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Barstow, CA

January 26, 2015

Body cam video catches Barstow cops slamming black pregnant woman to ground, letting white woman go free

Officials with the city of Barstow, California insisted this week that officers had acted properly when they used force to arrest a pregnant woman who refused to show them her identification, even though the charges were later dismissed.

In police body camera video obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), an officer is responding to an apparent traffic dispute between Charlena Michelle Cooks, who is 8 months pregnant and black, and an unidentified white woman.

The officer first talks to the white woman, who accuses Cooks of acting “all crazy.”

“I don’t see a crime that has been committed,” the officer admits after examining the woman’s car. After promising the woman a police report, the officer heads over to talk to Cooks.

Cooks explains that the argument occurred because the woman disagreed with the way she was driving in the parking lot. Cooks also said that the woman frightened her daughter, who was in second grade.

At that point the officer asks for Cooks’ name, but she insists that she does not have to tell him.

“I actually do have the right to ask you for your name,” the officer replies.

“Let me make sure,” Cooks says as she makes a phone call to someone.

The officer says he will give Cooks two minutes to verify his right to ask for her identification. But less than 20 seconds later, the officer and a colleague are performing a painful wristlock takedown on Cooks. The pregnant woman screams as she is forced belly first into the ground.

“Why are you resisting?” the officer demands.

“Please! I’m pregnant!” Cooks exclaims. “Please, stop this!”

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Adrienna Wong pointed out that Cooks had a right to refuse to show her ID.

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Jessica Price observed that Cooks, who is black, was handled very differently than the white woman.

Cooks gave birth to a daughter earlier this year, but the violent January arrest still haunts her.

However I can tell you that trans women commit crimes at the same rates as all males.

“regarding any crime, male-to-females had a significantly increased risk for crime compared to female controls (aHR 6.6; 95% CI 4.1–10.8) but not compared to males (aHR 0.8; 95% CI 0.5–1.2). This indicates that they retained a male pattern regarding criminality. The same was true regarding violent crime.”

wow its as if a lot of the shitty oppressive medical standards trans people face, especially trans women, are pushed on with the help of cis radfems. Cathy Brennan is a highly prominent radfem who’s basically made it her life goal to out and harass trans women and girls and endager their lives so like.

also what the hell does this have to do with the conversation? we’re talking abt how cis ppl are killing trans folk not abt the crime rates of trans women or do you just wanna antagonize them for kicks??? also the justice system is biased as hell lmao

ahhhh i been waiting for this

no, i don’t. the blog title started cause i got like a good three quarters of my tumblr fame from writing scientific-ish meta posts about bucky barnes’ metal arm after ca:tws came out, and half the notes on those posts were all ‘DAMN THIS IS HOT’ and ‘NEEDS MORE ROBOT ARM’ etc etc

i’m actually asexual?? so while i do have kinks & stuff, i don’t really… have any drive to express them with other people, or like, get off on them the way allosexual kinksters do, it’s more like… a personal fascination. it’s hard to explain. i made that my blog title as a joke, because my original posts were written in the spirit of “hey! i think this fictional robot arm is cool!” and the (largely allosexual) fanbase responded with “yes, i agree, this fictional robot arm is indeed incredibly sexy”

bottom line is, i only write about fictional cyborgs. and i’d DEFINITELY never creep on any real life amputees/prosthetics-wearers, because they’re more than their mobility aids, they’re thinking feeling individual people who deserve to be viewed and respected as such.

honestly tho most of the stuff i’ve seen from the disability community talks about the DEsexualization of disabled people?

and ah well just because people who reblog your posts were incredibly gross and objectifying, doesn’t mean you have to get in on it too. yes what they were doing is a classic example of objectification and sexualization when it comes to a fictional amputee with a cool robot arm, but when they encounter real life people with some sort of prosthetic the response is often unpleasant or at least inappropriate and rude.

i myself am not an amputee but im a chronically disabled person who needs walking aids a lot of the time so while i do not experience everything people with prosthetics do, our experiences do overlap quite a lot. the whole “but how do you have sex??” and other invasive questions of the sort.

okay well being asexual doesn’t absolve you of objectification and sexualization. that’s the same as gay men saying they cannot participate in the objectification and hypersexualization of women, when they do in fact because it’s not about their sexuality, it’s about the fact that they are men. the same way its not about your asexuality, it’s about your physical ability. you’re a physically abled person so whatever your sexuality is, you can still be participating in the sexualization and objectification of amputees and disabled people in general. that’s how society shapes people.

so you cant really fling the blame on those darn allosexuals. like i said even if everyone of your followers was gross and objectifying that still doesn’t give you a free pass.

bottom line is, that lines such as your title add to the distorted way society views physically disabled people, even if you wouldn’t be a creepo irl.

the thing with prosthetic wearers is that, on one hand, as a concept they are constantly sexualized, they are made into sexual objects for the consumption of able bodied people at will, and at the same time in real life they are treated as sexually repulsive and people who nobody wants to have a sexual relationship with. these things are a part of the same problem. there was a really good post by an amputee on this very topic but i couldn’t find it for the life of me i have 60k likes and my tagging system is a mess.

ahhhh i been waiting for this

no, i don’t. the blog title started cause i got like a good three quarters of my tumblr fame from writing scientific-ish meta posts about bucky barnes’ metal arm after ca:tws came out, and half the notes on those posts were all ‘DAMN THIS IS HOT’ and ‘NEEDS MORE ROBOT ARM’ etc etc

i’m actually asexual?? so while i do have kinks & stuff, i don’t really… have any drive to express them with other people, or like, get off on them the way allosexual kinksters do, it’s more like… a personal fascination. it’s hard to explain. i made that my blog title as a joke, because my original posts were written in the spirit of “hey! i think this fictional robot arm is cool!” and the (largely allosexual) fanbase responded with “yes, i agree, this fictional robot arm is indeed incredibly sexy”

bottom line is, i only write about fictional cyborgs. and i’d DEFINITELY never creep on any real life amputees/prosthetics-wearers, because they’re more than their mobility aids, they’re thinking feeling individual people who deserve to be viewed and respected as such.

honestly tho most of the stuff i’ve seen from the disability community talks about the DEsexualization of disabled people?

and ah well just because people who reblog your posts were incredibly gross and objectifying, doesn’t mean you have to get in on it too. yes what they were doing is a classic example of objectification and sexualization when it comes to a fictional amputee with a cool robot arm, but when they encounter real life people with some sort of prosthetic the response is often unpleasant or at least inappropriate and rude.

i myself am not an amputee but im a chronically disabled person who needs walking aids a lot of the time so while i do not experience everything people with prosthetics do, our experiences do overlap quite a lot. the whole “but how do you have sex??” and other invasive questions of the sort.

okay well being asexual doesn’t absolve you of objectification and sexualization. that’s the same as gay men saying they cannot participate in the objectification and hypersexualization of women, when they do in fact because it’s not about their sexuality, it’s about the fact that they are men. the same way its not about your asexuality, it’s about your physical ability. you’re a physically abled person so whatever your sexuality is, you can still be participating in the sexualization and objectification of amputees and disabled people in general. that’s how society shapes people.

so you cant really fling the blame on those darn allosexuals. like i said even if everyone of your followers was gross and objectifying that still doesn’t give you a free pass.

bottom line is, that lines such as your title add to the distorted way society views physically disabled people, even if you wouldn’t be a creepo irl.

the thing with prosthetic wearers is that, on one hand, as a concept they are constantly sexualized, they are made into sexual objects for the consumption of able bodied people at will, and at the same time in real life they are treated as sexually repulsive and people who nobody wants to have a sexual relationship with. these things are a part of the same problem. there was a really good post by an amputee on this very topic but i couldn’t find it for the life of me i have 60k likes and my tagging system is a mess.