Over the years there have been hundreds of salacious police violence incidents caught on camera for the world to see and judge. Continuing that trend, last month Dr. Ersula Ore or Arizona State University was walking down the street, Jay Walking, according to the where she was walking and the law, when she was stopped by an officer who stopped her and asked to see her ID. Well, the cameras began rolling.
From the start Dr. Ore wasn’t having it. She was shocked, upset and confused about why she was being stopped for something as simple as traveling down the popular school’s street. A street walked by thousands of feet daily without any trouble as that day was seeing for the bewildered professor. She felt like she was being spoken to in a highly disrespectful and condescending manner and retorted back to 5.0, that in her three years of being mobile on that campus she’d never seen anything of the sort. The street was always full of students, teachers and other staff doing exactly what she was doing at that moment; walking. She didn’t think she was doing anything wrong. The officer explained that he wasn’t being disrespectful and that she was breaking the law and continued to ask for her ID. That’s when it began to get ugly. As the video continued there was banter between Dr. Ore and the police officer leading to an argument, a scuffle and ending with the professor thrown to the ground being forcefully handled and arrested by two officers, skirt up, while screaming.
Okay so there is a lot going on here; And a very debatable issue. Here are a few questions one should mull over:
• Is this racism and unnecessary police violence?
• Were the officers too aggressive with Dr. Ore?
• Did she make things more difficult than they should have been?
• Should she just have complied?
I have my views and honestly they are mixed. I understand Dr. Ore completely. I do feel like she was “called out” and that her being stopped for walking down the street was an uncommon practice, even though the police did have the right. There was no harm or danger taking place and I feel as if the cops had nothing better to do then to pick on her and maybe make her feel a little intimidated. It was a power issue. However the professor played into the power struggle by continuing to question authority and not complying with the simple request. She could have asked the question a few times and then did what the officer was asking I feel. It would have saved some of the drama. To this incident, ASU officials released a statement standing behind the law, saying that “no evidence of inappropriate actions by the ASUPD officers involved. However this isn’t the 1st case that ASU officers were put in the spotlight. In 2003 a man filed a lawsuit against the force after being asked, and refusing to show his ID while in the campus public library. Interesting.
Who made the rules up in the world where just because someone is a cop, they are allowed to speak harshly to you in any given situations and just because you are NOT a cop, you have to listen, not speak back and obey? Can’t they be wrong? I agree with about authority but not with being abused by them and their own personal power agendas. It smells a bit of retro slavery to me. But I digress.
Sources: Naturally Moi , YouTube
Follow us on Twitter @HipHopEnquirer
