Plain Old Justice

 

   Has the city of Hemet, California, delared war on its black residents?  Three have filed a federal lawsuit against the city.  Their complaint describes the kind of police misconduct associated with the Deep South during the 1950s.

    According to the lawsuit, on March 31, 2021, Ryan Gadison drove to the home of his fiancee, Mariah Hereford.  After he pulled into Hereford's driveway, a Hemet police car with two white officers pulled in behind him.

    The cops allegedly were part of a "gang task force." But the 33–year–old Gadison did not belong to any gang and had not engaged in any illegal activity.  Gadison, the complaint states, was simply "driving home after a long, full day of work.  The HPD officers had no reasonable suspicion or probable cause to initiate a traffice stop."

    One cop claimed that Gadison’s car lacked a front license place and asked permission to search  it.  When Gadison refused, they pulled him out of the car, arrested him for driving with a suspended license, and searched the car.

    Gadison’s fiancee Mariah and her mother, Monett Hereford, were outside their home and began recording video of the arrest with their cellphones.  They repeatedly told the officers they were filming, the complaint said, “in an attempt to moderate the officers’ use of excessive force.”

    One of the officers threatened the women with arrest if they did not back up, even though, the complaint alleges, they were “not in the immediate vicinity of the arrest.”

    Then, one of the cops knocked the phone out of Monett Hereford’s hands.  Officers forced her up against Gadison’car and handcuffed her so tightly it caused pain.   The complaint states:

    Over MONETT’s objection, male HPD officers engaged in an invasive full body “search and frisk,” grabbing and probing MONETT between her legs and groin area, despite the presence of female officers fully capable of conducting a less offensive or invasive search of MONETT.

    Meanwhile, Monett’s daughter Mariah was recording video with her phone.  According to the complaint, a white officer pushed her backwards, swatted the phone out of her hand, and knocked her to the ground.  The complaint continues:

   The HPD officer roughly grab MARIAH by her hair, yanked her head back and slammed her face against the ground, multiple times. When MARIAH pleaded for the HPD officer to let her go, his response was: “Shut your fucking mouth!” The HPD officer then hooked his fingers into the underside of MARIAH’s jaw , as if she were a fish, and yanked her upward from the ground, both chokingand restricting her airway. MARIAH wailed in agony, causing her to lose consciousness several times. While she was on the ground motionless, MARIAH was handcuffed with her hands behind her, and due to her injuries, had to be assisted to the squad car.

    Later that night, she was hospitalized and diagnosed with closed head injury, left shoulder pain, low back pain, neck pain and whiplash.

    While these events took place, her children, who had ventured outside the house, were crying.  The Hereford’s 3 dogs, each chained to individual dog houses, were barking.

    The dogs’ 4-foot chains did not allow them to get near the police.  Nonetheless, two cops came over to the dogs.  The complaint states that an officer grabbed by the collar one of the dogs, named “Blue” and “violently threw him to the ground.  A second HPD officer used a baton to brutally beat their second dog, “Rocky,” who required veterinary treatment.”

    These allegations, which still must be proven in court, indicate that the police have gone ferel, totally out of the city’s control.  But do city officials want it that way?

    About a decade ago, Hemet decided to get tougher on crime.  At one city council meeting, a resident said that “some new elements” were moving  into town.  The city council enacted a “crime-free housing” ordinance similar to those many other cities have adopted.  This program, which Hemet ended last year under federal pressure, involved the police in landlord-tenant matters.

    Under the program, a landlord required each tenant to sign a lease “addendum” that gave the landlord the power to evict the tenant immediately if criminal activity takes place in the leased apartment. But Hemet’s ordinance went further.  Landlords even were evicting tenants who dialed 9-1-1 too often.

    To promote Hemet's crime-free housing law, police would take their SWAT armored vehicle to various civic gatherings.  In sent a clear message that the city had declared war on crime.

    But turning peace officers into war officers burdens them with new expectations and gives them tacit permission to operate under a different, more violent, set of rules.  An us-versus-them war mentality also fosters prejudices.

    Warriors fight enemies wearing uniforms. How do warrior cops know who’s the bad guy?  When they decide friend-or-foe based on skin color, a lot of innocent people get hurt.