A Texas woman has accused a cop of beating her when she was 38 weeks pregnant. Thanks to a surveillance system in her parents’ home, a video has been published online that appears to prove her allegations. An investigation is under way.
The Hunt County sheriff’s deputy has been identified as one of several officers who stood in the woman’s home in Quinlan on the evening of March 4. Two officers can be seen keeping Deanna Robinson in the corner of her kitchen, next to the counter, restraining her, as her 18-month-old toddler watched.
Next, the deputy can clearly be seen taking at least two quick punches at Robinson, who wouldn’t stop yelling. This was after she shouted, “I’m pregnant.” She was handcuffed during this, she told the attorney’s office on Monday, according to WFAA.
Robinson, 38, is a decorated Air Force veteran and recipient of the Airman’s Medal for the time she pulled her colleagues out of a burning plane in Iraq. She now lives in Quinlan, with another infant and three step children, aged six to nine. But her marriage had been undergoing a turbulent period lately, which culminated in a shoving match with her husband several days prior to the incident.
Apparently, one of the kids told a teacher at school, who then reported the couple to Child Protection Services.
She was arrested on March 4 on charges of resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and interference with child custody, and spent some six days in jail.
The court case was over her 18-month-old son, Landry. The rest of the children are now in protective custody, while the infant son, Levi – who was born less than a week after her release from custody, is with grandparents.
That evening, child services officials showed up at Robinson’s home, accompanied by sheriff’s deputies, to take Landry away.
“I’m 38 weeks pregnant, and with my stomach again repeatedly pressed into that counter, and with my 18-month old son watching his mother be assaulted, and him screaming in fear,” she says. “There’s nothing that warrants what they did to me.”
She remembers the officers telling her ‘We’re here to remove your son,’ and her replying, ‘Nobody is touching my kid without a court order or a warrant.’ The officers reportedly did not present any papers and, when she tried to shut the door on them, forced their way in.
She tells WFAA: “I’m positioning myself in front of my child as the officers are screaming, ‘There’s the kid, grab him!’” That’s when they proceeded to handcuff her as she was pressed up against the kitchen surface.
The police, however, had a different narrative to the story: that Robinson was reaching for a weapon. The evidence will be reviewed to establish the truth. The sheriff later told reporters he was not sure what went down, but that the unidentified deputy said Robinson had loosened his ammunition belt in the chaos.
In the video, Robinson can be seen struggling with the officers, something she only says she did because the pressure they were applying when pressing into her was hurting her unborn child.
She later told reporters the officers hit her five or six times. The video cuts off just before the deputy’s hand comes down on her a second time. Robinson also reported lingering pain for weeks, and her stomach appears to show bruising from the incident.
She’s thankful Levi is a healthy child. “It certainly could have turned out differently.” She says she misses her kids very much and that she’ll be pushing for the officer responsible for hitting her repeatedly to be fired.
Dozens of calls came to the sheriff’s department following the release of the video. Hundreds of concerned citizens also posted on the department’s Facebook page, voicing outrage, while the town of Quinlan also saw people go out on to the streets, encouraging others to view the video.
The sheriff department’s Facebook page showed a statement from Sheriff Randy Meeks, saying that all such cases are handled with the utmost seriousness and that an investigation is under way to determine “if any violations occurred.” He promised to make the findings public.
Robinson’s attorney Carol Gustin told reporters “There’s no reason in my mind that an officer should pull his hand up above his body and hit a pregnant woman multiple times. Law officers are there to protect and serve. Where was the protection for her and this baby?”
Her other attorney, Scott Cornuaud, believes Child Protective Services is to blame for involving the police at all. “They’re out of control. There’s no oversight. They went about it the wrong way.”
CPS was onsite when the incident with the police took place. Cornuaud wonders why they did not intervene when a pregnant woman was being hit.
The services offered no comment on this.
This makes my blood boil. Punching a woman repeatedly who is visibly pregnant, in her own home, in front of her kid, and trying to seize her children with no warrant or court order?
I have mixed feelings about the police.. have met many very fine officers, and have encountered many very scary, unstable, criminal officers.
But I’m not the least bit ambiguous about social workers. I absolutely HATE these effing bitches. I have met only two who I found likeable, and who honestly cared about and empathized with their clients. For the most part, they are useless, destructive, power-hungry busy-bodies who revel in their power over their hapless clients who are struggling with poverty and a lot of non-negotiable conditions related to poverty that make it extremely difficult to hold down a job and still conform to the upper-middle-class ideal of family life that these pushy, brainless tyrants learned from the textbooks at their diploma-mill colleges.
And the teacher… could the bitch at least have spoken to this poor mother before she drew unjustified conclusions and called CPS?
Oh, and don’t ever, ever fuck with a Texas cop, ever.
Not just Texas cops. It is bad and getting worse as time moves on.
The trend is not your friend.
I continually toy with opening a business whose purpose would be to sell and install “home upgrades” to make forced entry by the cops so arduous that they simply go pick on something easier.
1. A door that borders on unbreachable without 10 minutes of saw work.
2. A video/intercom system so you NEVER, EVER open the door unless you’re clear that it’s in your best interest.
3. Full, independent-of-phone-line or cable upload of surveillance video that is stored in the cloud outside of US legal jurisdiction.
4. Hotline to your attorney of choice, with speaker-phone 2-way back to your door’s speaker.
Cops come to the door, no-knock or not, and they can’t get in for several minutes? No possible way for them to justify a “dynamic” entry based on surprise. You call your attorney and he or she starts telling the cops working on your door that 1. they are being recorded off-site and 2. unless they hold up a legal court order to the camera, he is advising their superiors that they are engaged in an illegal act in full view of him and the world.
If the cops are decent, this would be more than enough to relieve them of the need to look “tough.” And if they’re rogues, this would put them on notice of the very worst thing that can happen to a cop today, public humiliation.
Bottom line: Agents of the state are predators, and we’re the prey.
As with the old adage of the bear, you don’t have to outrun the predators; you only have to be less easy to eat than the next prey.
Better bottom line: Predators are criminals, and they come in two flavors: Free-lance and Organized, and the organized criminals work for the political system.
Both are in constant search of prey.
DC…how are you going to protect the windows ?
It is a “dirty little secret” that American “law enforcement” is being trained in tactics used by Israeli police departments. As Israel has been on a “war footing” for a long time, their tactics are very different, somewhat necessary, (and more lethal) than should be the norm here in America.
American law enforcement has morphed into an “us vs. them” attitude in which ordinary citizens are seen as the “enemy” and as such are subordinate to the “power of the state” and the individual police officer. This present situation is dangerous to America “law enforcement” as there WILL be “blowback”…innocent (and not so innocent) law enforcers will both be caught up in this when the SHTF.
There is still time to change these prevailing attitudes, but, I fear, nothing will be done.
We are headed towards a precipice that won’t be pretty for anyone.
I may receive flak for saying this, but, as a military veteran myself, I would be very wary about hiring today’s military veterans into police departments, for the simple fact that this is not a “war zone” and that American citizens are not the enemy. A considerable amount of “deprogramming” should be a requirement for all veterans seeking employment with civilian police departments…
Hurricane glass for the windows and sliding doors. Cost, 100 grand. He who would tradecash for security deserves neither security or his cash?
Nd how cand cps take a kid with neither a court order or some manner of prior investigation?
There is much angst and consternation against prosecutors and grand juries who refuse to bring charges against police officers, even when incontrovertible evidence is presented. Even with incontrovertible audio and video evidence, prosecutors are loath to prosecute rogue law enforcement personnel.
Let’s examine the reasons why it is so difficult to prosecute thug cops:
Most prosecutors are former police officers or have extensive dealings with police departments and have ongoing relationships with police departments in their respective jurisdictions. They are friendly with the judges in their jurisdictions, as well. This, along with “absolute immunity” makes it easy for them to “cover up” police abuses and behavior. Prosecutors cannot be sued for malfeasance…it takes a judge (who prosecutors are friendly with) to bring charges on a rogue prosecutor (which almost never happens).
In addition, prosecutors guide the actions of grand juries. Prosecutors are not required to introduce any evidence to grand juries, (can and do) easily “whitewash” the actions of rogue cops. On the other hand, prosecutors can (and often do) go after honest citizens who seek justice outside official channels…prosecutors have ultimate power and are not afraid to use it…their immunity sees to that.
Another aspect to a grand jury’s inability to prosecute bad cops is the fear of retribution…cops drive around all day, have nothing but time, have access to various databases, and can easily get the names and addresses of grand jurors…this, in itself can be a powerful deterrent against grand jurors who “want to do the right thing” and prosecute bad cops. There are many cases of cops parking in front of grand jurors’ residences, following them around, and threaten to issue citations to them, in order to “convince” them to “make the right decision”…the “thin blue line” at its worst…
The whole system has to change.
Eliminate absolute and qualified immunity for all public officials. The fear of personal lawsuits would be a powerful deterrent against abuses of the public.
Grand juries must be superior to the prosecutor; ALL evidence must be presented to grand jurors. Failure to do so must be considered a felony and subject prosecutors to prosecution themselves.
No police agency can be allowed to investigate itself. Internal affairs departments must be restricted to minor in-house investigations of behavior between cops. All investigations must be handled by outside agencies, preferably at the state level.
Civilian police review boards must be free of police influence. Members of civilian review boards must have NO ties to police departments. Relatives of police would be prohibited from serving…Recently, the “supreme court” threw police another “bone”. The court ruled that police are not responsible for their actions if they are “ignorant of the law”…now, let’s get this straight–honest citizens cannot use “ignorance of the law” as an excuse, but cops can??
Revolution is sorely needed…..
Here are “police” practices that deserve to be exposed:
#1. During a traffic stop, the police officer will touch the back of your car. The reason for this “touch” is that, quite often, the police officer will have a small quantity of narcotics (marijuana or cocaine) on him (in his hand) that he will rub on the car in order to help “justify a search”. When the dog is brought in, it will react to the drug on the vehicle and help “justify a search”. This tactic is mostly used against young people. Drugs can also be “planted” on a “suspect”.
The “touch” used to be a way for police officers to “prove” that they had an interaction with a citizen, but no more . . .
#2. Most (if not all) cops possess a “throwdown” weapon. This “helper” is obtained from a criminal who is then “let go” without his weapon and is always used to justify a questionable police situation and to “sanitize” a “crime scene to absolve police on the scene of criminal police behavior.
#3. If you are in the back of a police car, LIE DOWN on the seat. Police use the concept of “screening” to abuse their unwilling “passenger”. This involves, driving at high rates of speed, violent turns and other antics to get the passenger to “hit the screen” separating the front from the back with his face. Hence the act of “screening”.
#4. If you are being handcuffed, quite often the police officer will wrench you arm behind you, forcing you to “turn around”. The officer will then add a charge of “assault” to whatever other charges they concoct against you (just for being forced to turn around). They “pile on” charges, hoping you will plead guilty to at least one.
Remember–NEVER CONSENT TO SEARCH . . . You must be polite, but firm in your refusal. You can state that “you NEVER consent to searches” as well as using these “magic” words–“am I free to go?” The police officer MUST answer your question . . . If you are being detained and an illegal search takes place, you have legal recourse.
Remember–police are not your friends . . .
That being said, not all “law enforcement” is criminal, but the “thin blue line” that they so jealously guard (and “look the other way” when rogue cops abuse their authority) does much to taint ALL “law enforcement” with having ulterior motives.
At this point in The Great Regression all I can say is “at least” they didn’t shoot and kill her.
NEVER open the door for anyone unless you know them personally and even then you might peek out a few other windows if it’s someone you don’t like. Never open the door for the cops unless they show you a warrant. I’d call your lawyer before you open the door too!
dc.sunsets says: I continually toy with opening a business whose purpose would be to sell and install “home upgrades” to make forced entry by the cops so arduous that they simply go pick on something easier.
I suggest you draw up a business plan before proceeding with this idea. In that process you will find anyone who could afford to buy your upgrades doesn’t have problems with the law. The majority of police interventions happen in low income financially depressed neighborhoods. Your target demographic can’t buy food and don’t have jobs. Unless, you may get Obama to pay for it, you better hurry before a Republican gets his chair. Just sayin
Sensetti, you may be right.
I am probably the last person to have trouble with the cops:
1. white
2. articulate
3. cautious
4. Only a couple moving violations to my name.
5. same address for decades.
6. >50 years of age
7. no tattoos or other visible signs of “trouble.”
The problem is, while getting visited by the cops is probability function, normal taxpayers like me are not immune. I didn’t beat my kids but one still (in a fit of teenage angst) threatened to call DCFS on me. Why? Typical teen silliness. Could that have led to something? Something BAD?
Large trees grow from small seeds.
My point is that in a country that is rapidly turning into a place where everything that is not specifically allowed is forbidden, where laws are added to the Federal Register so fast that the printing office has trouble keeping libraries stocked, where the cops are increasingly told to chant “stop resisting” while swarming someone and to recite “I feared for my life” as a justification for all coercive violence up to and including shooting someone in a car SIMPLY because they’re in a car (and the car could move!), then I suggest you review the Rev. Niemoller’s observation when he was released from Auschwitz.
Today things are bad at the margin, and at the margin they appear on Youtube.
Sensetti, are you so sure that this trend will not grow to threaten you, too?
Have you not heard of the book, “Three Felonies a Day?” or are you unfamiliar with how Rudy Giuliani’s office, when he was NY’s attorney general, had lawyers sitting around playing a game where they’d each take a public figure and figure out what statute under which to charge that person with a felony, with the prize going to the one who was most creating in applying the criminal code, and against the most publicly pristine celebrity?
We suffer under the government (political system) to which our neighbors consent.
Since we are always surrounded by people who prefer slavery to liberty, we must accept that most of the time we will live under a degree of tyranny. It is inescapable. And sad.
Yes, this cop is an asshole. But don’t lose sight of the real problem here: Child Procurement Services. CPS needs to be shut down. Everywhere. Now.
Taking children out of their home on the thinnest of excuses, with no legitimate judicial oversight, with no due process of law, is evil.
What happens to children in CPS custody is usually far worse than whatever imaginary excuse was used to justify the de facto CPS kidnapping.
Sunset is so right about DCFS. You don’t want those people in your business. They are harder to get rid of than herpes.
Texas Republicans, who have never been friends of liberty and basic human rights, to say the least, never cease their attack on personal rights and the sanctity of the individual. Look past their support of the 2nd Amendment- the right to own a gun is pretty useless when your hands are tied behind your back and you live in a virtual prison made of laws that warrant the state to invade every area of your most personal life. They make the worst liberal nann- staters look like Libertarians by comparison.
One TX Republican has proposed two bills that would greatly expand state tyranny, subject you and your children to psychiatric diagnosis made by unqualified people, and further erode our ability to protect our children, and protect ourselves, against thuggish police and a tyrannical state:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/bill-teachers-diagnose-psychological-issues-children-report-police/#sMvvzHLyboOu4MVP.01
Will post the link to the 2nd bill this tyrant proposed, which would prohibit video-recording police within 25 ft, as soon as I locate it. No time this morning.
This guy is very busy devising bills to strip Texans of almost every human right. However, the peeps in Texas are fine with everything as long as they have their precious guns. Just keep in mind that that no matter how many guns you have, the state has more.
Chicago999444 posted an interesting observation. While gun owners all over ‘Murika were fretting over gun regulations and cheering the surge in gun ownership, all our other rights have been compromised, which kind of renders the 2nd Amendment a moot point.
After all, what good will it be owning a gun when you can’t speak freely, can’t protest, can’t avoid being indiscriminately searched, are controlled by onerous regulations created by agenda-driven unelected bureaucrats, are under constant surveillance, and are taxed to poverty by psychopaths?
Dc says: Sensetti, are you so sure that this trend will not grow to threaten you, too?
Sure it could. Anytime you are facing a man packing a gun and you yourself are unarmed your life could be in danger.
I’m not going to stop at a 7/11 in the hood, get out, and start talking trash to the group of black gang members leaning against the wall and dare them to violate my civl rights.
Likewise, if I’m pulled over by a cop I’m going to be friendly and cooperative regardless if the stop was warrented in my mind.
Everytime, and I mean everytime, the consistent variable in all these violent police encounters is the detainee gets stupid, becomes uncooperative. Does that justify the police behavior? Absoulty not. But damn, when you run into a guy packing a gun it’s time to put your mind to work and postpone the emotional outburst.
When Ms Freud had her encounter Stucky could have went down to the police station and went ballistic. How would that have turned out. He would have ended up in a jail cell. Let’s say he backed up against a wall put his right hand behind his back like he was going to pull a gun, cops all around him with weapons drawn, if he makes a sharp, rapid move with that right hand what happens? He gets riddled with bullets regardless if the hand comes up empty.
It all boils down to common fucking sense.
Sensetti, I’ve had nothing but either business-like or good contacts with cops. I agree with your points.
The problem is if someone (even a family member) invites them into your presence. I’ve not had that, but it looks quite problematic. To carry your analogy, it’s not too dissimilar to having a couple gang-bangers invited into your home.
Here is the link to an article about Rep. Villalba’s bill to ban videotaping of police by anyone but the MSM:
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/texas-representative-seeks-filming-police-illegal/
@Chicago, that law is redundent, buried in Obamacare is the provision for putting over 80,000 “mental health professionals” in our schools to “assess the mental status of ALL students.”
Now go talk to Stucky’s wife, Ms. Freud, about the newest version of her sanctioned handbook for mental illness.
This thread and comments proves – by that guide – that WE are all mentally ill.
Mentally ill for not believing in the righteousness and security of our state prison policy writers.
Yep, mentally ill.
Meanwhile animals all over the country draw welfare, disability and murder and torture their children with little, to no, oversight by the caring social workers at human services.
My sis-in-law is retired from a management position at child protective services. She made it well known, within the family, that she felt my nursing for more than 2 years, and sleeping with my daughter, bordered on child abuse and she would make it illegal if she could.
Yep, millennia old parenting techniques are “dangerous” contrary to the fact we are all here proving they are anything but.
Look around, this disconnect from the reality of what is needed for our human growth – overattentive mothers, long nursing times, sleeping with your infants, and has become accepted as abnormal.
So very many ways we are killing our species and humanity. All the better to be enslaved with, I guess.
Thank you for your reference, TE. I haven’t had the time or the heart to dig through thousands of pages of the verbiage in our laws to find all the traps planted therein. I’m sick and scared of what I already know