Current Events > NG LT gets pulled over. ''I'm afraid to get out'' Cops: ''Yeah you should be''

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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/caron-nazario-windsor-police-virginia.html

Caron Nazario, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was driving to Petersburg, Va., from a drill weekend the night of Dec. 5 when he saw police lights flashing behind him.
Too nervous to stop on a darkened road, Lieutenant Nazario, who is Black and Latino, drove about a mile to a gas station, pulled over and placed his cellphone on his dashboard, according to a lawsuit and video footage of the encounter.
Immediately, two Windsor police officers can be heard yelling orders at him.
Get out of the car, one yells as Lieutenant Nazario, remaining seated, repeatedly asks why he had been stopped and why the officers had drawn their guns. He positions his empty hands outside the window.
Im honestly afraid to get out of the car, Lieutenant Nazario says.
Yeah, says one of the officers, Joe Gutierrez, according to footage from his body camera. You should be.
Seconds later, Officer Gutierrez doused the lieutenant with pepper spray. Lieutenant Nazarios hands remained up as he coughed and pleaded with the officers to undo his seatbelt and make sure his dog, Smoke, was not choking in the back. Liquid from the spray dripped down his hands and face.

Lieutenant Nazario, 27, a graduate of Virginia State University, filed a lawsuit this month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. It accuses the officers of illegally searching his car, using excessive force and violating his rights under the First Amendment. The lawsuit seeks $1 million in compensatory damages.
Lieutenant Nazario also accused the officers of threatening to destroy his military career by charging him with multiple crimes if he complained about their conduct, according to the complaint, which was reported this week by The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk.
Officer Gutierrez and the other officer named in the lawsuit, Daniel Crocker, did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday. Chief Rodney Daniel Riddle of the Windsor Police Department did not respond to messages.
The police force in Windsor, a rural town of about 2,700 people about 30 miles west of Norfolk, consists of six members: a chief, a first sergeant, a detective and three officers, according to the towns website.
The police officers did not arrest Lieutenant Nazario and have not filed charges.
In a report from that night the officers said they had pulled over Lieutenant Nazario because his S.U.V. did not have license plates. Lieutenant Nazario said he had recently bought a Chevrolet Tahoe and was waiting for license plates. Temporary ones had been taped inside the rear window and were visible, according to the lawsuit.
The police report also said Lieutenant Nazario had willfully and wantonly disregarded police lights and sirens before pulling over, and was actively resisting when Officer Crocker attempted to open the S.U.V.s driver-side door.
Lawyers for Lieutenant Nazario filed copies of video footage from his cellphone and from police body cameras that showed both officers approaching Lieutenant Nazarios vehicle at the gas station with their weapons drawn.
Im actively serving this country and this is how youre going to treat me? he says in the footage.
Whats going on? Lieutenant Nazario then asks.
Whats going on is youre fixing to ride the lightning, son, Officer Gutierrez yells. (Later, after striking Lieutenant Nazario behind his knees, the officer told him to lay down or Im going to tase you, as the officers appeared to struggle to get Lieutenant Nazario on the ground.)

After he was sprayed, Lieutenant Nazario began crying and cursing.
After two volunteers from the towns emergency medical service arrived, Officer Crocker approached Lieutenant Nazario, who stood handcuffed near his S.U.V., and asked why he had not complied with their simple commands.
What would have been a two-minute traffic stop turned into all this, Officer Crocker says in the footage. Im not out to hurt you and I know you dont want to hurt me.
Lieutenant Nazario said that when the police had stopped him before he had made a point of pulling over in well-lit areas.
I never looked out the window and saw guns blazing immediately, he tells Officer Crocker in the video.
Officer Gutierrez later told Lieutenant Nazario that his chief had given him the discretion to let him go so long as the lieutenant did not fight and argue.
Officer Gutierrez said he would not have to write a summons for obstruction of justice and failure to display a license plate if you want to chill and let this go.
If he wrote a summons, the Army would have to be alerted, Officer Gutierrez told Lieutenant Nazario.
Lieutenant Nazario said he would be alerting his supervisors about what had occurred.
I get it, Officer Gutierrez says. The media spewing race relations between law enforcement and minorities, I get it.
Lieutenant Nazarios lawyer, Jonathan Arthur, said the lieutenant had told his supervisors about the stop almost immediately.
Hes still really shaken up, Mr. Arthur said. Hes very, very worried about retaliation."

Dam son that's p fucked up.

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idk a mile is pretty far to go without pulling over

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Those pigs probably talk about supporting our troops and vets too

Absolute scum

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No one should stop on a darkened road.

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CobraGT posted...

No one should stop on a darkened road.

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CobraGT posted...

No one should stop on a darkened road.

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No one innocent should be afraid of the police tbh

But here we are.

(not blaming the sir at all for what he did. Cops 100% in the wrong)

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People get hit, run over and more for stopping on darkened roads. People step into ditches and more. How can anyone not know this?


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It's not just safer for you, but the police, too. But these guys are pigs who should be in jail and have all their arrests revisited.

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It's some tricky shit sometimes.

Several years back some guy had a blue dash light and he'd pull people on back roads and then rob them.

Not sure if he was ever caught.

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wackyteen posted...

No one innocent should be afraid of the police tbh

Very ignorant statement

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Ushiromiya posted...

Very ignorant statement

In an ideal world you could be pulled over and not have to worry for your life because some limp dick cop has decided he's going to be short or impatient with you.

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Ive always slapped on my hazards and hit up a parking lot. I usually intentionally get myself blocked in and throw my keys in the cup holder

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Why is it that the same people who can excuse literally anything a cop does with they were scared for their lives find it completely impossible to imagine anyone would be scared of the police at this point

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Unsugarized_Foo posted...

Ive always slapped on my hazards and hit up a parking lot. I usually intentionally get myself blocked in and throw my keys in the cup holder

Same, I make sure to go somewhere likely to have cameras just in case something happens and the cops body camera "malfunctions".

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