Bottled-water purchase leads to night in jail for UVa student

[The Straight Story]

When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.

That led to Daly spending a night and an afternoon in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Her initial offense? Walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream just purchased from the Harris Teeter in the Barracks Road Shopping Center for a sorority benefit fundraiser.

A group of state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents clad in plainclothes approached her, suspecting the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water to be a 12-pack of beer. Police say one of the agents jumped on the hood of her car. She says one drew a gun. Unsure of who they were, Daly tried to flee the darkened parking lot.

"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform," she recalled Thursday in a written account of the April 11 incident.

"I couldn't put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were ... terrified," Daly stated.

Charlottesville Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman read Daly's account and said it was factually consistent.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/bottled-water-purchase-leads-to-night-in-jail-for-uva/article_b5ab5f62-df9b-11e2-81c4-0019bb30f31a.html

[MotherPetrie]

1. That poor girl. I hope she sues their asses off.

[hollysmom]

2. you are always 1 step away from a disaster caused by other people

I would be terrified in such a situation - all for doing nothing wrong? No apologies. She is lucky she did not get the chalk drawing guys judge. She might have had life imprisonment.

[Earth_First]

3. She's luck she didn't get a chalk-drawn OUTLINE on the pavement...

These thugs are nothing more than ego-maniac, power-driven psychopaths drunk on their own interpretation of a situation, the-law-be-damned.

:awaits law enforcement apologists in 3...2...1:

[hollysmom]

5. I don't think these are law enforcement but rather rules enforcers -

they are not supposed to shoot you for an open can of beer. Do the arrest people normally or just ticket them?

[hobbit709]

7. They're goons with a little authority and they'll abuse it.

[hollysmom]

10. the less authority you have, the more likely you are to hit someone over the head with it.

transit police can be scary and office security guards. Although,I did make friends with the security guards in an office where I worked nights and weekends, brought them cookies and stuff every week and they checked my area very often so I could feel safe..

It is never a fixed rule for every one, but there are some who want more power, so abuse what they have.

[tclambert]

16. Respect my authoritah!

[1monster]

4. From the Daily Kos article on this subject:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/28/1219672/-University-of-Virginia-student-arrested-in-near-fatal-mix-up-with-police-for-buying-bottled-water#

Thankfully, Charlottesville Commonwealth prosecutors withdrew the felony charges this week, which could have sent Elizabeth to prison for up to five years. But, what kind of world do we live in where police think it is appropriate to pull a gun on a 20-year-old college student who they think has purchased a 12-pack of beer? It's the very definition of excessive force.

My son was once drinking a cream soda in the glass bottle it came in at some event or another, and was approached by a very agressive cop demanding that he hand over the beer. My son, terrified, complied and explained that it was just a cream soda (clearly written on the bottle). The cop was embarrassed and clearly unhappy about it. He gave the bottle back, and gave my son a bit more of a hard time and walked off.

I wonder if they (law enforcement) understand how negatively they are protraying themselves to the citizens whom they are supposed to serve and protect? Cops have guns and will prevail in most situations, but there will be times when they need the support of the people and it will not be forthcoming because the people no longer trust them.

It's sad, because we need law enforcment and community to work together for the safety of all. And when one side can no longer be depended on to do their part, the other side will no longer do theirs either.

[A HERETIC I AM]

46. Well, you've made one mistake;

"I wonder if they (law enforcement) understand how negatively they are protraying themselves to the citizens whom they are supposed to serve and protect?"

THAT'S your mistake. They don't give a fuck. They don't care one iota how they appear to the public, as long as the public is intimidated by them.

As you said in your first paragraph, " The cop was embarrassed and clearly unhappy about it. He gave the bottle back, and gave my son a bit more of a hard time and walked off."

He couldn't have just said "Oh! I'm sorry young man. My mistake. I hope you can understand my actions because Cream Soda does bear a striking resemblance to beer, but I am terribly sorry to have inconvenienced you. Please have a good day and enjoy the event." could he?

Of course not!

The mentality of a large and growing number of police in this country is an us vs. them attitude. They are cops and everyone else is a potential criminal and therefore a scumbag. Which leads to the the idea that the only people who are NOT scumbags are cops.

I have nothing but contempt for the police profession these days. The now iconic shot of the cop bringing milk to the Bostonian during the siege a few months ago is the rarity, NOT the norm.

One of the reasons for my contempt is that whenever one of them starts beating the crap out of someone, he never seems to have any trouble in the least finding several others to help him with the task.


Anyone who takes up being a cop as a profession these days has some serious mental problems in my opinion and is not someone I want to be around.

[bvar22]

6. Out-of-Control and Unaccountable.

Are we there yet?

[Bonx]

8. I'm honestly surprised the ABC agents didn't shoot the girls

Totally out of control.

[adieu]

14. You mean

shoot the girls and then plant false evidence on them. Maybe some illicit drugs and a knife or can of mace, just to make the threats more equitable. "Sir, she was going to stab me with the knife. You know these meth-heads aren't straight in the head, so I had to shoot. Stand your ground and such, you know."

[TalkingDog]

9. And this is how liberals are made.

n/t

[madinmaryland]

11. I hate to ask this, but is the girl an African American (being black at night)??

It is Virginia.

[bermudat]

12. Just what I was thinking.

When a police action is so over the top, an unarmed person is shot or beaten, it is usually done to a person of color. This is the slave state of Virginia.

[Cleita]

24. I was thinking the same too.

I can't imagine the police going after white sorority girls unless they were drunk and disorderly.

[Lunacee_2013]

35. You might be surprised to hear that

I'm a white girl and I've been stopped and harassed by cops before. Not attacked or anything, just stopped and questioned for no real reason.

[Cleita]

39. This is not good. I used to get stopped in South America and asked to show my

ID which also contained my visa information since I really didn't look local although I was born there. I was always proud that this didn't happen in the USA. Well I guess it does now.

[freedom fighter jh]

36. White, not African American

My daughter (a student at the U of Va) knows her.

[Cleita]

38. Well, I'm glad to hear that at least it wasn't racist. It is rather gestapo like though, not

a good thing either. I know the ATF has a job, but they really should have made sure she was carrying alcohol before acting.

[madinmaryland]

42. Thank you for the update. nt

[freedom fighter jh]

45. I hear of so many, many cases of police brutality.

I keep thinking, if there's so much of it, why haven't I seen it first hand or heard from someone who has?

This incident is still at a remove for me -- it's someone my daughter barely knows -- but it's way too close for comfort.

[jtuck004]

13. If you are aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about from surveillance, eh?. n/t

[eggplant]

15. Good thread hijack!

It wasn't surveillance that was the problem. It was the jack-booted thuggery from the ABC agents, surveilling with their very own eyeballs.

Nice try, though!

[jtuck004]

19. I don't give a rat's ass about hijacking a thread, it was just a comment, based on exactly what you

said, "...ABC agents, surveilling ..."

But enjoy the narrow viewpoint.

[eggplant]

33. And by what other means would you expect them to do their jobs, if not via "surveillance"? n/t

[jtuck004]

34. It's their job to attack innocent people? Because that's what their so-called work resulted in.

Regardless of the excuses the women confronted were doing nothing wrong.

So perhaps if someone is doing nothing wrong the only thing they have to fear is the imagination of a surveillance team.

[eggplant]

41. We are in agreement that their *actions* were uncalled for.

I think that if they had calmly identified themselves, said there had been underage purchasing going on, and asked if the case of water was beer, then this would have been a non-issue. The students would have been free to decline to talk to them.

[jtuck004]

44. >The students would have been free to decline to talk to them< by law and in theory, yes.

But yeah, what you said - "here's my badge, I suspect you might have beer". They don't expect them to have weapons, so there's hardly a need to demand to see their hands. Even if they were already in the car (like due to poor positioning or slow reaction on the part of the surveillance team, it seems), standing near the front with a badge, and being ready to move would have been more appropriate than jumping on the hood of the car. (which seems awfully stupid as well - I wonder if that is in the department policy manual?). And of course, to cover their police asses, they arrest the people who had done no wrong except react to their stupidity.

You treat everyone like some gangster with a gun and pretty soon they might start living up to your fantasies. Which is not the intended result, I am guessing.

[PoliticAverse]

31. "surveilling with their very own eyeballs." - It other words it was surveliance. n/t

[eggplant]

32. Way to miss the point.

It wasn't the surveillance that was the issue. It was the completely inappropriate action the ABC agents took as a result.

They were obviously there to thwart under-age alcohol purchases. How would you suggest they accomplish this?

[kyeshinka]

17. Land of the free

Who believes this anymore? Really. These cops should be fined, fired, sued, blacklisted, and lose their families because of this. I don't for a second believe they are capable of feeling the slightest bit sorry for how terrible they treated this young women. From now on I regard American cops with the same disdain and inhumanity I regarded Moscow's feared militia. The only difference is I felt sorry for the Russian cops.

[MineralMan]

18. OK...why would anyone assume that someone coming

out of a Harris Teeter with a six-pack of bottles had purchased an adult beverage? I don't get that at all. They sell all sorts of things in six-packs.

[KamaAina]

21. And why would anyone assume that that someone was under 21?

Criminetly.

[MineralMan]

23. That, too. I suspect another issue may be involved here.

I'm not sure, though.

[KamaAina]

20. Thank god it wasn't iced tea!

[RandiFan1290]

22. LaCroix is pretty stong stuff

It has more flavor than Budweiser

[Iggo]

25. Yay, Cops!

They're the best!

[Dawson Leery]

26. Too many coppers with too little to do and to much salary.

[SCantiGOP]

27. South Carolina has a good law on the books

Several years ago there was someone the media tagged "the blue light rapist." Driving what looked like an unmarked police car, he would put on a blue light on the dash, pull over women in remote areas and molest them. He did this several times before he was caught.
As a result, they passed a law that no one had to stop for an unmarked police car if they felt threatened until they could get somewhere where other people were present. In other words, as long as someone continued driving the speed limit and didn't trty to be evasive they could not be charged with failure to stop for a blue light.
Sounds like that would have been a good thing to have in this case.

[Posteritatis]

40. That is an excellent law. (nt)

[Agony]

28. unprofessional goon squad charges citizen with 3 felonies... A-OK with the DA!

time for a national citizens commission on law enforcement tactics, behavior, oversight and training.

[Shrike47]

29. When I was a college student in the 60's, if they caught you with alcohol, they just poured it out.

Due to general poverty, a lot of times it wasn't replaceable.

Of course, I went to a small college in a small town that wanted to get along with the colleges and their students.

[surrealAmerican]

30. That's not bottled water ...

... it's canned water.

[b.durruti]

37. FDP ~nt~

[davidn3600]

43. Oh but don't worry....we're not a police state...

[Mister Ed]

47. It could have been worse...

...if the young woman had been carrying a gun, and had been prepared to use it to "stand her ground" in a state whose laws encouraged her to do both.

I don't know whether Virginia's laws are like Florida's in this regard. If they are, then it's likely that, sooner or later, law enforcement officials will find themselves involved in a tragedy like the one I've suggested above, all due to mistaken identity and mistaken intentions on one or both sides.