8 Month Pregnant
Woman Assaulted By
Police With Taser

Officers unable to extract an 8 month pregnant woman from her vehicle used a 50,000 volt taser on her 7 months after the policy had been put in place for the police to able to use tasers in such situations. After being shocked she was taken to the ground and handcuffed. The November 2004 incident is only gaining attention now as the vicitim in engulged in a legal battle.

She was rushing her son to school. She was eight months pregnant. And she was about to get a speeding ticket she didn't think she deserved.

So when a Seattle police officer presented the ticket to Malaika Brooks, she refused to sign it. In the ensuing confrontation, she suffered burns from a police Taser, an electric stun device that delivers 50,000 volts.

"Probably the worst thing that ever happened to me," Brooks said, in describing that morning during her criminal trial last week on charges of refusing to obey an officer and resisting arrest.

The point the woman makes, makes the case for me. The police could have injured her unborn child. Her refusal to sign the ticket and exit the vehicle which was for speeding does not justify the treatment by the police. There may have been psychological issues involved.