Body cam video recently made public by the American Civil Liberties Union showed police officers bringing a woman who was eight months pregnant to the ground during an arrest in Barstow, Calif., the Desert Dispatch newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The video, released by the ACLU on Friday following a lawsuit, showed Charlena Cooks being arrested on Jan. 26 after police were called to her second-grade daughter’s school, Crestline Elementary.
Cooks was arrested after refusing to give her name or provide identification and was later charged with resisting arrest, according to the Dispatch. The ACLU said that the charge was later dismissed.
The video shows the officer asking Cooks, who is black, for her full name before putting his hands on her and, along with another officer, bringing her to the ground and onto her stomach. Cooks can be heard screaming that she’s pregnant and for the officers not to touch her.
Cooks’ hand is bent and she is put in handcuffs before being picked up and brought to the back of a police car.
The white woman who called police was not arrested.
Adrienna Wong, an attorney with the southern California division of the ACLU, said in a news release that an officer might arrest someone for not presenting ID, but it would be a “wrongful arrest.”
“Even if an officer is conducting an investigation, in California, unlike some other states, he can’t just require a person to provide ID for no reason,” Wong said. “Officers in California should not be using the obstruction law, Penal Code 148, to arrest someone for failing to provide ID, when they can’t find any other reason to arrest them.”
Cooks said she was involved in a “petty” parking lot disagreement and said that police refused to listen to her account of the incident.
In the video, Cooks can be heard shouting that she’s pregnant as she’s being arrested.
“I told him I was pregnant so he could proceed with caution,” Cooks said of her interaction with the officer. “That didn’t happen and the first thing I thought was I didn’t want to fall to the ground. I felt the pressure on my stomach from falling and I was calling for help. But those guys are supposed to help me. But who is supposed to help me when they are attacking me?”
Barstow police defended the arrest and city officials denied that race played a role in the arrest.
“The City of Barstow has reviewed the video link regarding Charlena Cook’s arrest. It is apparent that Ms. Cook actively resisted arrest,” the police department said in a statement obtained by television station KCAL.
“This incident was in no way racially motivated, as implied by the ACLU,” city officials told the Dispatch. “Barstow is a racially diverse community, as is our Police Department, and we affirm our Police Department’s commitment to protect and serve all of our residents.”
Watch the video below, via the ACLU:
Well! They were dealing with 2 people… /S
This is way some people have a problem with the Police. The officer said he was giving the woman two minutes to determine whether she had to give him her name, and within 45 seconds, he was trying to arrest her. Looking on YouTube, I’ve seem people do more and get treated with more respect than this woman.
BTW, it must have been a slow day in Barstow. There were initially two officers, and that number grew quickly.
And only demanded the name of one…what was the difference in the two that required that I wonder?
SPOILER: She was black and called out the white woman by color for going off on her. That’s what set him off and was the moment he decided he was going to put her in cuffs. It didn’t matter what she said or did after that moment, given her name, showed her ID wouldn’t have mattered, she was going into custody
TPM:
You know what, Barstow Police?
I. Don’t. Give. A. Fuck. The misogyny and recklessly indifferent endangerment displayed here far outweigh any other concerns: You don’t push a pregnant woman to the ground, especially on her stomach, you clueless shit-for-brains fuckwits.
My god, you honestly think you can justify this? Go to hell.
I’m not sure about there…but in most states an Officer must witness the alleged argument / fight in order to make an arrest associated with it. If that’s the case here the Cop had no business there at all. He shows up…determines no one is hurt and he asks the parties to disperse. He does NOT get involved in he said / she saids and he does not pick a side in the dispute.
At some point we have to ask if its not the right thing to do in resiting a false arrest. Seems someone thought that the case here as she had that charge dismissed. Sure the cops are going to squawk. They have to. They knocked a pregnant women to the ground and called that resisting on her part. They have to have something or they burn. I hope she gets the big bucks.