Title: Disturbing Video Shows a Cop Brutally Beat a Child for Riding Her Bike, Charges HER with Assualt Source:
Free Thought Project URL Source:http://thefreethoughtproject.com/co ... -riding-bike-mall-parking-lot/ Published:May 14, 2016 Author:Matt Agorist Post Date:2016-05-14 12:42:40 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:29529 Comments:194
Tacoma, WA — On May 24, 2014, 15-year-old Monique Tillman and her brother were riding their bikes when they were stopped and this young girl brutally assaulted by Tacoma Police Officer Jared Williams.
Tillman and her brother had done nothing wrong, and were merely targetted by this ‘public servant’ because they had the unfortunate luck to have crossed paths with him.
As the duo travelled home, they cut through a mall parking lot, as they had done countless times before. However, this time, Officer Williams was in that parking lot, in his full Tacoma Police department uniform, yet off-duty, working as mall security. As the teens travelled through the lot, Williams began pursuit of these hardened criminals and accused them of trespassing.
Knowing they’d done nothing wrong, Monique attempted to explain to the officer that they cut through the parking lot all the time on their way home. However, this tyrant was having nothing of it.
As the duo attempted to ride away from a man whose intentions were clearly unscrupulous, Williams attacked. A recently released surveillance video shows the disturbing scene that unfolded next.
This heroic officer ripped the girl from her bike and slammed her up against a parked car with his hand around her neck. As the child struggled to breathe, this abusive tyrant grabbed her by the hair and flung her around like a rag doll.
Clearly overpowering the small child, half his size, the officer wasn’t satisfied with the damage he’d inflicted so far. So, for good measure, Williams pulled out his taser and sent 50,000 volts into this poor girl.
“He was choking me, grabbed me by my hair and tried to slam my face into the concrete. The next thing I know, I’m on the ground being tased,” Tillman said.
Now face down, tasered, handcuffed and brutalized, Williams stood over his victim like a hunter and his kill. He had protected society from the likes of a dangerous brother and sister riding their bicycles.
Williams then arrested Monique and charged her with resisting arrest and, get this, assault on an officer.
After viewing the surveillance video of the incident, however, all of the charges were thrown out.
Vito de la Cruz, Tillman’s attorney, has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from Officer Williams, the Simon Property Group who owns the Tacoma Mall and Universal Protection Services, the private security company in charge of Tacoma Mall security.
“A child riding a bike should not have to worry that a police officer will stop her without legal cause and brutalize her,” said de la Cruz. “Our communities are weary of another African American child being hurt by unwarranted and excessive police force.”
The Free Thought Project reached out the Tacoma PD to inquire about Williams’ current status and if any disciplinary action had been taken. However, our requests for comment were not returned.
Below is what policing in modern day America has become.
4.13. Defendant Williams then handcuffed Plaintiff and put her into a patrol car.
Clearly, it is not Officer Williams who handcuffed Tillman. It is one of three security officers on the scene. Their uniforms are distinctive and different. Officer Williams stood aside as this took place.
4.14. Plaintiff was charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest, charges which were dismissed after trial.
This appears strange. Was Tillman found not guiltyafter trial? Did the trial proceed to its end? A clarification of what actually happened at trial would be helpful.
What injuries? The Complaint does not specify any physical injuries.
5.1. The acts and omissions of all Defendants proximately caused Plaintiff Monique Charlene Tillman to suffer physical injuries, physical and mental pain and suffering, embarrassment and discomfort.
Again, physical injuries are cited but not specified.
Tasered teen: 'It felt like electricity running through my veins'
By Elisa Jaffe KOMOnews.com Tuesday, February 10th
TACOMA, Wash. -- Monique Tillman said she's still shocked by the violent confrontation that unfolded with police last May in the Tacoma Mall parking lot.
Now she and the Tacoma Police Department have very different versions of how their violent confrontation transpired.
Tillman was 15-years old at the time and riding bikes on a Saturday with her 16-year-old brother. They'd left McDonald's and decided to take a short cut home through the mall's lot. Mall security ordered the teens to pull over, but officers say the kids didn't stop.
Security video shows Tillman, now 16, talking with an off-duty Tacoma Police officer hired by the mall for crime prevention. Their encounter rapidly escalates.
"He was just pulling my hair and like he was trying to slam my face into the ground," she said.
The officer looks to take out a note pad to write down information. Tillman said she didn't have identification and thought she was being racially profiled and told the officer that. Before the officer could write anything down, Tillman admits she tried to ride away. That's when he grabbed her.
"I did have a bit of an attitude, but that's because it was a waste of my time. I hadn't done anything wrong," she said.
The police report described the kids cutting off cars earlier, swearing and yelling at anyone who honked at them, and that the mall wanted them stopped and given a trespassing notice.
"I felt like they just see me as some black kid wanting to cause problems or something. And it was nothing like that," said the 11th grader.
The report claims Tillman, who says she's a straight A student at Bates Technical High School, became belligerent, swearing, screaming, and resisting until she was Tased by the Tacoma officer.
"It felt like electricity running through my veins instead of blood," she said.
That's when she stopped resisting and started cooperating. An attorney for the family plans to sue the Tacoma Police Department and the off-duty officer.
"This officer was obviously confused about what his powers were and he chose to exceed what he was allowed to do and hurt my client," said attorney Tom Balerud.
Balerud said the officer was performing a corporate function for the mall, not a police function, and abused his power. Tacoma Police Department Public Information Officer Loretta Cool disagrees.
Of the officer, Cool said, "His presence at the Tacoma Mall, even though off duty and paid by mall, he's a police officer and he's acting as a police officer."
He had his car, his uniform, and his Taser. Cool said the second he was called on to order the teens off the private property and turned his lights on, the officer was working on the city's payroll, not the mall's.
A department investigation into the use of force determined the officer could have used more force than he did on the teen when she fought back. Cool said it looked like he was going easy on the girl because of her age and size.
Balerud said the thought that more force would have been acceptable under department policy is reprehensible.
The police report described the kids cutting off cars earlier, swearing and yelling at anyone who honked at them, and that the mall wanted them stopped and given a trespassing notice.
You mean to tell me these two 15 and 16 year old kids had nothing better to do that spend a good part of the afternoon riding bicycles around a mall parking lot to deliberately cut off cars and cause people to beep their horns and scream at them,and they were doing this long enough for calls to 9-11 to be made and police to be dispatched to arrest those desperadoes?
You mean to tell me these two 15 and 16 year old kids had nothing better to do that spend a good part of the afternoon riding bicycles around a mall parking lot to deliberately cut off cars and cause people to beep their horns and scream at them,and they were doing this long enough for calls to 9-11 to be made and police to be dispatched to arrest those desperadoes?
Read much before posting?
Officer Williams was at work, at the mall, paid by the mall. The juvenile delinquents were doing it long enough for Officer Williams and mall security to respond.
At #35:
Security video shows Tillman, now 16, talking with an off-duty Tacoma Police officer hired by the mall for crime prevention.
[...]
"This officer was obviously confused about what his powers were and he chose to exceed what he was allowed to do and hurt my client," said attorney Tom Balerud.
Balerud [attorney for Tillman] said the officer was performing a corporate function for the mall, not a police function, and abused his power. Tacoma Police Department Public Information Officer Loretta Cool disagrees.
Of the officer, Cool said, "His presence at the Tacoma Mall, even though off duty and paid by mall, he's a police officer and he's acting as a police officer."
He had his car, his uniform, and his Taser. Cool said the second he was called on to order the teens off the private property and turned his lights on, the officer was working on the city's payroll, not the mall's.
A department investigation into the use of force determined the officer could have used more force than he did on the teen when she fought back. Cool said it looked like he was going easy on the girl because of her age and size.
Officer Williams was at work, at the mall, paid by the mall. The juvenile delinquents were doing it long enough for Officer Williams and mall security to respond.
Think much before posting?
I don't give a rabid rat's ass if he had been adopted by the corporation that owns the mall,the way the process works is that citizens call 9-11 to report a problem,9-11 notifies the cops on duty,and the cops on duty then respond to the 9-11 call. For reasons I don't pretend to understand,the city let Officer Bozo work as a security guard at a private mall while wearing his PD uniform and badge,and they even let him drive a PD car while doing it. In other words,he picked up on the 9-11 operator paging patrol cars over his patrol car radio.
This doesn't happen instantly. It takes time,and by the time the phone calls are made and the 9-11 operators put out the notification,whoever was doing what was claimed,IF anyone was actually doing that,was long gone.
I would love to see the lawyers representing the teens demand the 9-11 recordings with date and time stamps.
Frankly,I don't begin to understand why the Tacoma PD is backing that fool,and leaving themselves and the city open to lawsuits. I think ever similar situation I have ever heard of,the city and the PD couldn't back away from their off-duty cop any faster.
I don't give a rabid rat's ass if he had been adopted by the corporation that owns the mall,the way the process works is that citizens call 9-11 to report a problem,9-11 notifies the cops on duty,and the cops on duty then respond to the 9-11 call.
You are a rabid rat's ass. The cop was working for the mall. The second he was called upon to perform police work, he shifted to the public payroll and was a state actor acting as a police officer.
That is the way the system works when the private mall hires an off duty cop to be there and available to provide police services for them.
Frankly,I don't begin to understand why the Tacoma PD is backing that fool,and leaving themselves and the city open to lawsuits.
The Complaint does not appear to raise any constitutional challenge or to assert any challenge to the arrest regarding probable cause.
The Complaint alleges Negligence; Assault; and Outrage against Officer Williams.
