(Potential trigger warning)
Mind you she was resisting a false arrest.
Two officers in Galveston, TX were alerted to three white prostitutes soliciting a man and drug dealer, after which they mistakenly went to 12-year old Dymond Millburn's home, saw her outside in "tight shorts," assumed she was one of the perpetrators (even though she's not the same race as the suspects) and attacked her:
[A] blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, 'You're a prostitute. You're coming with me.'Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy.' One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat.
The house where they were supposed to be going was two blocks away. And despite the fact that this girl was not only hospitalized with black eyes, throat and ear drum injuries, the police came to her school three weeks later and arrested her for assaulting a public servant.
The case is scheduled for a new trial next month (it was declared a mistrial originally), but her lawyer is confident, saying "I think we'll be okay. I don't think a jury will find a 12-year-old girl guilty who's just sitting outside her house. Any 12-year-old attacked by three men and told that she's a prostitute is going to scream and yell for Daddy and hit back and do whatever she can. She's scared to death."
Two years later, Dymond still suffers nightmares from the attack.
The thought that these officers haven't seemed to even be considered for reprimand after sending this girl to the hospital is unbelievable. Is it okay because they thought she was a prostitute and, you know, police brutality is okay against prostitutes? Or is it okay because she's black? This makes me fucking sick to my stomach.
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I remember when I was young and naive and thought that most cops were decent guys and a few were probably bad apples. Now I'm fairly convinced that most cops are assholes who grew up either getting beat up and now want revenge on the world, or grew up beating other kids up and see no reason to stop as an adult.
I'm considering becoming a vigilante who murders cops like this. And really, what fucking attorney is PROSECUTING HER for this shit? He goes on the list too.
Vigilantism is not ok. Seriously not ok at all.
You might not like cops, but the law is there for a reason. Period.
Oh, please.
The law is there for a reason, all right... and that reason is to keep people in their places, which are designated by rich, white patriarchs.
Regardless of what their personal motivations are, the fact is that pigs - oh, sorry, cops - are there to maintain a system that relies on the oppression of marginalized people. What is so wrong with vigilantism, in the face of that?
How is vigilantism supposed to solve the problem?
Vigilantism is geared toward punishing everybody who is guilty, at the expense of some innocent people being punished, I'm not sure how single individuals acting as judge, jury and executioner is supposed to make problem better. I can only see ways in which it can make things worse.
Instead of worrying about one lone comment on Vigilantism lets worry about the very real problem this case represents: cops are supposed to protect and serve US. If this is an example of that, as explained by the cops lawyer, than we need a wake up call about the real role of the police.
While you sit safely at home think about what its like to be a 12 year old girl who had this happen to her, imagine what its like to know people aren't outraged.
Poorly performing vigilantes would make things worse, well performing vigilantes would make things better. The only problem with one person acting as judge and jury is the expectation that they'll be right a smaller percent of the time. The facts in this case aren't even in dispute, so I don't see how there could be a problem at all.
My Dad's a cop. A good one who broke his neck in the line.
Fuck off.
Saying most cops are bad no more implies that there are no good cops than saying most cops are good implies that there are no bad cops. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to write that sentence.
I don't know if this matters ( i think it does)
but the article didn't say she was arrested for "resisting arrest"
It said, "Three weeks later, according to the lawsuit, police went to Dymond's school, where she was an honor student, and arrested her for assaulting a public servant."
So she was arrested for *assaulting* a public servant, meanwhile she was the one hospitalized. Not to say that she should be arrested for "resisting" but ASSAULT? How exactly does a 12 year old girl assault someone that she thinks is kidnapping her? Wouldn't that be self-defense? Why would they have plainsclolthes officers arrest her? Haven't the police learned their lesson that they need to identify themselves and produce identification if they expect to be treated like "public servants"? Otherwise how is anyone supposed to know? This whole thing is ridiculous.
Maybe its just semantics but this (assualt charge) just sounds 100X worse than the horror already described i the post.
Assault is just any intentional offensive contact. If she punched one of them and it didn't hurt, it would still be assault.
actually, assault is just the INTENT to cause offensive or injurious contact. You can swing and miss, and if the person thought you were trying to hit them, that's assault. Actually hitting someone is battery.
How can you INTEND to assault a person you think is kidnaping you? Isn't that something we call self defense?
Self defense is a "defense" to a crime, in the same vein as mental insanity- it's saying "yes i committed this act, but there is a reason i should not be punished". So in a court you still can be charged with assault, but you can be found not guilty because of your defense of self defense.
I thought there was a difference between the tort and the crime. Evidently I was wrong.
Talk about a screwed up system! It's those police officers who should be on trial here, not that poor kid. She probably thought somebody was trying to kidnap her and only did what came naturally.
And, excuse me, but in what universe would it be necessary for three grown men to injure a 12-year-old girl to the point of requiring hospitalization in order to arrest her and get her into the police vehicle? I hope her family sues the shit out of the police department and the district attorney for putting this poor kid through hell. And I hope they win.
These three cops are reprehensible & should themselves be fired & prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. I hope the girl's family gets a good lawyer & sues what's left of Galveston for every single cent they've got. The fact that they waited 3 weeks b4 proceeding with charges against the girl clearly illustrates that they're trying to CYA by doubling down on audacity: Make her the criminal so they don't have to carry the blame. This is so clearly over the top that its maddening. We need to have some Jena 6 type rallies over this.
This is why I fully support all the Cop Watch people.
It's interesting that you posted this, when just two days ago was International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers and I saw nothing on Feministing about it.
This is how many law enforcement routinely treat actual sex workers, suspected sex workers, and even trafficked persons who don't fit their image of "victims of sex trafficking". Not all, but many.
The fact that this young woman was an innocent twelve year old girl has me even more enraged. This is why violence against sex workers must be countered. It hurts everyone, including innocent twelve year olds who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong wrong.
I hope Dymond finds peace and justice.
I emailed this in to feministing earlier today (maybe someone else did too). I'm glad you posted it. Do you know of any petition to sign or someone to email about this?
Even if they HAD found the right prostitute, how would that be an acceptable way to arrest her? Those policemen should be the ones being prosecuted. It seems from the article that they aren't even claiming they identified themselves as police. This reminds me also of the no-knock raids I've been reading about recently, where police bust into someone's house in the middle of the night without identifying themselves as police and then prosecute the people for pulling a gun on what they think are robbers.
Whatever district attorney thinks this case is a good idea needs to be fired asap also. I know the lawyers we love on Law and Order would be fighting tooth and nail to send those policemen to jail, not prosecuting a kid for defending herself. What do they want her to do, go with any random dude that grabs her, even if he does claim to be a police officer?
[Tech note: I've tried to post this several times and it keeps giving me an error saying "registration is required" even though it also says I'm signed in and can comment. This happens a lot. Maybe someone can review how the cookies or whatever are used to keep people logged in? They don't seem to work very well. Thanks.
Also, it just made me register again. Has the comments function changed? I hope it works this time...]
Vanessa, I think we saw this a half hour or so apart; I just put mine up.
In instances like this I think of this quote - Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it." - John Dalberg-Acton
I hope that Dymond received absolute justice in this case! Keep us posted Feministing!
I mean *receives*
This is seriously upsetting. Can I recommend a trigger warning?
Also, I don't think this assailants-accusing-victims-of-assault thing is at all uncommon. New York just got its own version, with the case of a Critical Mass cyclist whom a cop shoved off his bike and then charged with assault. Luckily, in his case, a tourist happened to have caught the whole thing on video.
Even if she was a guilty person, they still need to identify themselves AS police officers and stating the reason for your arrest before trying to take ANYONE into custody. That is how you know the different between being arrested and abducted.
And even if she did assault/resist arrest, etc- beating on the face of a little girl? How hard is it to restrain a child without bashing in her skull? I'm not saying she didn't assault one of them- she probably did. I would have! Some dudes get out of a car, grab me by arm and try to take me away from my house? You're damn right someone's getting assaulted!! They'd be lucky if they didn't get their eyes gouged out!
Of course, you shouldn't hit a cop- but this girl had NO way of knowing they were cops. If they showed her a badge and then she kicked one of them, I'd be a different story!
"If they showed her a badge and then she kicked one of them, it'd be a different story!"
It would NOT be a different story. This was a 12 year old girl! A child! If a child is being abducted by men accusing her of being a prostitute, I'd expect her to try to get away regardless of whether they properly identified themselves. It might be a problem that they didn't identify themselves as police officers, but it is a MUCH bigger problem that they assumed a black 12 year old girl was a prostitute.
If they showed her a badge and said something like "you're under arrest" I'd expect her to say "my parents are inside, we need to get them" and the cops to go "oh wait, you have parents here? maybe its the wrong person" and go clear up the misunderstanding.
If the cops showed a badge and then tackled her and started hitting her and trying to drag her away without properly arresting her or anything, I'd expect her to fight back and try to get away.
"my parents are inside, we need to get them"
That's a pretty calm and collected answer for a child.
As horrifying as this is for the particular girl, it's even more horrifying to think how often this is happening to people who don't have a route to bring attention to the issue. Think about all of the women who are actual prostitutes or drug users who are victimized by police officers. They really have no options. Who is going to believe you? If you speak up, cops can just come arrest you and make whatever claims they want. The media isn't going to latch onto the story either. This actually happened a couple years ago in my hometown with a cop who raped women (in particularly degrading ways) who had records by telling them he would arrest them or their families if they talked. Still, several of them went to the police and were brushed off. Worse, some of the other cops (unfortunately one of whom I'm very closely related to) even went to the houses of women who had filed complaints to threaten them to stop. He got sentenced to 94 years in prison, but I think this was one of the rare cases where the officer was caught. I'm not saying all cops are evil people looking to abuse power, but it's very easy for them to do so.
Tragic.
It also makes you think about all of the young minority women who are categorized and pigeon holed by the system.
Violence, stereotyping and anti-woman/anti-minority hatred all in one. God bless America?
BoingBoing posted about this horror yesterday and some of the other documents about the case they eventually turned up might be of interest. The post is here.
The e-mail for the Galveston Police Department is Webmaster@GalvestonPD.Com.
The DA's office does not accept e-mail, but the contact phone and address are
409-766-2355
GALVESTON COUNTY CRIMINAL JUSTICE CENTER
600 59th Street, Suite 1001
GALVESTON TX 77551-4137
the fax is
409-766-2290.
Have fun!
I was just wondering, because nobody has mentioned this, but can't the ACLU get involved?
This absolutely made me sick to my stomach. I have heard horrendous stories about the way that prostitutes are treated by police, and don't even get me started on transexuals (especially M-F) who are arrested for even the most minute of offenses.
I feel like this girl should get the best attorney money can buy and sue the shit out of Galveston. It's just too bad that stories like these are not reported by the mainstream media (much like the treatment of protesters in Minneapolis during the Repub convention).
UGH!
"I feel like this girl should get the best attorney money can buy and sue the shit out of Galveston."
Anbyone know where we can donate?
Parents Say Four Cops Beat Girl, 12
GALVESTON (CN) - Four plainclothes Galveston police officers beat a 12-year-old girl in the head in her own yard, beat her with a flashlight, accused her of being a prostitute and threatened to shoot her puppy, while responding to a call about white prostitutes, the girl's parents claim in Federal Court. The girl, an honor student, who was dressed in gym shorts and a T-shirt when the cops beat her, is black.
The girl's mom sent her outside to flip the switch on the breaker box because the house had lost power. She was doing that when four plainclothes cops emerged from an unmarked car and ran toward the girl. One cop said, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me," the complaint states.
The defendant officers are Justin Popovich, Sean Stewart, David Roark and Sgt. Gilbert Gomez.
The terrified girl grabbed onto a tree and shouted, "Daddy, Daddy!" The parents ran outside and saw their daughter "hysterical and holding on to the tree with one arm; two officers were striking (the girl's) head, face and throat," the complaint states. "The officer who was holding Plaintiff covered her mouth. The officer was ultimately identified as David Roark."
The complaint continues: "The Officer stated that they had received a call reporting three prostitutes in the neighborhood and that drug dealing was 'going down.' The officer hit Plaintiff in the back of head with a flashlight, hit her neck, throat, slapped her across the face, and told her to get off the tree. ... The family's five month old puppy grabbed the officer's leg. The officer threatened if they did not grab the dog, he would shoot it. It was ultimately learned that the dispatch call the officers were responding to reported three white females soliciting one white male and one black male drug dealers."
The girl required medical attention for head, back and throat pain, a sprained wrist, contusions and abrasions, black eyes, double vision, loss of hearing, nausea and vomiting, blood in her ear, and bled from the nose. She has since had behavioral problems, nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Three weeks later, she was arrested at school for allegedly assaulting a public servant. The complaint does not state explicitly that the girl was arrested for allegedly assaulting the cops who beat her, or for some other alleged incident. The family had to hire an attorney; a mistrial was declared on day one of her trial.
The family seeks punitive damages for constitutional violations and illegal arrest and detention. They are represented by Anthony Griffin.
source
Sorry, but this makes a case for a national criminal system with **way** higher standards than certain specific jurisdictions...
Is it okay because they thought she was a prostitute and, you know, police brutality is okay against prostitutes? Or is it okay because she's black?
I'm absolutely sure these fuckers thought both.
It's also a version of one of those atrocious rape conundrums: If you don't fight back, people say you deserved it. If you do fight back, you get in trouble with the law for possibly hurting someone else - even if you're a 12-year-old girl being dragged into a van by three grown men for no apparent reason. (Yes, I realize she was not actually raped, but she undoubtedly thought she was going to be and reacted accordingly, so I feel it's related.)
It's entirely possible that she would have been raped. If I were that little girl, I would have been scared shitless.
I was sick to my stomach when I first read this. That illness quickly manifested itself and blinding-rage. Each and every time I read a story like this all I want to do is going V for Vendettaon on all these abusive asses. But when I am able to finally calm down I realize that these cops are products of the system. I doubt that these guys were simply abused have a personal gradge against all potential criminals. The only reason I have any sympathy for these jerks is because I worked as a security guard for a mere 3 WEEKS a few years back. And the reason I only lasted 3 weeks was because I very quickly learned to look at everybody as a potential problem which caused me tremendous anxiety. I noticable became a very angry person to both my roommates and girlfriend so I had to quit for my own sanity. The job is stressful and requires great responsibility which is why I think there should be stiffer requirements for recruiment as well as better methods of training, respite and aid for the workers to keep them as level-headed as possible
Yes, you're right. There should be stiffer requirements etc. There should definitely be a more careful selection when it comes to choosing people to be given power in society to apprehend criminals etc.
I still fully believe that the officers involved should be punished (fired, sued, put in prison for a while, all of the above...). That sort of violence is completely unacceptable. The use of any is bad enough (*tasers*) but to beat a 12 year old girl into hospital like that? They probably are a product of a flawed system, but the system needs to be changed, and they should be deemed unfit for working such a job.
Also, all the article's explanation of what she was wearing sounded somewhat like saying "Well, she got raped because she was wearing a miniskirt". I don't care if the 12 year old girl was out in lingerie, or if she actually was a prostitute, one way or the other, it was a sever violation of her rights. And she shouldn't be charged at all.
I totally agree!
I think that the only reason for the mention of her clothing in the article was because the cops' "defense" for thinking she was a prostitute is that she was wearing "tight shorts."
These guys are total fuckers. I hope that she sues the shit out of the city and wins enough money to put herself through law school so she can help others in the same situation. If she wants to, anyway.
"Oh, please.
"The law is there for a reason, all right... and that reason is to keep people in their places, which are designated by rich, white patriarchs.
"Regardless of what their personal motivations are, the fact is that pigs - oh, sorry, cops - are there to maintain a system that relies on the oppression of marginalized people. What is so wrong with vigilantism, in the face of that?"
You think no non-cops are interested in making up and enforcing rules to keep people in their places, which are designated by rich, white patriarchs? Think again...
"Katrina's Hidden Race War" By A.C. Thompson, This article appeared in the January 5, 2009 edition of The Nation, December 17, 2008, http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090105/thompson
"The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.
"It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. 'I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened,' recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.
"The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions--his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. 'I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck,' Alexander recalls. 'I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again.' Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks.
"Herrington shouted at the other men to run and turned to face his attackers: three armed white males. Herrington says he hadn't even seen the men or their weapons before the shooting began. As Alexander and Collins fled, Herrington ran in the opposite direction, his hand pressed to the bleeding wound on his throat. Behind him, he says, the gunmen yelled, 'Get him! Get that nigger!'
"The attack occurred in Algiers Point. The Point, as locals call it, is a neighborhood within a neighborhood, a small cluster of ornate, immaculately maintained 150-year-old houses within the larger Algiers district. A nationally recognized historic area, Algiers Point is largely white, while the rest of Algiers is predominantly black. It's a 'white enclave" whose residents have 'a kind of siege mentality,' says Tulane University historian Lance Hill, noting that some white New Orleanians 'think of themselves as an oppressed minority.'..."
How do you like these vigilantes? After all, they sure aren't cops...
Even if the ATTACK wasn't racially motivated, you can sure as hell bet that the media attention won't be any where near it would be if this had been a 12 year old white girl that had been attacked.
The worst part of this is that THE OFFICERS WERE OUT OF UNIFORM. I can't think of a single person who wouldn't have been terrified and tried to defend themselves in that situation.
This is sick.
They were out of uniform?!? Unbelievable. This is horrifying.
And they are asking us to believe it took THREE fully grown men with police training to overpower a twelve year old girl? And to do so they had to resort to a level of violence severe enough for the poor girl to be hospitalized?
Bull. These men are a pack of sadists, pure and simple. I hope Dymond gets justice and they get what's coming to them.
I have been thinking about this for days. It's an absolute outrage and I feel totally helpless, especially since the MSM hasn't covered it so nobody knows about it.
Where are all the so-called "good cops" speaking out about this and condemning these monsters?
Wouldn't you think her yelling for her parents and her puppy attacking them would be a clue they had the wrong person?
how could the police actually do this. this is such a sad thing. I hope her parents got a lawyer. this is big payday.DSL Vergleich
This is why I fully support all the Cop Watch people.games