Dear Karen: Thank you for the well written letter. Your letter is a good example of how police officers to cover up the use of excessive force by filing bogus or trumped up charges. Police training that encourages the use of excessive force should be studied and brought to the public's attention. I admire your courage in coming forth with this letter. I admonish the police for their cowardly threats with a deadly weapon. I admonish the state for not having a quality control team that randomly, thoroughly, and anonymously investigates at least 1% of the 200,000 annual arrests made in Massachusetts for any sign of police misconduct and excessive force. I admonish the state for not having a quality control team that randomly, thoroughly, and anonymously investigates at least 1% of the court decisions to verify that the courts are in compliance with the constitution, and the laws. Causation of loss and injury by the state, the police, lawyers, judges and the rest of the judicial/penal system should be studied, publicly reported and remedied. I'm making more than a request. I am making a statement that the state and the judicial system is considerably perverted from the task given them which is to remedy and restrain loss and injury inflicted by one person on another. On 10/15/00 Westford (MA) police pulled me over on Carlisle Road A female officer asked me if I knew why she pulled me over. I said “no.” She said she did not think I had a registration sticker on my vehicle, but now she saw I did, but it was in the wrong place and did I know it was in the wrong place? “No.” I replied. Then she asked for my license and registration, which she took to her police vehicle to examine. She came back to my car and asked if I knew my license was expired; I said “no” as I would have renewed it if I had known. She went back to her police car for a while, then returned to say she was not allowing me to drive my car and was taking me to the police station. I asked what would happen to my car, she replied that unless I got someone there in the next 10 minutes to pick it up, it was being towed. I said I am a single person struggling to make ends meet and can’t afford to have the car towed. She said my car was a traffic hazard. I asked to move it across the street to a parking lot, she said “no.” I felt my rights were being violated, I started yelling and crying about not being able to afford having my car towed. A male police officer came to the scene and started screaming at me to get out of the car. He said in a loud, menacing voice “We can do this one of 3 ways – your way, my way, or the hard way!” Then he took his baton out to full length and started banging on my window with it, saying he was going to break the glass. I was upset and said “No! No don’t do that!” As he was attempting to hit the window again, I felt threatened and that he intended to do me bodily harm and the only safe thing to do was drive myself to the police station. I drove 1/8 of a mile on Carlisle road going about 20 mph. At the light I used my blinker and turned left. 4 police cars blocked my car in at this point, forcing me to stop. 4-5 Officers surrounded the car, screaming at me to get out of the car, and that they were going to break my window. At least one officer had a gun pointed at my head. Being overwhelmed and afraid, I just sat there, staring at them, not saying anything. The officers continued to scream and point their guns at me, I decided not only would they wreck my car, they might kill me, so I unlocked my door and attempted to get out. I said “I’m not doing anything, I’m getting out” several times but was ignored. Several Officers forcibly dragged me out of my car and slammed me onto the hood of a police car and handcuffed me. The female officer lied in her police report, saying things about me that I did not do. I was charged with: 1) Resisting Arrest; 2) Driving to Endanger; 3) Failure to stop for a police vehicle; 4) Driving without a license; and 5) Not having a registration sticker. I am a person with no arrest history, no weapon, I did not threaten anyone, and also had a perfect driving record since 1992. This has affected my financial situation, work schedule, mental health, and level of comfort outside my home. Karen St________ Haverhill, MA To: MassBrutality Please I see how biased your website is and the facts in some of these cases are ludicrous. I agree that some police officers exceed their authority and in some cases are overzealous and hostile but that only represents about 10%. This women was obviously stopped on valid probable cause, she had expired license. Under Mass General Law the police are required to 1) Tow the car 2) To either arrest her for unlicensed operation or summons her to court and let the tow operator give her a ride to a phone. No where is it permittable to flee from the police like she had done in this case. Her rights were not being violated according to what she is stating in this case. I can't believe that this website is this irresponsible to hear only one side and to allow the readers to take it as face value. This is journalism at its worst. Sincerely, Jay W____ Defense Attorney I am glad to see a lawyer respond. I am applying the moral standard that it is wrong to cause loss and injury. Both were caused by the police action. The police were probably doing the job they were trained to do. But the training is too brutal. Some of these fines are way too high for people earning low wages. It is not fair to lose the wages of a week or month for something trivial. I think the system is even more brutal than the police. That is one of the themes of this site. I know what the ideal government is like. That's why I know that the laws of this state are antiquated at best Web site administrator. |