Texas has been the scene of intense protests and debates over a senator’s filibuster to block an abortion bill. As reporters were threatened with arrest and other controversies mounted, this scene unfolded in the gallery. According to reports, a 74-year-old woman was arrested for assaulting an officer after the Lt. Governor ordered the gallery to be closed. Troopers then encountered Martha Northington who did not move fast enough out of her chair.
In the arrest affidavit, officers reportedly said that Northington resisted by grabbing her seat. However, Northington appears to reach down to pick up her purse. The officer then grabs her roughly and yanks her out of her seat. She protests that the trooper is hurting her and appears to tap or hit the trooper with her purse. She is immediately arrested.
The officer is quoted as writing:
“She attempted to resist by grabbing the chair, not standing, and pulling back from me. We broke her hold of the chair and got her up and as I escorted her up the gallery steps Trooper Hall released her. I was escorting her by the arm up the steps by myself and she continued to try and pull away from me. At the top of the stairs, she spun and slapped my face with her open hand and told me to let her go. The intentional slap to the face by Northington was offensive and I was currently wearing a State Trooper uniform…At this point i spun her around and proceeded to handcuff her for the assault. While trying to handcuff her she continued to resist by pulling her arms and attempted to twist away from me…Ms. Northington was transported to Travis County SO without further incident…
This offense was committed against the peace and dignity of The State of Texas.”
The video does not show any serious striking of the officer, though she appears to lightly hit him with her purse not her hand. She was reportedly charged with Assault on a Public Servant, a third degree felony. A felony. That overcharging was reduced by the arraigning magistrate to Resisting Arrest and Assault by Contact, Class A and Class C misdemeanors.
We have previously seen officers charge people with battery or assault over air kisses, bubbles, hugs, pillow fights, errant french fries, and even flatulence and raspberries.
I fail to see the necessity for any criminal charge. The officer was quite aggressive given the age of the individual and her response, while wrong and ill-advised, appears almost reflex response to what she said was painful handling. It seems that it was the officers who unnecessarily escalated the confrontation. Even if the officers felt that she had to be be forcibly removed, the criminal charge seems quite gratuitous and the account of the officer of a slap does not appear to match the video.
What do you think?
Limey
I read Ricardo’s comment as dripping with sarcasm and found it amusing.
The very best justice would be to get a video crew and go to A-hole’s favorite watering hole and catch him out of uniform. Have a tough guy accuse him of beating up an old lady and when the igPay responds kick the apCray out of him– on video. When charged, show both videos to the jury. The guy needs a whippin bad.
Officers go to creative writing school…. This is BS…. Those steps in the house and senate gallery are quite steep…..
I am amused by Nicks comment. Because perhaps he is on to something.
Nothing restrains the people of a business quicker than the expansion of a HR Department. A HR department quickly begins to push pencils, add regulations and require mindless team building exercises as well as behavior altering policies.
Imagine an HR department setting the rules for officers to abide by. Police everywhere would be restrained very quickly or they would find themselves out of jobs.
If we can’t take the “bully” out of cops, maybe they can be trained by public relations people. A good pr seminar will teach these guys that they must ALWAYS assume they’re being videotaped and act accordingly. Now, we know how they react when they see themselves being taped. However, my educated guess is they are only aware they’re being videotaped maybe 20% of the time. And, that’s often stupid people shooting the video who announce it and have an “in your face” video stance. I will be happy to conduct seminars on surreptitious videotaping and combined w/ the aforementioned pr seminars, we may have a practical solution. I’m always looking for practical solutions.
This officer is the poster child for all of the abusive officers throughout the country who can’t seem to understand that they work for us.
Bruce E. Woych.
As someone who first began screening law enforcement officers about forty years ago, I have to agree. We do not have the real tools we need to evaluate the traits we need to evaluate. The most common screening tool for prospective new hires is the MMPI-2. The MMPI first appeared on the scene in 1942, and with a war on, the military found immediate use for it in screening for all kinds of things. They used it to screen people for security clearance, who would make a good spy, and which air cadets would make better fighter or bomber pilots.
In the 1980s, the language had evolved so much it was revised and updated as the MMPI-2. The original MMPI was known to discriminate against minorities for several reasons. I won’t get into that here, because it is a complex subject, and whole books have been written on those testing problems. However, it is still the same basic test first used in 1942.
As one might imagine, with the MMPI-2 being a high stakes test for employment, a great deal has been written about it, and is available online. There are whole web sites devoted to “beating” the MMPI. One web site describes it as a test that has been costing people jobs and ruining lives for more than a half-century, which is their justification for posting information on how to defeat the MMPI-2 as a pre-hire screening instrument. That leaves people like me with few reliable and valid tools in the kit. Especially since law enforcement agencies are strapped for cash and don’t want to pay for a thorough pre-hire screening. I did not raise my fee for doing these evaluations from 1974 until last year. I went up $25 from my 1974 fee. Even then, some of my client departments complain about the increased cost.
However, when I have had a department head (sheriff, police chief, etc.) call me about a problem officer, I do a full all-day test battery (way more than the MMPI-2) and extensive interviews, as well as review their personnel and medical file. We don’t have that luxury when dealing with routine new hires. When the Sheriff has to sue the County Commission in civil court to get funding for new patrol car tires and gas money, you get some idea of the problem.
So yes, screening new hires is not adequate.
Common sense is dead in America. Another officer not fit to wear a badge. The police forces in this nation have become fascist bullies.
It is time to restore the Bill of Rights. In order to do that we need to have a Revolution.
All my ex es live in Texas. Maybe one of them will get pulled over by this purse snatcher. There will be hell to pay. They are rough southern Texas belles.
A civil lawsuit against Leo would not bring justice here. This igPay needs his ass whipped.
Don’t trust anybody under 30. How old is this igPay, anyway?
In the civil suit against the Law Enforcement Offender, the lawyer for pltf should subpoena in the granma of the Leo. Ask her what she thinks of Leo. Maybe act like you’re gonna smack her around in front of Leo and see how he reacts verbally for the record.
The methods of screening police candidates are not adequate. The degree in which they are instructed to constraint is tantamount to a license for brutality as an indiscriminate tactics. It is very clear that many of these abusive cops today study tactics (hand combat or weapons) and are just waiting for the weakest excuse to deploy them as maximum practice of their personal dominating power (masked by institutional authority over constitutional rights). While gradient methodologies of restraints are essential, this requires spontaneous judgement not spontaneous force. This is probably one of the better examples of extreme stupidity over judgement in action.
If this officer were in my jurisdiction, I would immediately notify the POST Commission his certification is revoked until he had a complete psychological examination for POST re-certification. There is an old southern saying about people like that: “There is sumpthin’ wrong with that boy.”
Who is that Ricardo guy? The first comment on the blog & its so nonsensical, even nasty. If its supposed to be sarcasm, its not clear, not funny. I hope they drop all charges, rather than lower them.
What do I think?
It’s a Ruth Buzzi/Artie Johnson skit, not a Ruth Buzzi/Steven Seagal skit. He’s a thug and if he can’t handle being hit with a purse by an old woman he needs to get another job. Preferably something that doesn’t require him to work with the general public, small children or animals.
Bullies do not grow up … they just bully all their lives.
And get paid for it.
We are all at risk. Police know no limits and are incapable of behavior that reflects any judgment or proportionality. Too broad a generalization? No. Individuals must view police officers in this fashion and act accordingly otherwise they will get hurt for simply looking disrespectful.
As to no reason for charges, the woman in question was not submissive enough and horror of horrors she was exercising her first amendment rights, something police officers, prosecutors and government in general don’t like. if only these things only occurred in Texas but as we have seen,not just from posts on this blog but in story after story in the press and elsewhere, this is now America.
She is lucky that it was not a Texas Ranger since he would have shot and killed her. Texas has changed for the better since I first moved here, when the cops were the actual terrorists and helped conduct terror strikes against any dissenters who raised their heads. It is quite apparent that this DPS trooper is more concerned with making an arrest than doing his job of clearing the gallery.
During the organizing drives of the UFW in the Valley, the Rangers were known for brutality and outright terror tactics in surpressing the farmworkers. If you read anything about the Rangers in the Mexican American War, they were primarily known for alienating the civilian population by mass murder, desecration of Catholic churches, arson, theft, rape, robbery, and were hated by most US Army commanders for their total lack of discipline and outrages. The Rangers get their recruits only from the DPS and it seems like this trooper is trying to qualify for that group.
If someone, even a cop assaults you, as an American citizen, you must take the abuse and pain. That’s in the constitution. I’m sick and tired of Big Bloggers always standing up for the defenseless.