Here’s a horrifying story from Galveston:
It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn’s home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on.
As Dymond headed toward the breaker, 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.
Like I said, horrifying, right? Every parent’s worst nightmare, some thugs come steal your kid in the dark of night. So what did the Galveston police do about it?
As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.
Oh.
Well, that changes things. Not, you know, the horribleness of the action by police, or the horrible abuse of civil rights this represents, or the terror the girl must have felt. No, what it changes is that the police could compound the damage by making things even worse:
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. Griffin says the allegations stem from when Dymond fought back against the three men who were trying to take her from her home. The case went to trial, but the judge declared it a mistrial on the first day, says Griffin. The new trial is set for February.
Awesome! What was the girl’s crime? Well, she and her father fought back against masked men who were abducting her. The men were cops, but didn’t identify themselves as such.
Ask yourself, if you saw a kid — any kid — getting abducted by three masked men, what would you do?
What would you want the kid to do?
And what kind of monsters think that’s criminal behavior?
Well, the Galveston police do, I guess.
The family is now suing, as they should. The police officers’ attorney says, “The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off.” Well, duh. Because neither he nor his daughter knew they were police officers. Also, the fact that the girl was 12, had committed no crime, and was standing in her own yard might be reasons she wouldn’t expect to be arrested, no?
At least the girl wasn’t hurt.
After the incident, Dymond was hospitalized and suffered black eyes as well as throat and ear drum injuries.
There are no words to describe the outrage that this should cause any human being. Lovely to know it was done under color of authority.
Why am I a libertarian again?
Distrust all government and the police who enforce their laws.
I found this at Radly Balko’s site this morning. He’s got a lot of posts on this type of police abuse.
I’m not a liberterian but I still know better than to trust cops. Too many stories like this … and worse … :(
Holy ****, and this barely has news coverage. Seriously, I will admit that there’s a whole lot here that could be misrepresented, but this is currently 12 year old in her own yard grabbed by three men not in uniform, and then 12 year old arrested publicly for protecting herself against previous statement. The least the community of Galveston could expect is real scrutiny over this, and it sounds like the Galveston police believes (within reason) that no one cares. As long as they say everything’s cool, it’s cool.
I am enraged and saddened.
This… this… my questions are, why haven’t large news sources picked up this story, and what can be done to have this story picked up and scrutinized? Or: does Galveston care? Does the U.S. care? Should anyone care? I’m so serious, and pretty emotionally disturbed by this image of this story right now.
Maybe I should have waited to calm down before posting this, but I am serious about my concern. What can be done?
Edit: I see through my rage that this happened years ago. Still, my preliminary searches show little in terms of news coverage. I’m not sure if this story being years old is worse or better. Oh my… thanks to the folks who published this even a few years after the fact. My confusion on what to do still stands.
What I hadn’t realized until I checked Radley Balko about this — Dymond is black. These cops were looking for white prostitutes, and they grabbed a black adolescent. Even if there had been no civil rights violations, this is just extra-stupid policing. How is it that when cops are looking for a white criminal, they still end up grabbing black people?
If there’s any justice in this world, this girl will be put through Harvard by the money she gets from suing the shit out of the Galveston PD. Utterly reprehensible. I’d be in trouble for kicking the shit out of a plain clothes cop if I saw this. (Truth be told, I’d probably have my ass handed to me, but I wouldn’t stand by and watch that shit.)
This breaks my heart on so many levels… I have no words.
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Follow up post from the Agitator with links to related documents.
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That is really fucking disgusting. Why is it not getting better press? If I were barred in that state, I would consider trying to help directly.