May 29--A video taken off a police body camera that showed a Barstow police officer wrestling and handcuffing an eight-months-pregnant woman has sparked outrage and calls for justice.
The video, which the ACLU released last week, showed the officer placing a pregnant Charlena Michelle Cooks' hands in cuffs behind her back after she dropped her daughter off at an elementary school in January.
Cooks had refused to fully identify herself during her initial contact with the officer for an alleged road-rage incident, so he moved in to arrest her.
"Do not touch me. I am pregnant. Do not touch me," she told the officer as he grabbed her arms.
The officer then wrestled Cooks to the ground as she screamed, "Please, I am pregnant! Please stop this!" Cooks was face-down on the ground.
"Imagine getting wrestled to the ground and handcuffed in front of your child's elementary school," ACLU Southern California staff attorney Jessica Price said in a statement. "Imagine interacting with other parents afterwards.
"Imagine what kids who saw the incident tell your child. And if you think the whole incident happened because of your race, how does that impact your view of police?"
Cooks is black.
The ACLU says Cooks' arrest was unlawful because California law does not require a person to provide an ID and a person can refuse.
"Even if an officer is conducting an investigation, in California, unlike some other states, he can't just require a person to provide ID for no reason," ACLU of Southern California staff attorney Adrienna Wong said. "Officers in California should not be using the obstruction law, Penal Code 148, to arrest someone for failing to provide ID, when they can't find any other reason to arrest them."
Peter Bibring, another staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, has told the L.A. Times that in California, police cannot arrest someone for refusing to provide ID.
Police can ask to see an ID, but it does not mean someone has to show it to them, Bibring said. He said declining to show an ID can prolong an investigation, while showing it could help police resolve an investigation in the person's favor.
The Jan. 26 arrest occurred after a school employee claimed she was the victim of a road-rage incident involving Cooks. The employee alleged that Cooks punched her and threw an object at her car in the school parking lot.
Cooks, 29, denied attacking the woman and said she was the one who felt threatened. At that point, the officer asked Cooks for her name, but she refused.
"I actually do have the right to ask you for your name," the officer said.
Cooks was not convinced and told the officer she was going to look it up on her cellphone.
"Let me make sure because I am not about to get harassed by the police," she said.
As she talked to someone on the phone, the officer approached Cooks and grabbed her arm.
"They are trying to touch me," she said to the person on the phone.
The officer grabbed Cooks as she urged them not to touch her because she is pregnant.
But the officer handcuffed Cooks and wrestled her to the ground.
"You say you're pregnant, so go ahead and cooperate so we don't have to get hands on," the officer said.
Cooks was arrested for obstructing justice, but the charge was dropped, according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records.
Barstow city officials said Cooks "actively resisted arrest."
"The Barstow Police Department continues to be proactive in training its officers to assess and handle interactions with emotionally charged individuals while conducting an investigation, for the protection of everyone involved," said Anthony Riley, a city spokesman. "This incident was in no way racially motivated, as implied by the ACLU. Barstow is a racially diverse community as is our police department, and we affirm our police department's commitment to protect and serve all of our residents."
Last week, the issue of race and police brutality against women took center stage, when women around the county went topless in an effort to raise awareness about the issue.
The movement was driven by the #SayHerName report, documenting incidents of police brutality against black woman. The report released May 20 was created by the African American Policy Forum, the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia University and Andrea Ritchie, an expert on policing of women.
"Black women are all too often unseen in the national conversation about racial profiling, police brutality, and lethal force," said Andrea J. Ritchie, co-author of the brief. "This brief begins to shine a light on the ways that black women are policed in ways that are similar to other members of our communities -- whether it's police killings, "stop and frisk," "broken windows policing," or the "war on drugs."
In an interview with CNN, Cooks said she feared for her safety. Cook has since given birth to her daughter, Olive.
She has retained an attorney. Calls to her attorney were not immediately returned.
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UPDATES
3:29 p.m.: This story has been updated with comments from a Barstow city spokesman.
11:03 a.m.: This story has been updated with more comments from the ACLU and from Andrea J. Ritchie.
This post was originally published at 6:52 a.m.
