June 22, 2016

"Family says Madison police used unfair treatment in arresting 18-year-old woman."

"Police said Genele Laird displayed a knife, threatened to kill security staff, and resisted officers trying to detain her," the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
About 30 demonstrators protested Laird’s arrest Tuesday night at the Public Safety Building, displaying a sign that said: "Hands off black women."...

The video shows an officer striking Laird with his knee several times to take her to the ground and while she was on the ground kicking and struggling with officers trying to handcuff her. The officer also struck her once in the torso with a closed fist during the struggle before using a Taser on her legs. Police also placed a "spit hood" over her head. Laird can be heard saying "I can't breathe" several times as she struggled with police before the hood was placed over her head...

Laird confronted an employee at the mall food court about her phone that had been stolen. She displayed a knife and made threats against the employee before mall security called police at 5:15 p.m., saying Laird was "out of control." Laird also threatened to kill mall security staff after they confronted her. While officers tried to arrest her, Laird attempted to kick and scratch them. She spit in the face of one officer before she was “controlled outside of the mall through the use of an electronic control device.”

65 comments:

gspencer said...

"Hands off black women"

Good advice.

I've followed it all my life.

lgv said...

Typical Madison right wing racist crap. White cops abusing a young black woman who was trying to be compliant.

"Unfair treatment". What is the "fair treatment" scenario in this confrontation?

David Begley said...

I believe and trust the Madison police.

Gusty Winds said...

I guess all we can conclude is that Madison is both unsafe, and racist.

Nonapod said...

I'm not trying to defend either the police officers or this woman, but if someone is resisting arrest, what are your options? Is there any way safe way to subdue somebody who is behaving aggressively without beating? I'm honestly asking since I have no experience in such matters.

Mike Sylwester said...

The Madison City Council should have spent that $350,000 on an instructional course to teach the city's Blacks not to evade or resist arrest.

Clyde said...

There was a link on Drudge this morning to a brawl at an IHOP in Memphis. All of the participants were African-American. After the YouTube video clip played, it then started automatically loading other fight clips from the same YouTube channel, almost all of which involved people of color. The crime statistics show that minorities are several times more likely to commit violent crimes. And then those same minority communities wonder why they are over-represented in the prison system.

mccullough said...

Not a good place to be a police officer.

mccullough said...

Clyde,

Violent crime in Memphis is spiking. It has been in the top 10 for violent come rate among cities for awhile and this year is getting more violent.

YoungHegelian said...

I think the cops quickly realized that they were dealing with someone who was mentally unhinged, because, if they thought she was sane & making those sort of threats, she'd be dead now.

It's amazing that anyone is stepping forward to defend this woman after such an egregious display of aggression to those around her. Read the article: it wasn't just the Madison cops she threatened. She threatened everyone who dealt with her until the cops showed up.

Rick said...


I can't link to youtube but this page has a link to it.

http://www.wkow.com/story/32277562/2016/06/21/arrest-of-woman-at-east-towne-mall-sparks-protest

MadisonMan said...

If you read about Muggings in Madison Newspapers, the race of the perps is not mentioned. It's like the victims are curiously silent when it comes to the race of the people attacking them.

Example.

Victims: Please tell the Police about the race of the people attacking you! It makes it easier to identify them!

Gusty Winds said...

I work in the industrial park on the NW side of Milwaukee near the closed Northridge Mall in Milwaukee. It's just to the east of Menomonee Falls. The Mall died because of exactly what has happened at the East Point Mall in Madison. Nobody will shop here. They don't think it's safe.

So they stay in the Falls, or they head north to Germantown.

The City Council Member for this area insists that retail is needed to revitalize the community, ignoring the obvious expansion to the already existing industrial base, which actually employs a great deal of local workers. Retail is not going to move here.

The Target just east of the abandoned Mall just closed last year. There are strip malls where half the available storefronts are empty. It's sad, because it is really not that bad.

But the few, who only have their pride left to defend, bring down and entire community.

Do the elites in Madison shop at the East Town Mall?

Rick said...

The charge seems to be that she was in their control before the knees, punch, and tasering occurred. In the video one cop has her with her arms behind her back - I presume she's not restrained because they seem to be getting her down to put cuffs on - then a second cop comes in and delivers the blows.

Rick said...

Victims: Please tell the Police about the race of the people attacking you! It makes it easier to identify them!

What are the chances this was their omission rather than the police or media's?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Nonapod said...

I'm not trying to defend either the police officers or this woman, but if someone is resisting arrest, what are your options?

In general, the police get to decide whether or not to arrest you. You get to decide how much force they will need to use.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Maybe it's a cultural thing by which you have to say stupid things or else you've committed familial disloyalty, kind of like back in the old days when vengeance was an obligation.

MadisonMan said...

Do the elites in Madison shop at the East Town Mall?

Nope. Hilldale (or online through the Althouse portal!). If they're on the East Side of town, I suspect they drive out to Sun Prairie.

@Rick: Adjust your sarcasm detection device ;)

Real American said...

Evidently, another black person who was never given "the Talk". the number of people who fall into this category is much higher than one would think given all the discussion around it.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Nonapod said...

Is there any way safe way to subdue somebody who is behaving aggressively without beating? I'm honestly asking since I have no experience in such matters.

My son has taken karate for many years, so I have some exposure to this sort of thing, having had stuff demonstrated on me. There are all sorts of combinations of leverage/pain that can be applied to a person to force compliance. All can be done without injuring the person... as long as they comply. All have significant risk of causing injury if the person struggles against them.

DanTheMan said...

Male officers arresting women has always been fraught with danger. Physically detaining and handcuffing someone who does not want to go to jail requires that you overpower the suspect as quickly and decisively as possible, to avoid injury to them or you. Women, at least in my experience, are MUCH more likely to make excessive force complaints, even if they fought like hell, which some do.
Add a weapon and race as complications, and the window for "just the right amount of force" becomes very narrow, indeed.

Bob Boyd said...

Soon police will have VR spit hoods. That'll be cool.

n.n said...

It would facilitate empathy, and reaching a social consensus, if [class] diversity was excluded from the conversation when it does not bear material relevance to the issue (e.g. excessive force).

damikesc said...

I'm getting a kick out of "post-racial" America. Maybe her family should spend efforts raising children who AREN'T feral animals.

"Hands off black women."

No problem. If I saw Beyoncé getting attacked, I'd probably be applauding instead of helping her.

"Unfair treatment". What is the "fair treatment" scenario in this confrontation?

I notice that they seem unconcerned with the employee and mall security she threatened with a knife. I guess they should just suck it up.

In general, the police get to decide whether or not to arrest you. You get to decide how much force they will need to use.

Reminds me of Ron White's joke: "I didn't know how many of their guys it would've taken to kick my ass. But I knew how many they were going to use."

Bob Boyd said...

As a society we are asking the wrong questions.

Instead of asking: How do we achieve equality in arrest statistics? we need to be asking: How can technology be used to improve and enhance the experience of being subdued, restrained and stuffed into the back of a patrol car?

Jon Ericson said...

Lasoos are the solution. Two or more properly tossed and yanked.

madAsHell said...

Family says...

This is always the opening gambit. They are looking for a pay out. It's unfortunate that we have incentivized resisting arrest.

Brando said...

Regardless of whether it's a lawful arrest, it's a bad idea to try and fight the arresting officers. It absolutely never turns out well for you.

And why did they bring race into this? Did the cops say "arrest her for being black" or something to that effect? No? Then stop bringing race where it doesn't belong.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Bitch had threatened someone with a knife. It's not a game. After she brandished a weapon and demonstrated aggressive intent, the police are totally justified in batoning the living shit out of her until she submits utterly. Black folks aren't treated fairly but, Lord, they love to aggravate the problem with their idiocy.

Levi Starks said...

After reading the story I sympathize with the family.
She was brutalized for what is in the black community considered normal behavior for an 18 year old you woman.

YoungHegelian said...

An interesting social development of the last 20 years or so is the "outbreak" of female violence, especially in, but certainly not limited to, the black community.

Women used to smack their kids. They used to smack their friends. They used to smack their men & their men smacked back harder. But, now, they get into major league public brawls with other women; sometimes, as with that poor girl in the bathroom brawl in a NJ high school, with deadly effect.

An unintended consequence of women lib: now chicks get to be as violent & deranged as the guys?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Can't a black woman threaten to slash or stab a Taco Bell employee without the cops going all fascist on her? SMDH!

jr565 said...

"About 30 demonstrators protested Laird’s arrest Tuesday night at the Public Safety Building, displaying a sign that said: "Hands off black women."...

Hands off black women... who are brandishing knives?
Either she was or wasn't. And surely, if she wasn't then cops have some explaining to do. But if she was, do the protesters who stressed her race think that black people should somehow be allowed to brandish knives because they have black skin?

Owen said...

Ignorance is Bliss said: "In general, the police get to decide whether or not to arrest you. You get to decide how much force they will need to use." Excellent statement of the basic issue. Once you are in their cross-hairs, you need to stop with the physical stuff and work on the verbal stuff, and even that at just the right time, maybe with your lawyer.

Police protocol requires them to establish physical control and compliance. If they don't get it at first, they escalate. Because they too are human, adrenalin and uncertainty can make things much worse, and needlessly so.

Race has nothing to do with it.

IMHO.

Owen said...

Levi Starks said: "...After reading the story I sympathize with the family. She was brutalized for what is in the black community considered normal behavior for an 18 year old you woman."

Sarc font missing?

jr565 said...

"The video shows an officer striking Laird with his knee several times to take her to the ground and while she was on the ground kicking and struggling with officers trying to handcuff her. The officer also struck her once in the torso with a closed fist during the struggle before using a Taser on her legs. Police also placed a "spit hood" over her head. Laird can be heard saying "I can't breathe" several times as she struggled with police before the hood was placed over her head...

Laird confronted an employee at the mall food court about her phone that had been stolen. She displayed a knife and made threats against the employee before mall security called police at 5:15 p.m., saying Laird was "out of control." Laird also threatened to kill mall security staff after they confronted her. While officers tried to arrest her, Laird attempted to kick and scratch them. She spit in the face of one officer before she was “controlled outside of the mall through the use of an electronic control device.”
And this shows the concept of Action - Reaction. And those who might have a confrontation with cops should learn about this concept as it might save you from a beatdown and arrest.
But here goes - ACTION - she threatens to kill someone REACTION - cops are called Action - she threatens to kill security guards when the confront her REACTION - cops willl arrest her ACTION she attempts to kick and scratch them REACTION - they kneed her, and strike her in attempt to subdue her ACTION - she resists arrest REACTION - they put a hood over her head and tase her legs ACTION - she claims she cant breath REACTION - well then stop resisting arrest you idiot.

mjatherton said...

Black Behavior Matters!

jr565 said...

"Male officers arresting women has always been fraught with danger. Physically detaining and handcuffing someone who does not want to go to jail requires that you overpower the suspect as quickly and decisively as possible, to avoid injury to them or you. Women, at least in my experience, are MUCH more likely to make excessive force complaints, even if they fought like hell, which some do."

Thats the old chauvanism at play. women want equality. A cop arresting them this way is an example of that.

Quaestor said...

Lasoos are the solution.

Not enough trained horses for the task at hand.

Quaestor said...

women want equality.

Correction. Women want conditional equality.

MaxedOutMama said...

If you can't find a better cause for which to demonstrate, it's time to stop demonstrating!

Weapons and threats to kill, plus refusal/inability to comply with arresting officers will generate a forceful arrest.

I would like to personally congratulate the police officers involved for arresting this lady without shooting her. I'm sure she has mental problems. No one really believes that one can get away with waving knives and threatening to kill people with impunity.

MaxedOutMama said...

Who is this Johnson of the Boys and Girls Club, anyway? Is he nuts, demanding that the charges be dropped?

I pity the police, I really do. If people in the community don't stand up and call these people out out for their really bad ethical standards in trying to defend the indefensible while intimidating the police, the people in the community shouldn't be surprised when their community goes bad.

Two officers were treated at the hospital. What about their families? Is the new rule supposed to be that police must allow themselves to be injured/killed without fighting back?

Bill, Republic of Texas said...


The Madison City Council should have spent that $350,000 on an instructional course to teach the city's Blacks not to evade or resist arrest.


Chris Rock already made a video for them to use.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2bafwc_chris-rock-how-not-to-get-your-ass-kicked-by-the-police_fun

Michael The Magnificent said...

White as Wonderbread boy, resisting arrest, getting piled on by cops and tased.

It isn't because she's a she, or because she's black. It's because she resisted arrest.

Ken B said...

Here is what is described as the full video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lDAprKz7lM

She is clearly not complying and is being forced to. I wonder what alternative there is. Wait until she falls asleep?

Michael The Magnificent said...

"This young lady had no criminal history, worked at the mall. Her cellphone was stolen. She was agitated, but when you continue to see videos like this, it creates mistrust," Johnson said.

What I see is someone who does not know or care how to properly resolve a conflict. If your cell phone gets stolen, call the cops, don't threaten people with a knife. When the cops show up, don't resist arrest.

Very simple. And yet look at all the people who believe an injustice has been done to her, who came out in support of her, who thinks the cops should have resolved this some other way.

Ken B said...

I wonder how she knew it was *her* cell phone she saw. My cell phone looks just like many others.

Freeman Hunt said...

White woman: (Pulls knife.) "I'll kill you! I'll kill all of you!"

Police: "Madam, we insist that you refrain from this deplorable behavior at once!"

White woman: "Back off! I'll stab you!"

Police: "How rude! You must desist. We are compelled to arrest you now!"

White woman: "No way!" (Kicks officers and spits on them.)

Police: "Good heavens! What spell has come over you, dear woman? Everyone back away and allow the lady to calm or exhaust herself."

Fernandinande said...

The Wise Latina™ says:
"For generations black and brown parents have given their children 'the talk' - instructing them never to run down the street; always keep your hands where they can be seen; do not even think of talking back to a stranger; threaten people with a knife if you get frustrated; yell and scream and fight the police rather than cooperate - all out of fear of how an officer with a gun will react to them."

Well, the Wise Latina™ said the phony - but wise - part of it.

Michael The Magnificent said...

Another white as Wonderbread boy, resisting arrest, getting tased.

damikesc said...

Bitch had threatened someone with a knife. It's not a game. After she brandished a weapon and demonstrated aggressive intent, the police are totally justified in batoning the living shit out of her until she submits utterly. Black folks aren't treated fairly but, Lord, they love to aggravate the problem with their idiocy.

I wonder if the family would've preferred a mob dealing with their lunatic demon spawn instead...

I do wonder if there is any behavior deplorable enough for Progressives to not protest in support of it.

fivewheels said...

So she said "I can't breathe" but I didn't see anything in the story about her death. Is "I can't breathe" a new catchphrase you use when police are forced to deal with you that is supposed to make them back off because of Eric Garner? Crying wolf is just not a good idea.

damikesc said...

It didn't work too well for Garner. But it is insuring deaths since cops will hear that during all arrests.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

@Michael The Magnificent

It's time to retire the use of "Wonderbread" to describe white people. Who outside the ghetto still eats that shit? You can still buy it at the BP and Capitol Petro food deserts where Madsion's two most recent shootings happened.

Oso Negro said...

She is lucky she was a woman. A man in the same situation would be risking being shot by the police

ndspinelli said...

This is the city Althouse loves and won't leave.

Nichevo said...

The CPR sign says if they can speak, breathe or cough, they're not choking.

So by definition, if you can say "I can't breathe," you can breathe.

traditionalguy said...

That was very racist. The white police in effect said that this black woman was not worth the cost of the bullets. We know they would spend the whole clip on a white boy, and if he moved then another clip would be used to finish the job.

Paul said...

Lucky she didn't try that shit here in Texas.

That was assault with a deadly weapon in Texas law.

And with Stand-Your-Ground Law, any citizen could have capped her. And the police here won't show so much restraint.

Libs... Texas is a dangerous place for you people now. Best drum up some more gun control.

Jupiter said...

From watching the video, that cop was out of control. There is force, which compels compliance by superior strength, and there is violence, which extorts compliance by bodily harm and the threat of more of it. The first cop was using force, with less than stellar results, but nobody looked to be in any danger. The second cop escalated immediately to violence. It is possible that he felt threatened by the crowd, and wanted to terminate the encounter as rapidly as possible. I suppose he had also heard about a knife being brandished. But it looked to me like he thought the first cop was screwing the pooch, and decided to show him how a real man beats up a woman.

Curious George said...

Young Gifted & Black

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

JCC said...

Frankly, at the first resistance, the cops should have swept her, body-slammed her and used a wrist bar to handcuff her. If they needed to, they should have given her a few body shots to slow down all the resistance. This is not a referee'd contest with rules and the cops are not expected to handle some fractious moron with kid gloves. Fight the cops, get your ass kicked. (using only that force necesary to overcome the suspect's resistance, of course).

An inability to do this any more probably has led to some of the more questionable police shootings. The fight was really an overly-long wrestling match and the cops started to lose, and panicked.

Nichevo said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

@Paul

A knife attack is assault with a deadly weapon anywhere, and Wisconsin also has SYG. Texas ain't as special as you think.

Nichevo said...

Hi, Meade!