Police right, protestors wrong in Vauxhall Target arrest

“I just got home from the Vauxhall Target where a woman of color with two small children was tackled to the ground at the front entrance by two white male cops.” These words posted by South Orange-Maplewood Justice member Jaclyn Nayar started a firestorm. A surveillance video ought to put that fire right out.

This is an activist group and Nayar is clearly looking to see evil in police officers wherever she goes. How anyone who actually witnessed this could see this as a woman being "tackled" is beyond me. "A woman of color", "two white male cops." Nayar should be completely ashamed of herself for her race baiting and trying to once again cast police officers risking their lives daily in a bad light.

Arrested was a 29 year old woman who is seen on surveillance video walking through Target and stealing. She stops in the baby section, opens a brand new bottle of formula off a shelf and casually pours it into a baby bottle for her child. She loads up her cart with over $850 worth of merchandise then rolls right out the door with it. Accompanying her were a baby and a child about 5 years old along with another adult woman. When two uniformed officers escort her and the cart back inside the officers are seen very professionally trying to hold her by her arms in order to then place handcuffs on her. They never "tackle her to the ground." Instead, she drops her knees and brings herself to the ground, surprising the officers and almost bringing one of them down with her. Watch the video.

What happens next is typical. Activists groups look at white police officers doing their job in an extremely professional manner and see nothing but evil racist cops brutalizing some poor innocent person of color. Once on the ground, the officers try to get this very large woman's arms behind her back and she is resisting every step of the way. At one point she even tries to kick one of the officers. They could have used more force. They would have been fully justified in doing so. Instead they used patience and professionalism, potentially putting themselves more in harm's way for every extra second this woman is not in handcuffs. (They don't know yet if she has a weapon on her, or what her intentions might be.) They call for back up and when three more officers arrive they get the woman in handcuffs with as little force as possible considering she's forcefully resisting arrest.

What this activist wrote started blowing up on Facebook, getting people unfairly angry, and seemed to be heading toward protests and demonstrations. How dare a police officer properly arrest someone who is breaking the law! Is that the new normal? Every cop is wrong, especially white cops? Every person of color is right?

With all the NFL players taking knees to protest police brutality and wanting to start a national dialogue, America needs to remember something. That people like Michael Brown and Eric Garner never stood and took an oath to uphold the law. They chose instead to steal cigars and sell illegal cigarettes and refuse police orders and resist arrest. These people were thugs. Activists don't want to consider this anymore than they want to consider the very difficult job police officers have. Instead they want them to be mind readers and civil rights workers rather than law enforcement professionals. Enough already.

Yes, there have been a few cases of controversial police encounters that did indeed show an officer to be on the wrong side of the law. One such case is that of Water Scott, an unarmed motorist who was shot in the back while running away from North Charleston, SC officer Michael Slager. Slager was charged and is now serving 20 years in federal prison as he should be. It was one of the few cases where a police officer was clearly wrong, and it was handled the right way. It was one of the few exceptions that proves the rule. The rule being almost always police officers are good, caring professionals. It is a shame to see them vilified and it needs to stop.

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