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Officers pepper-spraying 15-year-old girl following bicycle accident with vehicle

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Maryland police today defended the restraining and pepper-spraying of a 15-year-old girl they said was not cooperating after a traffic accident, saying that the actions of officers involved an appropriate amount of force.

The Hagerstown Police Department released bodycam videos that show officers attempting to restrain the girl and later, one officer pepper-spraying the teen as other officers attempt to close the door of the police car they have put her in.

The girl, whose identity was not released, was charged with disorderly conduct, two counts of second-degree assault, possession of marijuana and failure to obey a traffic device, police said. The matter was referred to the Department of Juvenile Services.

In the almost 15 minutes of videos released by police, firefighters and the girl are on the scene when the first officer arrives. The officer asks the firefighter to "grab" the girl's information while he grabs the driver's. As the teen sits on her bike, the firefighter tells the officer that she does not want to be treated because she says she's not injured.
Story: https://t.co/BzuUr4IdKo
Video (Warning: I found this pretty difficult to watch): Facebook Video // Twitter Video

Update: The girl's attorney, Robin Ficker:
“They said ‘you have to come in, you can’t refuse treatment.’ Well there’s no Maryland law that says you can’t refuse treatment,” he told The Daily Beast. “They certainly don’t arrest every Jehovah’s Witness that refuses treatment. There’s no law that says you can’t refuse treatment.”

But Ficker said the force of the girl’s arrest contradicts the police argument that she required urgent treatment.
“Well if someone may have brain damage, why are you slamming her against a wall? Why are you putting her in a police car,” he said, “without a seatbelt, I might add, in violation of police policy.”

But police did not take her to a hospital, Ficker said. Instead, the girl was transported to the police station, where she was interrogated and charged with disorderly conduct, two counts of second degree assault, possession of marijuana and failure to obey a traffic device.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...-black-girl-after-she-falls-off-her-bike.html


In what world does it take 3-4 police officers, handcuffs and pepper spray to deal with a 15 girl who was in an accident with a vehicle? This one.
 

Beartruck

Member
Something is fucking wrong with this country that every time one of these threads are posted, I think "victim must be black" and im never wrong.
 

j.rob

Member
Reads title.

"Don't be black don't be black don't be black don't be bl-"

Why am I even suprised anymore?
 

Zukuu

Banned
Pepper spray was definitely too much and unnecessary, but from what I've read from the transcript of the video (it's down), she pushed her luck very hard. Trying to flee and kicking an officer after telling him to die might not put you in their best graces. She was probably worried about them finding her pot.

edit: Watched the video from the alternative source. Yikes, that pepper spray was TOTALLY unnecessary.
 
Pepper spray was definitely too much and unnecessary, but from what I've read from the transcript of the video (it's down), she pushed her luck very hard. Trying to flee and kicking an officer after telling him to die might not put you in their best graces. She was probably worried about them finding her pot.

I watch numerous police shows based around UK police, and that sounds like an average Friday night.
 
As soon as I saw her pull back, I cringed thinking she was going to get bodyslammed. As bad as this looks, I'm glad its not even worse.If it's between being pepper sprayed which eventually will go away, and her getting slammed onto the concrete below her, i'd choose the pepper spray everytime. Too many times I see videos of cops using the smallest resistance as reason to practice their judo skills.

She maintains all her teeth and her face intact, so I'm going to chalk it up as a win.


edit: Oh shit I thought she was pepper sprayed right after she kicked the cop and the camera was knocked off.... My bad. The fuck are you spraying her in the backseat of the cop car for? Now THAT is ridiculous.

He did that as pure punishment. Fucking asshole man..
 
This was just on the news and the footage is fucking crazy. Not only because they're pepper spraying a 15 year old, but because she was also completely in the car by the time they did it.

When they said what happened I assumed that she was struggling while they were trying to get her in the car and they over reacted. But they just straight up maced her in the back of a cop car after all of the struggling which is even more fucked up.

And all over her bike hitting a parked car.
 
The girl, whose identity was not released, was charged with disorderly conduct, two counts of second-degree assault, possession of marijuana and failure to obey a traffic device, police said. The matter was referred to the Department of Juvenile Services.

Damn why not just charge her for attempted murder while at it

Cowardly Cops
 
Use of pepper spray and tasers is exactly what I want to see in situations like this. As opposed to the bodyslamming, choking, beating, and shooting we typically see in these videos.

Edit: Saw a working video and the pepper spray was used after it would have been useful, so there's no excuse on that.
 
I watch numerous police shows based around UK police, and that sounds like an average Friday night.
I love those shows, the criminals are so aggressive and verbally abusive and the police by-and-large just stay calm and try to talk calmly to them. It's a awful comparison to situations like this. Poor girl.
 

Phased

Member
Goddamn. Brutal. Should've just let her go if she didn't want to be there.

Glad to know I can just ask the cops to let me go since I don't wanna be there after I do something wrong.

They gave her a ton of chances to just be cooperative, it wasn't until she got on her bike and started to ride away that it escalated. I don't think the cops did anything wrong here.

She got pepper sprayed cause she was being a brat, not cause she was black. Stuff like this takes away from the real issues black people face in this country.
 

Zoolader

Member
I fast forwarded the video many times and didn't see any wrong doing by the police UNTIL that asshole cop used pepper spray. She was already handcuffed and in the back of a car, there was no reason at all for anything else to be done at that point besides contact her parents. I can't even imagine how horrible that must have been trying to breath while handcuffed and locked up inside a car full of pepper spray.
 

Figgles

Member
This was just on the news and the footage is fucking crazy. Not only because they're pepper spraying a 15 year old, but because she was also completely in the car by the time they did it.

When they said what happened I assumed that she was struggling while they were trying to get her in the car and they over reacted. But they just straight up maced her in the back of a cop car after all of the struggling which is even more fucked up.

And all over her bike hitting a parked car.

It's pepper spray. She'll live. Would you rather they forced her into the car? He sprayed her, and she complied. Everyone came out unscathed.
 

Flai

Member
Yeah, I don't know. Are you allowed to leave the scene of a traffic accident if the police is called in? Especially if you are a minor, it's probably the responsibility of the police to inform the parents etc before allowing the kid to leave. Dunno, seems like this was somewhat justified.

EDIT: Oh she was sprayed while she was in the car. Yeah that seemed pretty scummy
 

joe2187

Banned
that's the crime

are you saying that isnt a crime?

Not really?

Is Jay walking something that needs to have police backup, handcuffs and pepper spray involved?

They could have gotten her information from someone else and just let her go away on her bike and talk to her later in front of her parents.

Instead we get this shit which is like the video of the black kids at the pool party, completely unnecessary escalation.
 

Chuckl3s

Member
If there is property damage or an injury. She wasn't charged with that though so I doubt there was.

http://marylandcriminallaws.com/hit-and-run-lawyer.html#ixzz4L1jiuhJS

http://marylandcriminallaws.com/hit-and-run-lawyer.html

Leaving the scene of an accident resulting in property damage only is typically associated with a maximum fine of $500 and up to 60 days in jail.

Its a crime...and the looks of it a big issue in Maryland. Just doing several google searches.
 
This is why all cops should have body cams. Although we didn't see footage of the girl hitting the car, we can see why the police had to unfortunately use some force in this case.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
If there is property damage or an injury. She wasn't charged with that though so I doubt there was.

They were interviewing the parties to figure out if there was property damage. Hence why the cop told one of the firemen to get her info while he went to get the other dude's.

She shouldn't have been pepper sprayed, but she also wasn't free to leave. They were actively investigating the accident when she wanted to leave.
 

Prologue

Member
They pepper sprayed her as they were putting her in the police cruiser.

Jesus Christ.

No she got peppered sprayed a good amount of time after she got into the car, after she repeatedly got asked to not block the door. And lets not talk about her behavior for the other 6 or so minutes.

Very difficult woman.
 
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