Drumbeats came to us from The Whirlwind Listserv about a situation earlier this summer with Yvette Hayes, a preg
nant Kansas City principal. It turns out that two white Independence Police officers stopped her on Interstate 70 after dark and made her lie on her belly alongside speeding cars. Click here to see 4-minute unabridged video of the police interatction with this sister.Villagers, there is no way to defend forcing an unarmed pregnant woman to the ground AT GUNPOINT on the side of a busy road. No matter her race, social standing, criminal record. Period. Even ABC News recognizes that this was wrong on so many levels.
Yvette Hayes, 33, thinks she was a victim of racial profiling by police and employees at the J.C. Penney store. Tim Lyons, a spokesman for J.C. Penney Co. Inc., said the store's security staff notified police that they had seen a vehicle -- a green Jeep Cherokee -- resembling one observed in a series of car thefts and break-ins. Police suspected that the vehicle Yvette Hayes was driving was connected with a series of car thefts. It apparently was a case of mistaken identity. Hayes was driving a green Jeep Cherokee.
Hayes described the situation as follows:
On July 13, Hayes and her two daughters (4-year-old and an 18-month-old) were with her. They arrived at 9:56 p.m., and her sister already was inside. The store was closing, so Hayes stayed in the Jeep, listening to gospel music and checking e-mail. When her sister left, she followed. Hayes said she headed home on I-70. At 10:17, she said she saw a police car behind her, lights flashing. She said she immediately pulled over.Amazing how the Republicans always talk the talk about respect for life in the abortion debate ... yet, they appear to be silent in this case of police brutality on an unborn Black child inside the woman's womb as she repeatedly pleaded to the officers to realize she was pregnant.
She said police put a spotlight on the Jeep and gave orders with a loudspeaker: 'Put your hands out so I can see them! Throw your keys out the window! Step out of the car with your hands behind your head! Walk backwards until I tell you to stop. Get on your knees! Lay on your stomach!'
Hayes said she complied.
'I did yell out I was pregnant,' said Hayes, who was six months pregnant at the time. 'I was horrified. It was very difficult. I was tossing and turning.'
She said she was on the interstate shoulder with cars zooming by. After two or three minutes, the officer told her to shift onto her back. She said she rolled over and saw officers aiming guns. They asked who was in the car.
'My kids!' she replied. Hayes said she was confused, and she feared for her life. She said an officer looked inside the Jeep and said she needed to calm the children. She said officers pulled her to her feet and told her she was stopped because the store said she was stealing cars.
One officer allegedly said, 'You must be a good car thief to be pregnant.' The sergeant came to the passenger door and apologized, saying, J.C. Penney needs to get 'their act together,' Hayes said. She said her 4-year-old daughter is traumatized, afraid of police and thinking they 'don't like her mommy.'
Some will say that I'm seeing race where it isn't involved.
However, all of us should know that the day before Ms. Hayes was humiliated and abused by the police the JC Penney security officers at the store directed police to another green Jeep. Police stopped its driver, who was white, politely asked him questions as he sat in the car and let him go.
That seems like different treatment by the police that is either race or gender-based. You do the math:
- White guy treated with respect.
- Black woman treated with disrespect.
Villagers, had you heard of this story already? What do you think about the facts as you now know them? What say u?
