Peace Not Police

I wish all of you could have been there. I think if you had seen it for yourself, it would make you see things differently. But you weren't, and all I can do it describe it in detail and hope you get a strong metal picture. I'm a 22 year old female, I live in Modesto California. This particular incident took place on August 23rd, 2008. It was my husbands golden birthday, which simply means he was turning 23 on the 23rd. We were hanging out at our house with our friends. My mom was watching our 3 year old son for the night. We were having fun laughing and such, drinking a few beers. During our lengthy conversations, we decided it was a nice night and that it would be fun to go walk downtown and check out the block party they were having. We didn't have enough money to get in so we figured we would just check it out, talk to some folks and be on our way. We walked to the event, saw that it was all fenced in, and figured we would be leaving in a minute. Well our friend was a little tipsy and decided that jumping the fence would be fun. He meant no harm. Soon after he got over the fence, the event security rushed him, got him to the ground and held him. At this point he was submissive, just laying there. We were all still on the other side of the fence, we being: myself, my husband, and our three friends. After the event security had already got him to the ground, seven cops rushed him this time using excessive force. Us being his friends were having a hard time grasping why they were being so rough and cruel when he was compliant with their demands. We start yelling "Get off him!", "He was already submissive!", "Is this really necessary?!", (sarcastically) "Why don't you just tase him and get it over with?!". Granted we threw some offensive language in there, none of us thought that you had to watch what you say in a "free country", it was hard to watch. My girl friend was smoking a cigarette and when she was done with it she flicked it to the ground. We already have the cops vigil on us because of the yelling...I watched a female officer point at us. The music was so loud I could hardly hear myself yelling, so I highly doubt they heard what we were yelling. They just saw that we were upset. I feel we had every right to be upset. All of the sudden six cops start walking toward us, we thought nothing of it since we have done nothing wrong. I thought, at most, they would talk to us about what was going on. Then this huge (male) officer grabs my tiny girlfriend, throws her hard against a car and says "You think it's funny to throw cigarettes at my partner?!" I looked at her in complete confusion, she had been just standing there that whole time. He pulled her close to him and said "I will hurt you", she was not resisting arrest, just freaked out because SHE DID NOTHING WRONG! Tensions are high at this point, for obvious reasons. My husband is not the type to bend for unlawful abuse, so he decides to say something. The cops are about 6-8 feet away from us and the music is really loud so he yells to an officer "What is going on!", "Why are you arresting her?!". One officer comes closer and immediately pushes my husband and tells him to lower his voice, with another two officers right behind him. So he lowers his voice, but is sternly asking why our friend is getting arrested, the officer tells my husband to back up...he was standing at least 5 feet away at this point, he had a fence behind him, me to his left side and a few friends to his right, he couldn't back up. The cop kept getting closer in his face telling him to back up. How are you supposed to get out of someones face when they keep getting in yours? The cop then pushed him again, he was trying to stage defiance from my husband. At this point my husband put up his arms back to show no signs of wanting to get physical. The cop then pushed him two more times, on the last push, another cop from my husbands front right view shot him with a taser. No warning, no reasoning. My husband then fell from the shock and busted his head open on a car bumper, four or five cops tackled him, threw me out of the way and proceeded to point a taser at me, three different times, for trying to talk to them. I thought they were going to tase me, I felt like if I said they wrong thing they would. I have never felt so afraid to speak before. Getting shocked by a taser can kill you, if you have a heart condition. Cops are allowed to use tasers at their discretion. being shocked with electric pulses causes you to clench your body naturally, after my husband was on the ground his body was clenching, they were telling him to stop resisting and tased him a second time. They cuffed him, even while his head was all bloody. Me and my last two friends remaining then waited around to know what was going on. The cops told us our friends were going to jail. They told us we could find out more when we call the police station later. All three of my friends, including my husband, are being charged with assault on a peace officer. They did not touch those officers once. The police should be the ones getting charged with assault. My husband had blood covered hair, multiple bruises, scrapes and cuts everywhere. Being treated like an animal by another human, robbed us of our dignity. It was a horrible display of power. I am sickened at how they treated the situation. They could've just talked to us. We are civilized people. If this continues to happen, we will all live in constant fear. I don't feel safe, I am terrified of men in blue or black. I know this stuff happens all the time. I'm willing to bet more than half of the time this happens, the civilian walks away in shame, too afraid to fight. We are not afraid to fight this, because if we don't stand up for ourselves, who will? If we can save at least one person from going through this, I will feel accomplished. Power in numbers, knowledge through truth, strength in self. I love you all.

Nothing but love,
Ashley

"You see, there are people who believe that the function of the police is to fight crime. And that's not true, the function of the police is social CONTROL, and protection of property.."-Michael Perenti


If there is anyone out there that can help us with a case against the Modesto Police Dept. for false arrest & unjustifiably being tased (electronic shock by a gun), please contact our email.
devolutelize [at] yahoo.com