OFF THE WIRE
By Davy V.
Kristen Walker and her boyfriend James had stopped at the 7 Eleven on Emerson
St. near her home in Rochester, NY to buy some scratch-off lottery tickets early
Wednesday morning, March 6, 2013 around 1:00 a.m.
As her boyfriend James grabbed a chocolate milk drink, he couldn’t help but
notice that the security guard, John, an off-duty Rochester, NY Police officer
was following him in the store and staring him down.
James, who is African-American tried ignoring the security guard and
proceeded to the counter to pay for his chocolate milk and the lottery
tickets.
The couple then got into their car and started to drive back home.
As they were pulling out of the parking lot, they noticed a Rochester, NY
Police cruiser at the traffic light.
As they turned left on Emerson St., the Rochester Police cruiser followed
them closely behind, then a second cruiser also began to follow them.
James made a right on the corner of Emerson and Santee Streets.
That’s when both Rochester Police cruisers pulled them over, in front of 189
Santee Street.
One Rochester Police officer approached James on the driver’s side of the
car, and two more officers approached on the passenger side, with one coming up
to Kristen’s door and the other standing next to the rear passenger door,
looking in the back seat.
At this point, the officer on the driver’s side asked James to step out of
the car after having asked him for his drivers license.
Kristen rolled her window down and handed her i.d. to the officer on her
side, and asked the officer, whom she described as tall, about 6′ 2″ with salt
and pepper hair, why they had been pulled over.
The officer responded “None of your fucking business, we don’t have to have a
fucking reason to stop you.”
“Well, to make a traffic stop you have to have a reason”, Kristen said to the
officer.
The officer replied “Yeah?, you smart ass little bitch, get the fuck out of
the car.”
Then, as Kristen went to step out, the officer grabbed her by her arm,
twisting it behind her back.
At this time, Kristen told the officer that she suffered from PTSD as a
result of having been raped in 2007, and that she did not feel comfortable with
the officer grabbing her like that.
The officer laughed.
The second officer, then grabbed Kristen on her left side, and they both
walked her over to the back of the cruiser, and slammed her head on the
trunk.
“I yelled at them like what are you doing, and they told me to shut the fuck
up”, said Kristen.
“I have freedom of speech”, Kristen said to the officers, to which one of the
officers replied ‘Well, your freedom of speech is about to have your freedom
taken from you.’
During this entire time, Kristen had her cell phone in her hands, as her goal
was to try to record what they were doing to her.
One of the officers took Kristen’s phone away from her and handcuffed
her.
Then, instead of calling a female officer to search Kristen, as is standard
protocol, and despite her Kristen having told the officers about her PTSD as a
result of being raped, both male officers conducted a pat down search of
Kristen, even sticking their hands in her pockets.
“They never touched my crotch area or anything, but I felt very uncomfortable
with them patting me down, and not having had a female officer search me”,
Kristen told me via phone.
Still not knowing why she and her boyfriend James had been pulled over,
Kristen was then placed in the back of an RPD cruiser, but not before one of the
officers told Kristen “I should beat the fuck out of you.”
Kristen told the officer “Go ahead, because if you hit me I will have your
badge.”
The officer then pointed his pepper spray canister at Kristen’s face as if he
were going to spray her, but didn’t, then closed the door.
Kristen then saw the second officer, whom Kristen describes as shorter,
chunky, and also having salt and pepper hair, but longer than the first officer,
going through her phone, while the first officer flipped her the finger through
the rear window of the cruiser.
Then, when one of the officers walked around, and opened the front passenger
door of the police cruiser, Kristen asked him for his name and badge number and
the officer replied “Blow me.”
“Blow you huh?”, Kristen said to the officer.
“Then he replied ‘Yep, blow me you little whore’, and he closed the door”,
said Kristen.
Shortly after, Kristen noticed an African-American female officer who had
arrived on the scene, she describes the officer as being someway short in
height, in her 20′s or early 30′s and having her hair in micro-braids, pulled
back as in a bun.
“The female officer then walked by the car I was in, looked inside and said
‘Aw, look at the little baby crying.’, said Kristen.
Kristen then recalls a different male RPD officer entering the car she was in
and telling her to calm down.
“I asked him what was going on but he wouldn’t answer me, he asked me why was
I so upset and I told him about my PTSD, I even told him that I thought that
police officers are supposed to be held to a higher standard, and he said ‘yes
we are but I can’t say anything, because I wasn’t there.’
“The officer told me to take deep breaths, and he said he would be back in a
few minutes, then he stepped out of the car”, said Kristen.
“He returned and I asked him once again what was going on and the officer
says to me that I had reached under my seat which I told him was not true, then
he says to me ‘Here’s the deal, we’re going to let you go’ I then told him that
I wanted their names and badge numbers, and he says ‘If you get their names and
badge numbers you’re either going to jail for disorderly conduct or they’ll take
you to the hospital for a mental health arrest.’
“The officer told me that I wouldn’t have to deal with the officers anymore,
he said to me ‘I will take you out of the car and I will take the handcuffs off
of you and once I do you are to walk around the police car and not say anything
and get in your car and leave’, so I did exactly what he told me.”
Kristen’s boyfriend James was also released and when they got home, Kristen
called 911 and asked for supervisor.
A while later, a Sergeant called back and it was then, that Kristen finally
learned why she and her boyfriend had been pulled over.
It turns out the Sgt. told Kristen that when she and her boyfriend were at
the 7 Eleven, the security guard, who again, is an off-duty Rochester Police
officer, made a call to 911 after he thought it was suspicious that Kristen and
her boyfriend had what he referred to as a “massive amount of cash on them.”
The Sgt. told Kristen that the security guard felt that was suspicious and so
he called 911, and the officers had to respond to the call.
Kristen could not believe it.
She explained to the Sgt. that the money that she and her boyfriend had was
their tax returns and she asked the Sgt. was it against the law to have alot of
money.
The Sgt. replied that it was not, but repeated that they had to follow up
because there was a call made.
Kristen asked the Sgt. for the officers’ names, but the Sgt. refused to give
them to her.
The Sgt. then began to bombard Kristen with questions including her date of
birth, Kristen responded by telling the Sgt. that she was done answering
questions and reminded him that it was she who had called him to get the names
and badge numbers of the officers.
The Sgt. hung up on Kristen.
And so, Kristen, an innocent woman who serves in the National Guard, who
spent several weeks in New York City helping with the relief efforts after
Hurricane Sandy, a woman who was raped, is referred to as a whore, and is told
to “blow” a dirty, rogue cop, who along with his fellow officers, including a
woman officer, violated her rights, laughed at her when she told them she
suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as a result of having been raped,
called her all kinds of names, then in essence, threaten her by telling her that
if she continues to ask for the names and badge numbers of these rogue cops, she
will be arrested.
