Perhaps
something’s in the water in New Mexico, recently. Perhaps, the recent light
shining down on the state has led to incidents that were common but until now
under the radar coming under a harsher light of public scrutiny. A few weeks ago, we posted on two cases that
KFOR, a news site in southwestern New Mexico, brought to light about traffic
stops gone horribly wrong. (First case, Second case). In
both cases, New Mexico police in one small town used pretextual traffic stops
to take people with the flimsiest suspicion of drug trafficking to local
hospitals where they were subjected to multiple invasive medical procedures to
see if they had drugs hidden in their colons (they didn’t).
Now
there’s this. The Huffington Post reports that a
Tennessee woman, on vacation with her five children south of Taos, New Mexico
led police on a wild chase that ended shortly after an officer fired on her
minivan. In late October, Oriana Ferrell
of Memphis was pulled over for doing 71 in a 55 zone. Perhaps she had heard about the forced colon
exams that people get in New Mexico in pretextual traffic stops. Either way, when an argument with the officer
got heated, she sped off in her Kia Sedona.
Not the greatest getaway car.
Especially not the best getaway car with five kids in it (ages ranging
from 6-18).
She
pulled over a second time, and was ordered out of the minivan, but refused to
come out. Her 14 year-old son came out and was threatened with a taser. He got
back in the van and the officer said he was going to haul the mom out of the minivan. She got out but tried to run back in the van
when an officer told her to turn around (she was obviously going to get
arrested at that point). Other officers
showed up, and one of them took a baton and smashed out the passenger side
window of the van (five kids inside). Then she tried to flee.
Another
officer fired three shots at the vehicle (again, five kids inside a van that
officers had now busted a window out of).
She
was eventually arrested and charged with intentional child abuse, fleeing and possession
of drug paraphernalia. The child abuse
was apparently putting the children in a situation where the police would shoot
a the van. That charge is pretty insane.
Under what situation would it be rational to believe that the outcome of a
traffic stop is the police firing their weapons at a van of unarmed children?
Here
kids were briefly taken away and put in foster care, before being given to a
family friend. The judge has serious questions for the officers. There is a video of the entire affair in the
link below. It is insane.
Let’s
go over this again: Unarmed woman, five
kids. Officers’ use of force is to threaten a 14 year old with a taser, smash
out the window of a van, and shoot at a van full of kids.
If
they were tired of the woman driving away, they should have done what every
other police department does, as shown in countless movies and episodes of
Cops, put down spike strips and take the air of her tires. No air in the tires, van goes nowhere. Or,
when arguing, maybe the officer could have asked for or gotten the keys to the
van, instead of shooting at children.
Something’s
broken in New Mexico.
Full
story and photo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/18/oriana-ferrell_n_4295729.html?ref=topbar
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