There is a disturbing case out of New Mexico where police fired into a van full of children after the mother tried to drive away from officers. As shown on the video below, an officer stopped Oriana Ferrell on a routine traffic stop only to see her drive away. What followed was a chase, smashing windows of the van, and the shocking decision of an officer to fire into a vehicle with kids in the backseat.
First and foremost, it should be noted that Ferrell had violated a host of laws. She fled the scene, engaged in a high-speed chase, resisted arrest, and police say that they found two marijuana pipes in the car. However, it is the discharge of the weapon that shocked many of us.
Ferrell was originally pulled over for going 71 miles per hour in a 55 miles per hour zone. She argues with the officer who goes back to his car only to see Ferrell drive away. At this point, he is aware that there are five children in the car aged 6 to 18.
He then pulls her over again and yells at her to get out of the van. When she refuses, he tries to force her out. When her teenage son gets out to confront him, the officer pulls his taser and the teen goes back into the car.
He tells her that she will be charged and to get out as she argues with him. She inexplicably insists that she did nothing wrong and “didn’t run away.” She gets out of the car and the officer tells her to face the van to be cuffed. After she locks herself back into the van, the officer takes his baton and starts to break windows even though he knows that children are seated inside. The flying glass constitutes an obvious threat to the children and this is the first serious breach that I can see. I do not understand why they do not immobilize the van or why he decides to break the window next to the children rather than the driver.
As he is smashing the windows, she drives away. That is when another officer fires three shots directly into a van filled with children. It is a shocking use of force with no concern for the children inside the van. At this point, Ferrell is only accused of a minor traffic stop, leaving the scene, and resisting arrest. There has been no weapon or attack on the officer. Yet, this officer put three slugs through the back of a van filled with children.
Ferrell then leads the police on a 10-minute chase before turning herself in. The New Mexico State Police have not removed any of the officers from active duty.
Ferrell was charged with five counts of abuse of a child, aggravated fleeing an officer, resisting an officer, reckless driving and possession of drug paraphernalia. The abuse of a child is interesting given the fact that it was the officers that fired into a van full of children. Moreover, it is not clear what the basis is for the charge against her teenage son for battery of an officer.
As the video below shows, there was ample reason for an arrest, but the excessive force used by the police is very disturbing and warrants a full investigation. The officer firing the weapon could have killed three children with this unjustified use of force. The police had multiple cars and could easily stop a minivan without resulting to the use of potentially lethal force.
What do you think?
Kudos: Michael Blott
More news out of New Mexico.. Seems cops there just can not keep it in their holsters.
http://www.abqjournal.com/302290/news/lawyer-says-police-shooting-not-justified.html
Where’s Darren?
Could be the woman thought she was in for something else that seems to be a new mo for the cops:
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/new-mexico-woman-becomes-third-victim-invasive-anal-medical-procedures#
excerpts:
An unnamed woman from New Mexico is the latest person to come forward and claim she was physically abused by state authorities after she was forced to undergo invasive surgery to make sure she wasn’t carrying drugs.
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The woman was allegedly strip-searched and assaulted by police when they stuck their fingers into her vagina.
Police took the woman to a University Medical Center after the on-site search was unsuccessful. She was given an X-ray, cat scan and full body search.
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Schaur says that police did not have a search warrant. This was the latest such case to happen recently.
Opposing Views reported earlier last week of other alleged victims, Timothy Young and David Eckert, who were both stopped by police for traffic violations in two different incidents in Oct. 13, 2012 and January of 2013, respectively.
They were searched by the same drug-sniffing dog named Leo. It turned out that both men did not possess any drugs.
Eckert and Young were taken to Gila Regional Medical Center in Silver City, N.M., where they performed invasive procedures on them including cavity searches, anal probing and X-ray scans.
I spent several months in NM a few years ago. There were billboards advertising the need for cops. The tone of the ads suggested that they were looking for aggressive militants.
Good grief! Another traffic stop that turns into a skirmish in the entirely stupid “war on drugs”….over a hash pipe?? Have they nothing better to do in the American South West?
An LEOs skin should be as tough as his/her body armor.
This womans choice to be an idiot, does not reflect on the officer. In my armchair quarterback world, I can imagine the officer radioing in the situation after she drove away. I have her name, address, I am following her, this is one dumb citizen. She has 3 kids in the car, could I get a little help in pulling her over. …..
Why did the officers go to defcon 5? The woman insulted her own intelligence, the LEO observed it. The court I’m sure would point it out to her. A well placed news article could also point out the quality of the LEOs patience and quality of dealing with the idiotic choice of the woman. … That will not happen now.
Bad cops get bad press. Bad cops make stupid people victims of stupid cops. What a mess.
The link below is a viral video of a quality patient LEO. The officer comes out smelling (and being) a rose. The citizen looks like the jerk he is.
There are some facts missing in this report. The most important is how many bullet holes are in the van? The cop was close enough so that if he were shooting INTO the van he could not have missed and there should be some holes in the body of it. From what I saw, it looked like the cop was shooting at the tires as one of our posters suggested a cop do in such a situation. If there are holes in the body of the van, the cop should be fired. Then given the reckless driving of the woman, one has to ask if the risk posed to the kids in firing on the van’s tires is justified in trying to disable the vehicle so that she does not put OTHER kids at risk by HER actions.
The “kid” is not so much a kid given his size and he did assault the cop, and should be glad he did not wind up with a bullet hole in him. Two adult size people can take down a cop easily and the woman was not a petite size either. The cop let his emotions get the better of him, and did not use his head as others have suggested better courses of action. He definitely needs some remedial training and review of how he could have done things differently.
This reminds me of the Hernandez case in Rock Springs TX in a similar situation. The cop had pulled over a panel van at night on a traffic stop. As he walked up to the drivers side, the driver took off, and swerved to try and knock the cop down so he could not pursue or hit him and run over him. At that point Hernandez pulled his gun and fired at the tires, and succeeded in disabling the vehicle. The van went off the road, and it turns out, it was full of illegals who also ran off. A person who did not escape capture was a woman who it turns out was hit in the mouth with a bullet fragment. It knocked out a tooth. The Texas DPS and the local DA investigated the shooting and found his actions were legal and justified. The US attorney, Johnny Sutton charged Hernandez with a felony, he was tried in Federal court, was found guilty, and spent two years in prison. That was an outrageous prosecution and the woman who was injured won a big settlement for damages, and got her green card as reward, even though she refused to co-operate in identifying the driver or the others who were in the van with her.
Oh my… Stupid….thank goodness no one was seriously injured by anyone’s stupidity….
OS… Speaking about Darren… What happened to him….
If the cops in Illinois can kill a WW2 veteran, why can’t we take target practice on a moving minivan filled with kids? This is America. We rule.
Watched that tape again.
What struck me is how many enemies law enforcement makes every time an incident like this plays out.
Most of us walked away with the conviction that the woman is stupid (Darwin Award stupid), but we also decided that the cop is not far behind.
There are a lot of people who feel outraged at the easy recourse to lethal force used by the cops – nobody deserved to have their life put at risk over the crimes committed – especially not the little kids who are blameless.
Many of us channel that anger towards making sure that rogue cops like this are stopped.
But.
There is also a very small minority who are saying “Just let a cop try that on me”.
This kind of police behavior is self fulfilling – cops use lethal force for a minor traffic stop and the risks go up that at some point in the future a suspect will come out shooting because he believes that the cops will shoot at him.
The first cop was seen by the woman as being someone she could bully by ignoring him. It escalates from there. The first cop was not the cop who fired his gun. I can’t believe this happened in Taos. It’s one of the most laid back places in this country.
You cant cure an idjit. But, you should not hire one.
1. The woman driver is an idiot. Clearly at fault, and I have zero sympathy for her.. 2. The first officer is also an idiot, and reflects very poor training, and poor self control. After the woman drove off on him the first time he should have 1. Waited for backup before leaving his vehicle, and not approached the van a second time. 2. He also should have advised dispatch of multiple minors as passengers. (Maybe he did..Unknown at this time.) 3. Using a loudspeaker..(If his car is equipped with one.) He should have instructed the driver to turn off the vehicle, and drop the keys outside the window. If he did not have a loudspeaker, then refer to 1. 4. Since he was stupid enough to engage the woman driver a second time. He should have apprehended her the moment he had her out of the van. 5. Knowing there were minors in the back seat of the van he still chose to use his baton to smash the back window, shattering glass over the children.. Again… He’s an idiot, and should be charged with reckless endangerment. The officer who fired shots on the van as the driver tried to flee a second time. This one is a little tougher because there are multiple variables. 1. It seems he just arrived on the scene, and perhaps was not aware of the presence of multiple children in the van. If he did not know this, then that is the fault of the first officer. 2. If he did know there were children present, and chose to use deadly force anyways, then he should be charged with 6 counts of reckless endangerment, and 6 counts of attempted murder. In either case, regardless of the presence of children he had no probable cause to use deadly force in the first place. None of the other officers were in a life threatening situation at the time he opened fire. I do not see how he can make any claim of good faith, or qualified immunity. 3. The second officer seen here did know there were children in the van, and while the third officer is firing his weapon, it appears he is drawing his gun to open fire as well. That officer should just flat out be fired from the force for even considering to use deadly force at that time. but at least technically his only crime at that moment is being an idiot.
As one who has been screening law enforcement officers for fitness since the mid-1970s, I am perplexed. I have not had time to see if NM has any kind of POST (Peace Officer Selection & Training) Commission, but will check on that later today.
Maybe I ought to get a NM license and move out there. Looks as if there is plenty of work to be done. An occasional rogue officer will slip through the screening, and I have had that happen. However, I have to hand it to our local area sheriff’s police chiefs and risk management specialists. One area sheriff’s department just recently fired a couple of officers for less egregious acts than this. In fact, when I heard about one of the officers, I called the Chief Deputy to see if there was some way we could salvage him with counseling, retraining, or other EAP services. Response was an emphatic, “No.” The Chief explained his reasoning, and after our discussion, I agreed with him.
When Darren was here, it was a short visit, but we did discuss some of these types of issues. Problems like this often start at the top, where the tone for the culture within the agency is set.
One of the members of our local radio control model airplane club is a Lieutenant with one of the larger law enforcement agencies in our area. We often talk shop at the flying field. He made a comment several weeks ago that has stuck with me. He said, “They have a crisis of management.” That is an excellent descriptor of what goes on in some departments.
Sounds like the cop tried to murder the children.
There is a disturbing trend in law enforcement to respond to any resistance with life threatening force.
Once a cop meets any opposition, he feels justified in escalating the force used to include lethal force.
The establishment supports the use of force because they believe that once a cop is “disrespected”, the forces of chaos will be embolden. Civilization depends on the American citizen being afraid of police.
Cops escalate to lethal force because their egos are on the line. “How dare a woman not obey our orders?”.
No matter the reason, cops are out of control – our rights are being violated and the U.S.is developing police state characteristics.
Unless we fight these abuses, the trends toward more police power will continue.
Oriana Ferrell did not act wisely, but these cops take the prize for sheer stupidity.
What everyone said.
These cops are out of control….what the heck is the matter with these cops!?!?
CUT & PASTE
New Mexico Woman Becomes Third Victim Of Invasive Anal Medical Procedures
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/crime/new-mexico-woman-becomes-third-victim-invasive-anal-medical-procedures#
Some people are too stupid to be parents. Some people are too stupid to be police officers. It’s not a good thing when they collide.
The bar for qualification to be in New Mexico law enforcement must be set very low these days. I can’t decide which action displays greater stupidity: the firing of bullets into a car full of children or the after-the-fact decision to leave these Keystone Kops on active duty.