Arizona State University professor assaulted by campus police for jaywalking

CBS News - Las Vegas
Mon, 30 Jun 2014 08:43 UTC

© NYDailynews

An Arizona State University English professor is claiming self-defense against a campus police officer who slammed her to the front of a police car last month.

Dr. Ersula Ore was walking near campus when she was stopped by an officer while crossing College Avenue near Fifth Street.

"The reason I'm talking to you right now is because you are walking in the middle of the street," Officer Stewart Ferrin said in a video recording obtained by KTVK. "Let me see your ID or you will be arrested for failing to provide ID."

"Are you serious?" Ore asked.

"Yes, I am serious. That is the law," Ferrin replied.

The professor stated that she was trying to cross College Avenue like several other people around her in an attempt to avoid construction, a police report explained.

"I never once saw a single solitary individual get pulled over by a cop for walking across a street on a campus, in a campus location. Everybody has been doing this because it is all obstructed. That's the reason why," Ore told the officer. "But you stop me in the middle of the street to pull me over and ask me, 'Do you know what this is? This is a street.' "

Ferrin asked her if she knew that it was street. Before Ore could finish her statement, he demanded that she put her hands behind her back.

"Don't touch me," Ore said. "Get your hands off me."

The officer demanded for her to comply again.

"Put your hand behind your back. I'm going to slam you on this car. Put your hand behind your back," Ferrin stated.

"You really want to do that? Do you see what I'm wearing? Do you see?" Ore said.

At the time of the incident the professor was wearing a black dress. The police officer "slammed" her onto the car and she was then wrestled to the ground where her dress rose exposing her body.

Ferrin and Ore suffered minor injuries and she was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, criminal damage and obstructing a thoroughfare.

The video shows Ore also kicking Ferrin while he was arresting her.

Ore plans to fight the charges and her attorney, Alane Roby, explained that she responded in self-defense.

"She was exposed, told officer she was exposed," Roby stated of Ore to KTVK. "Her dress was up; the officer was reaching toward her anatomy. She felt uncomfortable with hands going there."

The university released a statement to KTVK explaining that "ASU authorities have reviewed the circumstances surrounding the arrest and have found no evidence of inappropriate actions by the ASUPD officers involved. Should such evidence be discovered, an additional, thorough inquiry will be conducted and appropriate actions taken.

"Because the underlying criminal charges are pending, there is not much more we can say at this time. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has reviewed all available evidence, including the police report, witness statements, and audio and video recordings of the incident, and decided to press criminal charges of assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, refusing to provide identification when requested to do so by an officer, and obstructing a highway or public thoroughfare."

Comment: Officer Ferrin is likely an authoritarian follower. Professor Bob Altemeyer wrote about them in his book The Authoritarians. It is available online free here. The U.S. and the world are full of these types of gullible people. Authoritarians followers have 3 core traits that define them according to Altemeyer:

1. Submission to authority. "These people accept almost without question the statements and actions of established authorities, and comply with such instructions without further ado" writes Dean. "[They] are intolerant of criticism of their authorities, because they believe the authority is unassailably correct. Rather than feeling vulnerable in the presence of powerful authorities, they feel safer. For example, they are not troubled by government surveillance of citizens because they think only wrongdoers need to be concerned by such intrusions... "

2. Aggressive support of authority. Right-wing followers do not hesitate to inflict physical, psychological, financial, social, or other forms of harm on those they see as threatening the legitimacy of their belief system and their chosen authority figure. This includes anyone they see as being too different from their norm (like gays or racial minorities). It's also what drives their extremely punitive attitude toward discipline and justice...

3. Conventionality. Right-wing authoritarian followers prefer to see the world in stark black-and-white. They conform closely with the rules defined for them by their authorities, and do not stray far from their own communities. This extreme, unquestioning conformity makes them insular, fearful, hostile to new information, uncritical of received wisdom, and able to accept vast contradictions without perceiving the inherent hypocrisy... Conformity also feeds their sense of themselves as more moral and righteous than others.

Authoritarianism and Psychopathy