Oriana Farrell

Oriana Farrell with her five children in June 2013

Repost: The comment thread on this got too long and screwed up, so I am reposting it. The original is still online, but is closed to commenting.

Oriana Lee Farrell (1974- ), of Memphis, Tennessee, was yet another unarmed Black American shot at by police. This time, though, police made 18 minutes of the video public.

Family vacation picture from October 17th 2013 near Pecos, New Mexico

On Monday afternoon, October 28th 2013, while Farrell was on a cross-country road trip with her five homeschooled children, ages 6 to 18, the New Mexico state police pulled her over “in the middle of nowhere”, as she put  it (Route 518 south of Taos). 

• Out-of-state plates: check.
• End of the month: check.
• Driving while black: check.

Officer Tony DeTavis said she was going 71 mph in a 55-mph zone. During a dispute over the speeding ticket, she drives off!

DeTavis chases her, siren blaring. Less than a minute later, she pulls over. He shouts at her to get out of the car. He tries to pull her out. Her children are screaming. She fears DeTavis and does not trust him.

Farrell stopped by the police

After five minutes he persuades her to come out. But when he asks her to turn around, apparently to handcuff her, she tries to get back in the car.

DeTavis tries to stop her. Her 14-year-old son comes out and fights him! DeTavis points his Taser at him: “Get on the ground!” Her son runs back in the car.

Two other police officers arrive, ready to shoot.

DeTavis tries to get Farrell’s son out of the car. The door is locked. He smashes the window with his nightstick.

Family vacation: Officer DeTavis smashing a car window.

Farrell drives away. Officer Elias Montoya shoots at the moving car full of children three times – “at the left rear tire in an attempt to immobilize the vehicle,” he says.

Three police cars chase her. They go through Taos, hitting 93 (150 kph). She gives herself up in front of Hotel Don Fernando de Taos. The police also arrest her son, but later let him go.

State police had shot at four people that month, Farrell and three others. All four were persons of colour. New Mexico is 41% White.

In Tennessee v Garner (1985), the Supreme Court ruled that police cannot shoot fleeing, unarmed suspects.

During the chase, police reported she had a gun. Only a toy gun was found.

The police were not charged, though Montoya was fired December 7th.

She has been charged with:

• fleeing the police,
• child abuse (for the police endangering her children?),
• possession of drug paraphernalia (police found two marijuana pipes in her car).

The first two could put her in prison. She is out on bail, the jury trial set for April.

Questions:

1. Why she drove off the first time is unclear. It is also unclear why she pulled over so quickly. She gained no apparent advantage, like getting to a more public place. Maybe she just panicked.
2. Why she drove off the second time is crystal clear. What mother would not?
3. Why the police used unnecessary force, endangering her, her children and the public, over a $126 speeding ticket, is because she had a Phantom Negro Weapon.

Sources:

• YouTube: watch the full 18-minute police video – far more dramatic than the bits they show on the news
  
• Taos News
  • Her letter from jail
  • Experts question use of force
• Oriana Lee Farrell: orianalee.com, Facebook, YouTube, Blogspot (2002-present),  Twitter – among her Twitter followers: Barack Obama, Tavis Smiley and Jay Electronica.

See also:

• tropes:
  • Phantom Negro Weapons
  • driving while black
• The police
  • slave patrols
• Aiyana Jones
• Oscar Grant
• Henry Louis Gates, Jr arrested
• The perfect victim