
© AFP Photo/Cengiz Yar Jr.
Tiffany Rent is eight-months pregnant, but that didn't stop a Chicago police officer from using a taser on her. The assault and arrest occurred Wednesday morning outside of a drug store on Chicago's South Side.
The Chicago Police Department Superintendent Garry McCarthy said that even though Rent was only a week or two away from giving birth, "you can't always tell whether somebody is pregnant."
Tiffany, however, said it should have been obvious.
"I was standing at the squad car close enough for him to see that I was pregnant," Rent explained to the
Chicago Tribune.
The Chicago Police Department, however says that their officers did nothing wrong. Rent, they said, had "attempted to take off" after parking in a handicap space outside of a Walgreens drug store. Why was she parking in a handicap space? Because she was almost ready to give birth and it was severely uncomfortable - even painful - to walk far.
The officer was not moved by her plight. Poor and frustrated with the $350 ticket, Tiffany tore up the citation saying:
"I ain't giving you sh#@," according to the police report. In effect, she was tased, for nothing more than saying she wouldn't pay a fine.
Superintendent McCarthy said this is a matter of "upholding the law" and that Rent should have been tased for her comments:
"Well, first of all, you can't always tell whether somebody is pregnant. So, you want to use it where you are overcoming assault or preventing escape. That's what it boils down to."
To make matters worse, Tiffany was pulled out of her car in front of her two young children and her boyfriend, held down to the ground before being tased. Joseph Hobbs tried to stop the assault. Hobbs is the father of the child and said he was afraid the full-term baby would be injured in the assault. He suffered a dislocated elbow as a result.
Comment: Now if only they would go after the real criminals and fraudsters at the big banks,we might be getting somewhere!