way, check out how BIG he is - go to page 5 upper left hand picture.
http://gcpolicenews.com/html/tpnjun08.pdf
For more reading on all of this.
Here's the court news report from the incident:
http://www.courthousenews.com/2008/08/26/GalvestonCops.pdf
Also, the comments in the Huffington Post article are very worth reading too.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/18/police-assault-12-year-ol_n_152207.html
Just wrong. So very wrong.
burn burn burn burn burn
on 2009-02-11 03:44 am (UTC)They kick the ever loving crap out of her, reduce her to tears in which she is sent to the emergency room, and then they arrest her, at school, two weeks later in front of everyone.
Why is this town not burning?