[Peace-discuss] Police Brutality in Texas

[Marti Wilkinson]

This kid fought plainclothes officers who were beating her and is charged
with 'resisting arrest'....this seems like a common method in which officers
can avoid being held accountable for their actions.

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/hairballs/2008/12/galveston_false_arrest.php

Police Get The Wrong House In Galveston, Allegedly Assault 12-Year-Old Girl Wed
Dec 17, 2008 at 12:37:01 PM
It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily
Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school
the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside
and turn the switch back on.

As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men
jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a
prostitute. You're coming with me."

Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One
of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and
throat.

As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers
who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting
a white man and a black drug dealer.


All this is according to a lawsuit filed in Galveston federal court by
Milburn against the officers. The lawsuit alleges that the officers thought
Dymond, an African-American, was a hooker due to the "tight shorts" she was
wearing, despite not fitting the racial description of any of the female
suspects. The police went to the wrong house, two blocks away from the area
of the reported illegal activity, Milburn's attorney, Anthony Griffin, tells
Hair Balls.

After the incident, Dymond was hospitalized and suffered black eyes as well
as throat and ear drum injuries.

Three weeks later, according to the lawsuit, police went to Dymond's school,
where she was an honor student, and arrested her for assaulting a public
servant. Griffin says the allegations stem from when Dymond fought back
against the three men who were trying to take her from her home. The case
went to trial, but the judge declared it a mistrial on the first day, says
Griffin. The new trial is set for February.

"I think we'll be okay," says Griffin. "I don't think a jury will find a
12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any
12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going
to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's
scared to death."

Since the incident more than two years ago, Dymond regularly suffers
nightmares in which police officers are raping and beating her and cutting
off her fingers, according to the lawsuit.
Griffin says he expects to enter mediation with the officers in early 2009
to resolve the lawsuit.

We've got calls in to the officers' lawyer; we'll let you know if we hear
something.

Update: This is from the officers' lawyer, William Helfand:

Both the daughter and the father were arrested for assaulting a peace
officer. "The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying
to take the daughter into custody after she ran off."

Also, "The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of
the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances," Helfand says.
"It's unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against
people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that
both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest."

-- *Chris Vogel*
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