A Charles County, Maryland sheriff's deputy threatens a woman with arrest after having her boyfriend arrested.
An infuriating video posted to Facebook this week shows the grim and infuriating reality of incompetent and power tripping cops in police state USA.
Local artist, DC Prophitt was doing absolutely nothing wrong when he was approached by multiple Charles County Sheriff's deputies. The deputies mistakenly thought that Prophitt's girlfriend was breastfeeding their baby in the vehicle, so he decided to ruin their year.The family was getting gas when their world was quickly turned upside down by badged agitators.
When the video begins, Prophitt is understandably aggravated by the stop and he was unafraid of voicing this emotion. As a deputy attempts to cite the couple for the non-existent "breast feeding violation," Prophitt becomes even more upset.
"You say one more curse word, you're going to jail," said the deputy. "Can we just get the ticket and go?" asks Prophitt's girlfriend. "My daughters are in there."
At this point, the deputy then grabs the woman and forces her to the other side of the vehicle. He then begins to threaten her with arrest too. When Prophitt gets upset that the deputy is assaulting his girlfriend, he voices his concern to which the deputy replies, "Now you're under arrest."When they ask why Prophitt is being arrested, the deputy asserts his authority, claiming that he is responsible for regulating how people should act in public. "There's a certain way to act in public my friend, and that is not it," spouts the deputy.When his girlfriend asks why Prophitt is being arrested, she is told to "Sit in the car! Or you will be arrested too!"
The video then ends abruptly. According to Prophitt, however, his girlfriend did not stop recording. After police put Prophitt in the patrol car, they approached his girlfriend, assaulted her, took the camera, and confiscated her phone.
The phone was given back to them only days before the court date on Wednesday and the subsequent assault and camera snatching was deleted.
According to Prophitt, On Wednesday, he was found guilty of all charges and police are blaming him for the negative calls to the department from people who've seen his ridiculous arrest.
In the video, a man was arrested, a woman assaulted, and state violence threatened โ for what? There were no victims, no property had been damaged, and no one was harmed. This is the type of behavior by police that is driving a wedge in society between the state and everyone else.
Of course, people will say that Prophitt should have just been quiet, accepted the ticket, and he would have avoided the arrest. This is probably true. However, Prophitt's anger is entirely understandable. He had harmed no one, yet he was surrounded by multiple armed state antagonists, who could and would have killed him with impunity.
That simple statement works both ways, however. I have had many interactions with law enforcement officers. For the most part they have been relatively uneventful due to the fact that the majority of those encounters have been respectful ones. The officers treated me with respect and I did the same for them.
But, I have had some seriously negative encounters as well. Generally those encounters begin with a certain level of disrespect being displayed by the officer(s) or a rigid adherence to a rule or law that went beyond what the situation demanded.
In those instances, I felt that it was my duty to protest the way that I was being treated, but again, it was always done in a respectful manner (for the most part). I remember one circumstance where I ended up calling the officer in charge of the situation a mindless robot after he towed my car away from in front of my house. I did lodge a complaint with the department after that situation.
My point is this, you don't want to spit in the face of an upset pit bull, that can only end badly. If you must protest an action being taken by an officer or officers, there is always a way to do it that wont end up with you going to jail. You must act calmly and rationally, state in simple terms how you feel that you are being mistreated and inform the officer(s) that you are aware of your own rights as well as the rights of the officer(s) and, if possible, film the situation. Just be aware that the sight of a recording device alone can aggravate a situation.
Always show officers respect regardless of how you truly feel about them, let them know that you appreciate the fact that they have a difficult and dangerous job and that you respect the fact that they often put their lives on the line to protect the general public.
The moral of this story is this: We need to be the change that we wish to see in the world.