Female cop out of control and power mad sprays innocents with pepper spray

[Ichingcarpenter]

Seattle, Wash. – The city of Seattle is being sued by Jesse Hagopian after he was pepper sprayed by police while leaving a peaceful Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally and march on Jan. 19.



The suit claims that police lacked cause to douse him with pepper spray shortly after giving a speech at the rally discussing how “black lives matter,” and seeks $500,000 in damages.

According to the Seattle Times,

Jesse Hagopian, a history teacher who gave a speech during the event, says in the claim that as he began to head home in the afternoon to celebrate his 2-year-old son’s birthday, he was walking on the sidewalk in the South Lake Union area talking to his mother on the phone when the officer sprayed him.
During the press conference, Hagopian’s attorney, James Bible, said Hagopian was pepper-sprayed “irrationally” with “No provocation and no reason,” Bible said, characterizing the officer’s assault on innocent citizens as a challenge to free speech.
The video of the incident shows a few officers, including the one that sprayed Hagopian, standing at a police barricade barking orders at the few peaceful demonstrators.


Watch the video"."...it's even more shocking



Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/man-peacefully-walking-mlk-day-rally-blasted-pepper-spray-cop/#FzW1XBzJb7f6OEqo.99

[trumad]

1. Why the "female" headline?

The original headline just says Cop.

[TexasProgresive]

2. My thought exactly. n/t

[Thor_MN]

23. Well, she apparently is. And it's notable, because raging cops are almost exclusively male.

Are you making the claim that the officer was not female?

[snooper2]

37. not always, sometimes female officers feel they have to prove they are "tough"

Seen it in many a youtube video...

[HappyMe]

38. That doesn't excuse horrible behavior.

[snooper2]

40. Uh, yeah, didn't say it did

[HappyMe]

43. I didn't say that you were making excuses,

or even agreeing with that. I was just pointing out that if they use that as an excuse, it's pretty damn pathetic.

[Thor_MN]

60. And that would be the "almost" portion of almost always...

[niyad]

61. OP is expanding on a response to a thread about female officers possibly reducing

the level of violence in police forces:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026156645

replete with the usual suspects.

[lumberjack_jeff]

87. Quite effectively too, it would seem. n/t

[niyad]

88. right. because ONE instance negates everything that article said. as I said, the usual

typical response.

[lumberjack_jeff]

91. An equally sexist argument could be made that

more male teachers would be a reasonable approach to reduce sex abuse in high schools.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/kathryn-murray-notorious-teacher-sex-scandals/story?id=21623202

[niyad]

92. keep trying.

oh, and you might try reading the article that started this thread.

[trumad]

89. Thanks Niyad for the eye opening post

Now I know why the Op wrote the headline like he did.

Amazing---

[niyad]

90. you are most welcome. yes, we understand the reasoning completely.

[Logical]

76. So that's all you got out of the story I guess? Nt

[trumad]

82. No

I got that a cop acted like an idiot. I pointed out that the headline at the link only says "cop" so why did the Op add "female"?

[lumberjack_jeff]

86. "out of control cop pepper sprays..." conjures a specific (and incorrect) image in the DU zeitgeist.

Here's the thing I find intriguing; adding enough descriptive qualifiers to forestall this knee jerk stereotype is now "sexist" in a way that allowing the sexist stereotype to fester does not.

[TexasProgresive]

3. Is "Female cop" relavant?

How about, "bicycle cop"? or "short cop"? Maybe "short, white, female, b***h cop"?

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. she's a cop it was a she

she was a female white cop ..............tell me I lied

[MrMickeysMom]

8. You didn't lie, and too bad this kind of behavior occurs across cop genders

THAT'S what we all ought to be upset over… that it even exists… AT ALL!

“(Jesse) was pepper sprayed irrationally by a police officer – no provocation and no reason,” said Bible. “We view this as a challenge to free speech.”

Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/man-peacefully-walking-mlk-day-rally-blasted-pepper-spray-cop/#scgDWG5eouztJ3Qi.99

[trumad]

22. yeah...like you would have posted "male" cop...

[Ichingcarpenter]

24. Whatever

Poster boy

[LanternWaste]

25. How many times have you specified a male cop without direct relevance...?

How many times have you specified a male cop without direct relevance...?

[HappyMe]

28. I usually assume that a cop doing something hideous like

this is a white man. I am probably not alone in that assumption, given that it usually IS a white man. Racism amongst white male cops is pointed out regularly. I see no reason why racism amongst white female cops shouldn't be pointed out.

[TorchTheWitch]

32. so where was the racism in this case?

Frankly, I think it's racist to point out someone's race when it has nothing to do with anything. Her gender has nothing to do with it either. She's a police officer with an equal opportunity spraying mentality on people that weren't doing anything at all - people of a variety of races and genders. She narrowly missed hosing the cop next to her in her frenzy as well.

So, again, why is her race and gender being pointed out?

[HappyMe]

34. Why shouldn't it be?

As I said, people are quick to point out a racist white male cop. Why shouldn't racist, out of control females be pointed out?

[TorchTheWitch]

41. because neither should be pointed out

when it has nothing to do with it. What, just because other people wrongfully bring up someone's race that's some kind of excuse to bring up race or gender or age or any other thing about the person when none of it has anything to do with what occurred?

AGAIN, why are you labeling this officer as racist when she sprayed everyone in sight, male/female, black/white/brown, old/young, etc.? In fact, you can see in the still photo in the OP that the stream of spray was directed right into the face of the woman walking beside the man on the phone who walked into the stream. If she was aiming at either one of them it was the woman. The whole POINT to what this officer did is that she sprayed EVERYONE even directing spray at the last stragglers in the street in front of the line of cops that were so far away that the spray stream didn't get anywhere near them while she yells at them to get back. She even narrowly missed spraying the officer beside her.

[whopis01]

66. A black man gets pepper sprayed at an MLK event after giving a speech

on how black lives matter and you want us to believe that race has nothing to do with this?

Nice try.

[TorchTheWitch]

72. Nice try yourself

She sprayed EVERYONE or did you not bother to watch the video of what happened particularly the wide angle one I posted that showed what was going on behind that police line and what the crowd in front of the police line were doing before she lost her mind with the spray after that crowd she had sprayed at had mostly dispersed and were so far away that the spray didn't even reach them? Just looking at the still photo it's clear that she aimed the spray directly into the face of the woman walking beside the man on the phone (who is white), doused him as well and then sprayed willy-nilly at the whole crowd of people in front of her as if it were air freshener. She narrowly missed hosing one of the officers beside her as well. Calling this racism and imagining that she had a clue in the world who the guy was that was on the phone is ludicrous.

The whole POINT to what she did is that she DID NOT discriminate as to who she sprayed and why. She freaked out and let loose on everyone with it even narrowly missing a fellow officer and by doing so showed that she isn't competent to handle this sort of situation as she couldn't control herself in the least as to who she sprayed and for what reason and AFTER the crowd in front of the police line had mostly dispersed and had backed off to such a degree that the spray she let loose on them with abandon didn't even reach them. Unfortunately, the man on the phone and the woman walking beside him were still close enough to get doused by her going berserk with the spray while dispersing and starting to travel down the sidewalk with a lot of other people dispersing.

[Demit]

26. Why didn't you say "female WHITE cop" then?

What was your reason for including one adjective but not the other?

[FiveGoodMen]

68. Probably because the overwhelming majority of these horror stories have involved male cops

so it is somewhat significant to find out that the behavior is not just a genetic/testosterone thing.

[Demit]

71. If the OP were a scientist conducting a study, I might buy that.

But he's not.

[TorchTheWitch]

80. and I suppose that the overwhelming majority of cops are male

has nothing to do with that statistic?

Of course it's not a genetic/testosterone thing. Cripes, what boob would even think that?

Bottom line is there was no reason whatsoever to point out the gender of the officer since her gender had nothing whatsoever to do with what she did.

[treestar]

42. I think it is an issue

in that at least I thought a lot of the confrontations have to do with macho not being able to let the other guy seem to come out on top. And that women were not involved in these things - and as it is, this one still isn't, as she didn't shoot someone dead. Still the poster upthread has a good point that women may feel they have to act macho to prove themselves.

[F4lconF16]

45. Nailed it.

That's exactly what's going on here

[lumberjack_jeff]

83. Absent the qualifier, all of du would have "known" it was a guy.

[etherealtruth]

5. The police are out of control ....

the reference to "female cop" is weird and out of place ... but, nothing the police do surprises me anymore

[blackcrow]

6. what an incredible photograph

no defense against that charge.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. The video shows her spraying everyone twenty feet around her

shoud I use 'it' rather than 'she ' now.......?


Anyway the video is very short which shows how the' cop' was out of control.

[braddy]

54. I know it's a real screen capture but it is so perfect, that it looks like a photoshopped joke pic.

[HappyMe]

7. What the hell is she doing?

Oh noes!!1 Scary black man talking on the phone!!!11

Then when somebody tries to rein them in, they get pissy and turn their backs.

[duhneece]

10. Watch 'Cop Block' on fb for 6 weeks

This 64 yr old woman with a son in prison, a daughter in law enforcement (therefore, I am obviously well balanced-ha!) has been shocked and sickened in ways I didn't know I could by the police abuse of and killing of folks...and there is so little accountability. Please like/join CopBlock for a short while on facebook just for a little while. There is war in our back yard that is getting news only once in a while.


In the speech, he had mentioned the need for police to treat citizens with respect...or words to that effect. Hard to believe that is what set her off, but ???

[HappyMe]

11. The lack of accountability and demands

for respect is way over the top. They are easily able to hide behind other cops and their union reps. It's pretty damn disgusting.

I'll take a look at Cop Block.

[duhneece]

20. It's exactly that lack of accountability

..that I find most stunning, sickening and sad for us all.
It's a rare thing to find me so NOT in agreement with unions, but I am here.

[MohRokTah]

15. While I agree with you that there is a real problem with the cops, I can have nothing to do with...

CopBlock.

A large number of activists in CopBlock are also Sovereign Citizens and even liking their Facebook page could get you on an FBI watch list.

[duhneece]

19. If I don't already have an FBI file

I haven't been active enough. I protested the Iraq war before it began and i have been actively protesting wars since Vietnam.
I'm a 64 yr old woman and have no leanings at all toward Sovereign Citizens or cop haters, but I wanted to know what is happening across the nation and I have been stunned by the news (and I check and double check its veracity). Sometimes, politics make strange bedfellows, but I have not found that kind of gathering of law enforcement abuse and killings elsewhere. Have you?

[MohRokTah]

21. You do not want to be associated with Sovereign Citizens by any law enforcement.

Because Sovereign Citizens murder cops, most cops will approach anybody associated with them on a "shoot first" basis.

[duhneece]

27. I was instrumental in getting citizen police review board

Granted I live in small-town USA (actually, I live outside of Alamogordo NM, but I was instrumental in pushing for a citizen review police review board. While it is still not what I wanted, there are enough of us now to push for a TRUE citizen police review board.
We do what we can to learn what is going on and take action.
What do you do?

[hatrack]

55. Unless your name is Cliven Bundy, or if you hang out with him . . .

[Scootaloo]

78. So is it okay for the police to want to murder people because their opinions don't match yours?

C'mon, let's try for consistency at least

[MohRokTah]

79. No, it's more likely cops will shoot you if they think you are a Sovereign Citizen. eom

[snooper2]

39. CopBlock has people of all stripes and beliefs across the spectrum....

Also you can check out

Photography is not a crime- Greatness....Stand on the side of an easement and video record a waste treatment plant. Get accosted by underpaid overweight security guards.


people from across the spectrum-

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/

Ohio Cop Criminally Charged for Snatching Woman’s Camera



As so many cops have done in the past, Yellow Springs Police Sergeant Naomi Penrod snatched a camera from a woman’s hands who was recording her in public, figuring she would get away with it.
But now the Ohio cop is facing three misdemeanor charges.
And this after she was slapped with a two-day unpaid suspension from her department.
All for a two-second video where she tried to prevent a woman in a wheelchair from recording her.
But those two seconds revealed a woman who was not afraid of abusing her authority.

http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/01/ohio-cop-criminally-charged-snatching-womans-camera/

[blackspade]

12. WTF is wrong with that cop?

Everyone seems calm but her.

Maybe time for a new job?

[cynzke]

13. There were a group

of people confronting the cops who barricaded the street. While it appears to us that Hagopian and friend are leaving. The officer is assuming they are just trying to go around the barricade, perhaps to continue to march/protest further. At least that will be the officer's testimony. The Police Department wil, most likely, punish the officer or they may decide to fire her for violating protocol and showing she lacked the ability to restrain herself. The city. most likely. will settle with Hagopian and life will go on.

[rjsquirrel]

17. She needs to be fired

Why don't we know her name, rank, and badge number?

Cops use pepper spray at the smallest provocation these days.

I hope she chokes on her own gas next time.

[HappyMe]

18. I doubt that they will fire or punish her.

[Hoppy]

14. She is one sick fuck.

The rest of the cops are standing with their bikes. She is off the rails.

She doesn't belong on the job. However, she would make a good lunch room monitor.

However, in her favor, you gotta keep a close eye on those history teachers.

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. Eat those spicy peppers kids! And eat 'em now!

[Triana]

29. I hope he wins that suit!

What the cop did was uncalled for. Period.

[Smarmie Doofus]

30. Part of the problem (I said PART) is that these civil servants have immunity to civil suits.

Mr Hagopian can sue the city ( i.e the taxpayers).... and I hope he does.... but the abuser, the perpetrator, faces no personal financial consequences.

The very worst is that they ( SHE in this case) will be dismissed by the city. ( And even that's unlikely.)

I'm sorry. But that's not enough.

There has to be personal consequences for gov't employees who abuse their power in this way.

[raouldukelives]

31. With that kind of attitude and target recognition she could be a celebrated sniper. nt

[Sunlei]

33. todays police are "over-trained" to use their items of torture. Stop funding them with seizure cash!

They pay private (for profit) training camps with that seized money and those training camps teach them these 'skills'.

[AtomicKitten]

35. You're right, the video was shocking.

The police are out of control.

[TorchTheWitch]

36. much more complete video here

There was a previous thread about this last night...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026155047

Someone in a building was shooting footage of what was happening through a window. Though there's some reflection on the window you can still see the officer that went nuts on the crowd long after they either backed away (they had converged on the officers blocking the street) or dispersed. Behind the line of officers there was some mayhem going on in which one officer was assaulted and injured.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2015/01/20/video-of-seattle-police-pepper-spraying-mlk-day-protesters

Just shows more of what was going on at the time and from a much wider perspective/angle/can't think of the right word.

At about the one minute mark or a few seconds sooner or so the person taking the video says something like "that wasn't very necessary" just when that one officer in the line went ape with the pepper spray on the guy with the phone and the woman next to him and then on the remainder of the crowd of people not doing anything and who had already backed off so far that the spray didn't come anywhere near them. I'm guessing that what he said had to do with that one officer since he says it at the same time she's going nuts with the spray.

Because of the reflection in the window she's difficult to see, but she's in the police line way at the top of the screen a bit to the left of the center of the video and to the right of the pole at the sidewalk.

[F4lconF16]

47. Thanks for the video, it's good to see that from another angle.

That officer needs to be strongly disciplined at the very least. She was clouding the air like crazy. I was 3 or 4 rows back in that crowd and I still got hit with a bit of the mist, and thankfully not any more than that because of the wind.

[TorchTheWitch]

59. You're very welcome

I agree that she should be severely disciplined. Personally, I just don't think she's cut out for the job to react like that. Pepper spray is not air freshener.

I'm so sorry you came so close to being doused yourself.

[F4lconF16]

44. Hey, that's the one that got me!

I'm really hoping this goes somewhere, she was screaming at a 75+ year old woman to back up while aiming the pepper spray at her. Totally out of control.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

46. She looks like a complete out-of-control psycho

with the yelling and the spraying. Fortunately she didn't go for her gun and spray the crowd with bullets. At least not on that day.

[yellowcanine]

48. He was clearly going to throw his cell phone at her and she sprayed him just in time.

Actually that officer had clearly panicked and was out of control. She should be canned and so should her supervisor for not training her properly.

[F4lconF16]

49. Also:

See the comments below the linked story if you want a reason not to include the "female" part of the title--there's no reason for it, it has nothing to do with what she did, and all it does is give the misogynist assholes out there something to latch on to.

[Ichingcarpenter]

52. she's a PIG then

that's the only way I wil change it ........

A Pig cop..........

[Cali_Democrat]

51. Every other cop seems calm and she's raging out of control

She needs another job.

Clearly she's not up to snuff.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

53. "power mad"

We'll never get rid of madness, it's a part of the human condition.

We'll be safer once we get rid of power; it's merely a human invention.

[dilby]

56. She is obviously suffering from Napoleonic Complex. n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

57. Actually Napolean was taller than average for a european

the short thing was british propraganda.

that being said being that short and a person in authority does question some
psychological screening that was lacking .

Oh did I mention she was a woman? yes everything is relevant when screening
including asshole men.

The SS had their women installed at the camps

[valerief]

58. Cops have the right to be insane nowadays. nt

[tblue37]

62. She seems both angry and panicked--too much of both emotions to behave

rationally or legally. I think that her victims (all of them--not just the one, but anyone who was sprayed) should sue and either win or get a solid settlement. And I think the PD should seriously question whether she is able to handle the stresses of being a street cop.

In fact, since so many cops, both male and female, seem unable to control their fear and anger reactions when dealing with citizens (or their pets!), even in relatively controlled and benign encounters, much less when actual danger or chaos is involved, most of them should be removed from street duty as unsuited for such work.

[truebluegreen]

63. Out of control , definitely

but the tone of her voice sounds like panic to me. Are police departments restricting their hiring to cowards or are they doing something to scare the pants off them afterwards?

[kelliekat44]

64. She reminded me of those white women in a classic photo pictured standing under a lynching tree. nt

[workinclasszero]

65. Police are totally out of control in this country

Clearly this American citizen strolling by, minding his own business, talking on his cell phone was an immediate danger to everyone and deserved to be doused with fucking pepper spray by the little white nazi cop!

[whopis01]

67. I thought that photo was fake when I first read your post

The big red bottle - the spray cloud - it just looks so photoshopped.

I was shocked once I realized it was real.

[VScott]

69. Even without the pepper spraying...

the screeching hissy fit is enough to tell me she's poorly qualified to be an LEO and needs
psychiatric evaluation.

She reminds me of this "respect my authority" bug-eyed loon (whom thank God isn't a cop... at least not at the time)...

[Taitertots]

70. Who do you have to vote for to get the police to stop abusing people?

[surrealAmerican]

74. Seattle again.

It seems like we've been seeing a lot of abusive cop stories from that city. Has there been some change in their police force in the last few years that may be contributing to this?

[JEB]

75. Fascism.

[lunasun]

77. Another female cop incident in Seattle ?

Just read one now another

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6154178

[blackcrow]

81. decent cops

How do we get decent police forces? Look at New York, where darn near the entire force is a bunch of thugs. How does a city or town suddenly materialize a police force made out of decent, well trained individuals? Not even to mention the problem with getting the current ones fired.

The good ones coming aboard have to be kept separate from the thugs and the latters' ingrained corruption, too.

[Trillo]

85. Get the money out of politics.

Money in politics means money is in control and wants the cops to protect money. Get the money out of politics, then cleaning up the bad cops gets somewhat easier.

Note I didn't say getting the money out of politics would be easy.

[Trillo]

84. Imagine if she'd had a machine gun

instead of pepper spray. Some cops really suck.

[Rex]

93. Look, let's be blunt here. Some cops are stupid idiots just like other stupid idiots

at other jobs. They make mistakes, often drop the ball when they are needed. Long story short, they are incompetent at their job and shouldn't be working as a cop or in ANY position of authority where someone can get killed.

We have a lot of cops that are fucking morons, they cost their cities money from fines...and why...because they should not be COPS! Sadly, they have a huge apparatus that will defend them and make sure any wrong doing is hidden or swept under the rug.

This is one reason failure cops hate iphones...they know they are fuck ups and don't want any evidence. Had not there been footage of that abuse, the cops would have lied and probably arrest the couple for nothing

AGAIN, some people should not be cops...they are no good at it and need to find another job that they are good at. Sacking groceries never goes out of style and requires minimum thinking skills.