Bad Cops

Disabled woman was arrested for sitting outside in chair

A northeast Atlanta woman, who is physically disabled, said she was roughed up by an Atlanta police officer while being falsely arrested. Shequita Walker, 40, said she’s been sitting in the same lawn chair outside her apartment complex at Boulevard and Rankin Street for years. She said she likes to sit there and wait for the ice cream truck. Walker suffers from scleroderma which limits her range of motion and causes pain in her joints.

In April, Walker said an Atlanta police officer approached her and told her to move. “He came right here and said we had to move, and I said ‘What reason do he have to move?’ ” Walker said. She said the officer told her, “Because I said so.” Walker claims she stood and told the officer she was going to call his supervisor.

Photo from here.

“That’s when he grabbed me. My ice cream fell and my phone fell,” she said. Walker said that’s when the officer put her on the ground. Walker has photos of the incident. Walker said the officer sprained her shoulder in the process, and she had to be taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.

After she was released, Walker said she was taken to jail on a charge of disorderly conduct. A prosecutor later dismissed the charge. Walker filed a complaint with the Citizens Review Board. The board ruled that the officer made a false arrest and recommended a three-day suspension. So far, no action has been taken.

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Police assault man with Down's Syndrome over 'suspicious bulge' in his trousers

A man with special needs is speaking out after he was left badly bruised by police. Twenty-two-year-old Gilberto Powell, who has Down's Syndrome, is left with horrible bruises and scars on his face after he had an encounter with police outside his home. According to the family, they were inside their Southwest Miami-Dade home last Saturday when Powell, who is also called Liko, called his parents on his cell phone to let them know he was walking a block from his friend's house. On his way home, Liko said, "The police followed me."

Liko said, the officer smacked him in the face with an open hand and knocked him to the ground. "His whole hand," he said. According to the police report, a Miami-Dade Police officer noticed a bulge in Liko's waistband. The officer attempted to conduct a pat down, and Powell tried to run away. "I said, 'Didn't you know he was a Down's Syndrome kid?' And he said, 'No, I'm not a doctor. I don't know.' And I said, 'Well, you can see it in his face that he is a Down's Syndrome kid,'" said Powell's mother, Josephine.

The bulge that Liko had on his waistband was a colostomy bag. The family said the officer pulled it from his body. "He had him by his boxers, so they took his pants off," said Liko's father, Gilberto Hernandez. "I felt helpless, because he was calling my name." Liko was not arrested. He said he never ran away from the officer and did everything the officer told him to do.

Miami-Dade Police Department released the following statement regarding the incident: "The integrity of the investigation and successful resolution of this case continues to remain our highest priority." The family's attorney, Philip Gold, said the family wants an apology from police. "They want an apology. They want the community to know that bad things can happen," said Gold.