Virginia girl arrested for buying sparkling water

Virginia girl arrested for buying a 12-pack

When agents from Virginia’s Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) division saw college student Elizabeth Daly leaving a supermarket with cookie dough, ice cream, and a 12-pack, they assumed that she had purchased beer as an underage student and took extreme act

"They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform," Daly wrote in an account submitted to the court.

"I couldn't put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car,” she added. “They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were ... terrified."

To be clear: The 12-pack wasn't even alcohol. It was sparkling water.

I don't even know what to say any more. I wonder how many real crimes took place in the time it took them to harass and terrify these kids? My heart breaks more and more every day as I see what is becoming of my home.

How can we end this? It's becoming hard to be objective about these things any more. The 'good' officers are guilty by association (the same as they would say of you, if your friend were doing something illegal and you were in the vicinity of the crime- whether you knew about it or not), until they leave these police departments and form their own neighborhood watch type organizations- to actually protect and serve people

Edited to add a link to more sources of the same story, if you dislike rt.com for whatever reason

It's a class 1 misdemeanor.... That kind of response is highly unnecessary.

reply to post by Hushabye


This really is where I think not every single agency needs to even have the legal authority to carry weapons or run enforcement operations with the use of force. Citing people is one thing. Aggressive arrest is quite another. If people run? so be it. Far worse crimes happen than beer by a teen. I wouldn't say the law not be enforced at all, but we don't let meter maids draw down on people with big guns for a parking violation and some do drive right off too. There are other ways......and this was police state garbage right here, IMO.

Her actions could be considered terrorism! Buying beer at age 20 is illegal and those bottles could be used to make an explosive device. If she had a back pack, she was also a prime target.

The SEVEN plainclothed agents approached the vehicle in which the girl and her roommates were sitting, and one officer allegedly jumped on the hood of the car. Daly claims another officer pulled out his gun, which scared the students and prompted them to drive away. source

SEVEN plainclothed officers...wow. She must of been completely confused as to what was happening to her.

When one of Daly’s roommates urged her to “go, go, go”, Daly drove off, allegedly grazing two of the agents in the process.

When Daly found out who the agents were, she apologized profusely for the misunderstanding. But she was nevertheless charged with two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer and one count of eluding police – felonies which each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

The ABC defended the charges, arguing that the girl’s response was illegal and inappropriate.source

And that's why she's being arrested/charged... She was freaking out, and left the scene allegedly "grazing" police officers.

Reportedly the cops were "plainclothed, showing unidentifiable badges, shouting at them, jumping on her hood and trying to break the windows". How can they even claim that her "response was illegal and inappropriate"?

reply to post by Hushabye


The thread (and source) title is a little misleading and sensational to be honest.

From your source:

“Other agents did not join the incident until the subject refused to cooperate,” the ABC said in a statement published by USA TODAY. “Rather than comply with the officers’ requests, the subject drove off, striking two officers. She was not arrested for possessing bottled water, but for running from police and striking two of them with a vehicle.”

I know it's the norm around here to hammer the police, but remember there are two sides to every story.

reply to post by Hushabye


I can practically hear the salivation of the lawyers wanting to try this case.

I hope she gets the best lawyer on the planet and sues the ABC into bankruptcy.

As Wrab says, a police state. Why did the cops not just let go with a Bazooka, (I'm sure they would have one) and just blast them all away, the kids, the SUV and the shop, just to make sure.
Alternatively, one of the cops could have walked into the shop and asked to see what was purchased.

I thought an update to this may be interesting to share since no one else had caught it yet and it comes out of the additional results list of sources the OP linked.

On Thursday, prosecutors dropped the charges, noting that Daly's written account of the incident was factually consistent, The Daily Progress reported.

The ABC said in a statement that the matter is under view. "We take all citizen complaints seriously," the department said.

The Daily Progress quoted Daly as calling the jailing "extremely degrading" and "is not just forgotten" by the dropping of charges.

Source: USA Today

That's generally a fairly even handed source as I knew it over the daily reading on the road. I'd say they have some explaining to do by all the article the OP and this one says happened and this outcome of dropped all charges with a big 'oops'.

I'd say oops isn't quite enough too. It's nowhere near it. They swarmed her like a junkie in a crack house over what may, at worst, have been a college kid with a 12 pack. Yikes.... I'd HATE to see what the ATF does if they think a 12yr old may have a pack of black cat firecrackers. It must look like Waco redux. I mean it's not like they EVER over-react, right?

Originally posted by Argyll
reply to post by Hushabye

 

The thread (and source) title is a little misleading and sensational to be honest.

From your source:

“Other agents did not join the incident until the subject refused to cooperate,” the ABC said in a statement published by USA TODAY. “Rather than comply with the officers’ requests, the subject drove off, striking two officers. She was not arrested for possessing bottled water, but for running from police and striking two of them with a vehicle.”

I know it's the norm around here to hammer the police, but remember there are two sides to every story.

The story I read, was the same only a different cachet. Typical police tactic to focus on the aftermath and not the initial mishandling. The girl stopped for a uniformed car. The charges were dropped, "It would not be right to prosecute in this case" I hope they pay for the damaged bonnet they jumped on, and the windows, as well as trauma. That she fled was their fault, stupid feckers.

Originally posted by Argyll
reply to post by Hushabye

 

The thread (and source) title is a little misleading and sensational to be honest.

From your source:

“Other agents did not join the incident until the subject refused to cooperate,” the ABC said in a statement published by USA TODAY. “Rather than comply with the officers’ requests, the subject drove off, striking two officers. She was not arrested for possessing bottled water, but for running from police and striking two of them with a vehicle.”

I know it's the norm around here to hammer the police, but remember there are two sides to every story.

There was no crime, thus no reason for the police to be doing any of this at all in the first place.

Your right, there are always 2 sides.

reply to post by Argyll


I know there are two sides- I mentioned it's getting hard to look at this stuff objectively. Especially when the police will make up charges just to try and save face.

Why should I believe any officer is innocent of these tactics?

Anyhow- considering the way she was approached, I would have run, terrified for my life as well. If she did, in fact 'graze' an officer on the way out- it's the officers' own fault. It'd have been his own fault had she run him over and done a lot more than 'graze' as well.

Glad to hear the charges were dropped.

That is totally insane. I would have driven off, too, if I was ambushed by seven men jumping on my car, pulling out guns, and trying to break out my windows. I think the girl did the best she could to get away then call 911.

That is what they tell women to do! They always say if you are scared or unsure of someone claiming to be law enforcement, you should call 911 or have them follow you to a police station or what not.

I'm sure she would have tried communicating that to them had they not surrounded her, probably yelling, and not allowing her to interject some reason into the encounter.

SEVEN policemen- for something that didn't even turn out to be alcohol. Geesh.

How did they know she was underage when they attempted to make the stop? That in itself seems illegal to me.

Typical power-tripping 'officer of the law' that we always get to read about. Pigs. Police Imitating Gestapo.

I swear, some of the things these thugs with badges do. Shoot animals, approach two girls for suspicion of purchasing alcohol underage with seven officers, wow.

Their training must consist of learning how to correctly spell and write their name in a designated color crayon. Even then, these idiots would probably accuse the crayons of being a terrorist and fire upon them.

This crap is ridiculous, having first-hand (on multiple occasions) dealt with/seen power-tripping cops, reading crap like this really gets under my skin. They act like the cops in the movies. One hand on their gun, always look angry, are loud and overly-aggressive, and to top it off they love disobeying the very law they're supposed to uphold (but that's okay, they typically just walk away scotch free, maybe a two-week paid suspension but typically nothing drastic.)

This is the second thread I've read recently about issues caused by these plain clothes cops and alcohol sales. It seems to me that if the true intent is to prevent illegal alcohol sales, why the "sting" type of operations? Wouldn't a cop in full uniform do more to prevent a crime to begin with? Same thing at bars, why do they hide and wait for people to leave instead of just standing outside the bar and prevent people from driving to begin with........

The only thing that makes any sense to me is that the fines have become a cash cow, and the true motive is not to protect people, but to heap hefty fines on them.

I would have locked all the doors, starting honking my horn and called for help......why should a person assume someone has any rights to detain them from people not clearly identifiable as cops ? Also how does someone mistake sparkling water for beer to begin with......

Originally posted by Gazrok
It's a class 1 misdemeanor.... That kind of response is highly unnecessary.

When a bunch of guys in plainclothes (not uniformed officers) try to get in your car and jump on your hood, especially when she is a young woman? Yeah, right. I'd do the same.

Like when unmarked police cars try to pull me over? Nope. Too many crazy wanna be cops out there, and this has happened before. Give me a marked car and uniformed officer. Anything otherwise should be illegal unless there is the direct commission of a violent crime.

When one of Daly’s roommates urged her to “go, go, go”, Daly drove off, allegedly grazing two of the agents in the process. As they were leaving the supermarket parking lot, they called 911 to report the incident. They were then pulled over by another policeman driving a marked vehicle with lights and sirens,

She did the SMART thing.

ETA:

Prosecutors dropped all the charges on Thursday, noting that her written account of the incident was factually consistent.

Word.

reply to post by RomeByFire


Another ABC agency, who are these people and who needs them? Round here a 'constabule' will stop someone carrying alcohol and under age, take the alcohol off them, and pour it down the drain or make the youngster pour it down the drain themselves...simple. Not behaving like raving Banshees. You guys stateside buy yourselves a pet Orang Utan and learn him the highway code..left turn Clyde

Originally posted by Domo1
How did they know she was underage when they attempted to make the stop? That in itself seems illegal to me.

It is weird, maybe lady cops can smell ladies ages!

reply to post by Hushabye


What I want to know is WHY did they presume and act this way? Is it now SOP to approach and attempt to arrest people simple for the "appearance" of something? "There's a young person, she *might* be underage and she *might* have just bought alcohol. Let's take her down." Is this for real????? Did the cashier make a false call?

Did she *try* to buy alcohol?

This doesn't make any sense, why they would approach her from the start just because they thought she might have bought alcolhol and not knowing her actual age?

Originally posted by smurfy
As Wrab says, a police state. Why did the cops not just let go with a Bazooka, (I'm sure they would have one) and just blast them all away, the kids, the SUV and the shop, just to make sure.
Alternatively, one of the cops could have walked into the shop and asked to see what was purchased.

Over-reaching for sure on the LAW rocket into the Slim Jim display...
I saw 'Blue Thunder' and it was a shame what happened to that BBQ stand.
If I'm not mistaken that was a whole Hellfire though, sorry Cookie.

But on the other end of it-- anybody who actually backtracked it into the store
and engaged in genuine investigative work would be opting out of the FUN.
It would even be more demeaning for any of the God Guys to go ask questions
when you could be perforating the Phrek out of a big moving target...

"grazing" two of the officers? I've got a story about Charlie just finished modding
the living hoo-hah out of his two year old Boss 302-- doing a full throttle holeshot
over Scott's feet. And that steel bodied pony was ready for nines.
"Hey Charlie!! How's it go NOW!? Scream/Flattenstein, 1/10 second. Unreal.
"Don't stand too close to me..."Police