Matt Agorist | The Free Thought Project
Houston, TX — Earledreka White, 28, feels lucky to be alive after she was attacked by a Metro police officer in March. The reason the officer attacked her was that he allegedly witnessed White crossing a double white line in her car.
The incident happened in March as officer G. Luca pulled over White for a routine traffic stop. When Luca became threatening toward White, she called 9-1-1 for help.
According to the 9-1-1 recordings, White can be heard asking for another officer because she doesn’t feel safe around Luca — she was right.
“I would like another officer to come out here,” she tells the dispatcher. “My heart is racing. I’m really afraid.”
When considering the Sandra Bland incident, White had every reason to be afraid. At the time of this stop, only six months had passed since Sandra Bland was detained during a routine revenue collection stop in the same state — only to end up dead in a jail cell days later.
As White talks to the Houston police department on the 9-1-1 call, they ignore her fears of being attacked and instead transfer her to the Metro department — the same department at which Luca is employed.
As the call progresses, so does Luca’s anger and impatience. All of the sudden he attacks the otherwise completely innocent woman in an attempt to kidnap her.
Remember, the only thing White had supposedly done wrong at this point was to have allegedly crossed a double white line. However, since she was not immediately submissive and apologetic to the officer, he escalated the situation the only way he was taught — using violence.
“This man is twisting my arm,” she tells the dispatcher. “Please get your hands off of me. What is wrong with you? … Why are you doing this? I haven’t done anything.”
“Being pulled over is not the troubling part – what happened after being pulled over is what baffles me,” White told the Chronicle. “As I tell the dispatcher that this man is threatening to ‘tase’ me, he backs away, then comes back and literally tries to break my arm.”
“Oh my god, oh my god,” she says. “Stop. Please, stop. Can you stop doing this?”
White was assaulted, handcuffed, arrested, thrown in jail for two days, and is currently facing charges of resisting arrest, which could land her in jail for six months.
White has her masters degree in psychology and is a licensed social worker. She is worried that this charge could ruin her career.
Luckily for White, after seeing this video, attorney Zack Fertitta and his law partner, Andino Reynal took the case pro bono.
“I’m as pro-law-enforcement as they come, but that’s not good police conduct,” Fertitta said. “You can’t escalate a situation and then claim someone is ‘resisting arrest.’ That’s ridiculous.”
Fertitta said he plans to take the case to trial if charges are not dropped, according to the Chronical.
Predictably, the Metro PD reviewed the case and found that officer Luca did nothing wrong.
“She was uncooperative, but he did everything reasonable within the law,” said Metro Police Chief Vera Bumpers. “He explained what was going on, what the violation was and that he was focused on her safety, as well as his.”
Apparently, Luca was so focused on her safety he decided to assault her and throw her in a cage for two days.
Bumpers told the Chronicle that people should always follow an officer’s directions and if they feel like they’ve been wronged, they can always follow up with the department later.
“If you don’t feel comfortable or feel that you’ve been mistreated, you can always file a report later,” she said — as if filing a complaint against an officer in his own department is an effective means of protection or accountability.
The fact is that White felt threatened right then. She did what she thought was best by trying to call the police to help her. However, instead of help, she was attacked by the very officer she predicted would attack her — for crossing a double white line, she now faces being thrown in prison.
Below is a video that epitomizes the nature of police in America today — prostrate yourself immediately and be extorted or we will enact violence against you.
Watch the video below: