6 of 9

Write now Article Tools

January 12, 2005 I was assaulted by members of the Manassas City Police Department in a CVS Pharmacy store. The assault consisted of being tasered three times, beaten and maced. I must have been some scary perp of a heinous crime that caused these upstanding members of Manassas finest to put me in a position where I thought that they were going to beat me to death. What did I do to warrant this response ? I was shopping for breakfast and looking at DVD's when I was approached by the police officer. We had spent the night in the Emergency Room because my girlfriend had had a reaction to medication, the doctor had prescribed medication to help her through the reaction. Allegedly she had altered the prescription, she does not remember if she did or not because she was being treated for a mental breakdown and she was reacting to the medication.

This is what they do in Virginia. The officer that approached me apparently could not identify the official reason that he demanded my id. At the time I requested an explanation, politely, apparently this upset him. After I provided him with the id he walked to the back of the store with it, yelling that he "had one that knew the law". Later they decided to arrest us, the officer had me turn away from the others and put my hands behind my back, I complied, clasping my hands to keep them together. I was then instructed to unclasp them, when I did so the officer jumped back and yelled "he is resisting arrest", I was assaulted and they took us to booking. Mind you that my girlfriend was wearing a hospital bracelet and was withdrawn. These Manassas finest tried to get her to say that I abused her when she was reacting to them. My girlfriend's past included escapeing from an abusive relationship, death threats, stalking and assaults - the police were never there for those incidents. That morning we had been separated after the assault, I was put in one holding area, she was in the other. My girlfriend was having a meltdown, I barely recognized her wails for me. So what did these officers do, they released her to hitchhike ten miles home - maybe they were hoping that something would happen to her, as it happened a good Samaritan noticed the bracelet and got her home. A friend found her and got her back to the hospital.

Consider the theater of this event, a CVS pharmacy that has camera's throughout the store, I was first approached as I was looking at DVD's a common target for shoplifting and followed the officer to the pharmacy

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• next page >>

Add your voice

Know something about Holding police accountable for their actions?
We want to hear your view. Write now!