Arizona’s 3TV on Saturday released disturbing video footage of an encounter between a black female Arizona State professor and a white campus police officer last month, which turned brutal after she asked why she was being stopped.
Ersula Ore, whose research interests include cultural studies, was trying to cross the street to avoid construction when she was stopped by campus officer Stewart Ferrin, the site says, citing a police report.
“The reason I’m talking to you right now is because you are walking in the middle of the street,” Ferrin is heard saying in the video. The conversation quickly turned sour and the officer demanded to see her ID, saying she would be arrested if she failed to do so. The incident was caputured by a police car video recorder, or Dashcam.
“I never once saw a single solitary individual get pulled over by a cop for walking across a street on a campus, in a campus location,” she responds. “Everybody has been doing this because it is all obstructed. That’s the reason why. But you stop me in the middle of the street to pull me over and ask me, 'Do you know what this is? This is a street.' ”
“Are you aware that this is a street?” Ferrin asks.
“Let me finish,” Ore says.
“OK, put your hands behind your back,” Ferrin says.
“Don't touch me,” Ore says. “Get your hands off me.”
The situation escalated quickly shortly thereafter and Ore ended up on the ground. She was charged with resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and other crimes, the report says.
Watch the video here:
Read more at 3TV.