Title: Innocent 59-year-old Mother Assaulted by Cops in Walmart for No Reason Source:
Free Thought Project/al.com, Birmingham URL Source:http://thefreethoughtproject.com/59 ... rt-police/#LxdCRYDbLEl3Qdw6.99 Published:Dec 3, 2016 Author:Matt Agorist Post Date:2016-12-03 13:51:03 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:4953 Comments:20
Homewood, AL — Homewood police department has launched an internal investigation after video of their officers assaulting a 59-year-old mother in Walmart has gone viral.
The victim, Brenda Rivers had done nothing wrong, committed no crime, and was minding her own business when she was targeted by police who mistook her for a criminal.
Without a warrant or reasonable articulable suspicion, as Rivers did not match the description of the actual suspect, police detained her and demanded they be allowed to search her belongings.
Knowing she had done nothing wrong, Rivers refused.
“He just accused her,” Rivers’ husband said, trying to explain to cops that they had just entered the store. “He wanted to go through her purse without a search warrant or anything. Our rights are being infringed.”
For demanding police get a warrant to search her, Rivers was assaulted, wrestled to the ground, placed in handcuffs, and humiliated as police detained her for nearly thirty minutes. All the while, her husband is demanding they stop the abuse.
Instead of simply reviewing the Walmart security camera footage, police went off half-cocked and just started grabbing and searching people. Rivers was the second woman to wrongfully be accused by police.
According to the bystanders in the video, even the woman who had her wallet stolen tried to tell police that it was not Rivers. However, they had already smelled blood in the water.
“I felt very emotional watching this go on. I had to record it because it’s time for something to be done about the mistreatment from police,” Jasmine Thomas, the woman who filmed the abuse, told AL.com.“This is unacceptable and the officer violated her rights. It’s very sad that we have to endure things like this or even witness it. I really hope this open everyone eyes and make them aware of what’s really going on now.”
According to Homewood police, officers were dispatched to Walmart around 8 p.m. after a woman who was shopping with her daughter claimed her wallet was stolen from her cart while she looked at toys. A wallet theft is apparently a felony in Homewood, Alabama.
However, the felony charge is irrelevant considering the fact that Rivers was not the one who committed the crime.
The video of the incident in Walmart has quickly begun to go viral as the excessive force used on this poor innocent woman is nothing short of blood-boiling.
“My mama is traumatized and my daddy is very disturbed at what happened,” said the couple’s daughter, Monica Dawkins. “She’s in a lot of pain. That was excessive force.”
“What if it was your mother?” Dawkins asked an officer as she protested Friday night. “How would you feel if it was your mother, 30 years older than you right now, and somebody body-slammed her to the floor? How would you feel? Would you not be angry? Would you not be hurt? Would you not want answers?”
In a press conference Friday night, Homewood police Lt. Eric Hampton said Homewood police want to be transparent. “We would like to ensure and foster trust, and also mutual respect, between the community, the Rivers family and our agency,” he said.
According to AL.com, activist Carlos Montez Chaverst Jr. said Rivers’ clothing didn’t fit the description of the suspect. The victim told police the suspect was wearing a skirt and boots, and Rivers was wearing burgundy pants and shoes. “She shouldn’t have been detained to begin with. There’s a lot of missing pieces to this deal,” Chaverst said.
“We’re ready to galvanize,” he said. “We want the mayor to speak out, we want the police chief to speak out. We’re asking for transparency. We want honest and full, complete details as to what happened.”
When AL.com asked about Chaverst about the police statement that accused Rivers of failing to comply with police, Chaverst said, “Comply? Police make up their own policies. Comply is whatever they say comply is. That’s how comply works.”
Matt Agorist is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist on Twitter and now on Steemit
Homewood police spokesman Sgt. John Carr said officers were dispatched to the store at 8 p.m. on a report of a wallet theft - which is a felony. When they arrived on the scene, the theft victim, who was shopping with her young daughter, told officers her wallet was taken out of her buggy while she was in the children's department.
Carr said officers went to that department and stopped one female. She consented to a search of her purse and the victim's wallet was not inside. The officer then stopped Rivers, who is shown in the video in handcuffs. He said the officer explained to her that he was investigating a theft and asked her to remain there so the theft victim could come back there and tell police whether or not she was the woman who stole her wallet.
The video indicates Rivers refused to let the officer search her purse. Police said she was detained for trying to leave the scene.
Carr said Rivers refused to comply with the officers and was placed in handcuffs. Initially, there were only two officers on the scene. Supervisors requested to come to the scene were delayed because a Homewood officer was involved in a car crash nearby and they were still at the crash site.
The detention caused quite a stir as a crowd gathered to watch unfolding scene. "I am a human being. Let me go,'' Rivers was seen saying repeatedly on the video. "So are you going to stop every black woman with a black jacket?"
"He just accused her,'' the husband said, claiming they had just entered the store moments before they were stopped. "He wanted to go through her purse without a search warrant or anything. Our rights are being infringed."
Several people in the crowd said the victim of the theft had already said the woman in handcuffs was not the woman who stole her purse. Eventually, store employees brought the victim back to where the woman was being held by officers and said, "It's not her."
One of the officers explained to the crowd watching that Rivers was not being arrested for theft, but for refusing to comply with the officers.
Still, Rivers remained handcuffed for at least 15 more minutes before she was ultimately released without being charged with any crime.
