From a legal point of view, if the professor can argue that the referenced construction impeded her path on the sidewalk and forced her to temporarily walk in the street to get around the construction, she will most likely have a valid complaint that she should not have been stopped. If she was walking in the middle of the street as the cop said, then most likely she will not have a valid complaint. As far as the physical nature of the confrontation, most likely the officers will not receive any disciplinary punishment as the professor was not complying with their orders and physically resisting arrest. It is never a good idea, even if you feel you are being unjustly detained (or in this case she felt like the cops were speaking to her in a disrespectful manner) , to physically resist arrest. You have a much better chance at winning any future wrongful arrest civil suit if you were compliant at the time of arrest. Just make a note of their names and badge numbers and always remember that you are most likely being recorded by the dash camera. I hate to see her slammed to the ground like she was, her response, kicking the officer in the shin, just opened her up to the aggravated assault charge. Should be interesting to see what happens
The professor was completely in the wrong. Many blacks will blindly side with her because of color association.
Dude you're kinda late to the party to be calling people out.:smt108 Believe it or not, Black folk do have the ability to call out other Black folk when they're in the wrong. Getting an attitude with cops and thinking you and a PO are on equal footing in any public confrontation is a battle you're going to lose. The only way to beat a cop is in court. THat said, BOTH of them could have handled the situation differently. The cop had no reason IMO to approach her like she'd committed a serious crime. Just tell her to STOP WALKING IN THE DAMN STREET@!@!!! I still place most of the blame on the PO, but her actions escalated the situation. I've been cuffed before on some BS, taken to a police station, had to sit on my ass for 3 hours before I was released without charge. Yes I had to swallow some shit but ultimately the situation was resolved in my favor, that night. If my ass had tried to shove my way out of that cuffing, at best I could have had my head split open. It's crazy that the PO was a UNIVERSITY COP, where she worked, and he still treated her like a no-name hoodrat. He should've stopped her IMO and had a brief convo about why he had a problem with her walking in the street, maybe give her a citation and be done with it. Why didn't she show him her University ID and prove that she was an ASU professor?? I bet that would've ended the whole thing and he probably would have apologized.lol
