Afaf Saudi was arrested for assult in a Greensboro Wal-Mart, sustaining serious injury. The local Islamic Center of the Triad immediately demanded an apology. The police were not forthcoming, since they think no excessive force was used:
Local Muslims and police officers agree only on this much: About 3 p.m. Saturday, Saudi was in the check-out line at Walmart.Police say she became irate and refused when she was asked to leave the store. Saudi’s arrest report states that she kicked an assistant manager in the chest. Gunn said Saudi also lay on the ground to resist arrest by Neal.
Saudi was charged with resisting arrest, assaulting a Walmart employee and refusing to leave the store. Her court date is set for 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 6.
But Helmi said his mother tells family members a different story: At one point during her shopping, she forgot where she had left her shopping cart and pocketbook. She eventually found them and headed for the check-out line, where she discovered $150 missing from her purse.
She told Helmi she was embarrassed and confused that her money was missing — and unable to tell the clerk why she was upset. She claims the people around her began laughing, which upset her even more.
Now 12 witnesses say excessive force wasn't used, that the woman speaks English and is lying about her arrest:
GREENSBORO — Twelve witnesses say a police officer didn’t use excessive force when he arrested an elderly Egyptian woman at Wal-Mart on Saturday, according to police Chief David Wray....The incident happened Saturday afternoon after Saudi’s daughter-in-law dropped her off at Wal-Mart. On Monday, Wray and department spokesman Brian James summarized eyewitness accounts:
Saudi wanted to buy a $70 piece of jewelry, but handed the clerk $20. When the clerk asked for more money, Saudi implied that the clerk had stolen money from her purse. Store management tried unsuccessfully to solve the problem, then called police while Saudi sat in a chair.
Saudi was speaking English until police arrived, then began speaking Arabic and French. Two store employees, one who spoke French and one who spoke Arabic, asked the woman to leave the store.
Saudi refused.
Officers lifted her. When she went limp, they put her down.
The officers put her in a wheelchair, then handcuffed her when she started flailing her arms. They tried to roll her out of the store, but she put her feet down so the wheelchair wouldn’t move.
When a store manager put her feet on the footrests, Saudi kicked him in the chest.
Wray said Saudi has had other disputes with Wal-Mart employees, but he would not elaborate.
In response, the Islamic Council is insisting that, of course excessive force was used against a Muslim, and spewed forth with lies about violence and hatred against Muslims:
We know there is no possible justification for this type of treatment. We are also aware that police brutality and killings have increased dramatically in recent years, and that since Sept. 11, 2001 a vicious new form of racial profiling has been put into effect against Arab, Muslim and South Asian immigrants.Just pathetic self-victimology. And this from an organization that once had a rabid anti-Semite come to speak.
Posted by Kevin on November, 10 2004 at 11:20 AM
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Scott Trent wrote:I am an organizer with the October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. I wrote the statement which you quoted above.
If you want to claim that racial profiling and violence against Arab and Muslim immigrants has NOT increased since Sept. 11th, you'll find that the facts do not support your position. At the same time that thousands of Muslims were rounded up and deported who had no connection whatsoever to 9/11 or any other terrorist plot, hate crimes against people *perceived* to be Arab or Muslim has skyrocketed. These communities are in effect catching it from both sides--from offical brutality to "unofficial" hate. The one reinforces the other.
Ignoring these facts does not make them go away. And we at the October 22nd Coalition feel it is important to point out that increasing law enforcement's ability to act with unchecked brutality against certain people does not make any of us any safer. Giving the police this power only adds to the growing police-state atmosphere in the US, which must be opposed.
Calling our efforts "pathetic self-vicitmology" does nothing to change the facts--it only obscures reality from people who really need to get wise to the situation. As we say, "There ain't no safety in a Police State."
-- February 9, 2005 11:45 AM ∞
Kevin Brancato wrote:Sir,
Provide data and facts and I will listen to you. Perhaps the data don't support your position; since you don't provide them, how can I verify your assertions? As far as I have seen, there was a small spike after 9/11 for hate crimes. The level of VIOLENCE has not increased, although clearly the level of PROFILING has, although not at airports, where one would expect it.
After 9/11, were illegal immigrant hispanics deported at lower rates than illegal immigrant Muslims?
You have me listening. Show me the data on deportations and hate crimes, and I will edit the above post and apologize for the error.
But in this particular case, this woman accused a cashier of theft, assaulted a store manager, lied to the police, and was a willing participant in a media circus. This IS pathetic self-victimology.
Frankly, I don't give a damn about anybody's religion, ethnicity, nationality, or visa status; but I demand civil behavior.
-- February 9, 2005 12:31 PM ∞
Tina Mercado wrote:Where have you been the last few years? The "boys in blue" no longer have to have reason to hurt much less kill someone. There are multitudes of web-sites documenting case after case of police brutality and killings. Two are: ncoct22.org and october22.org. Two volumes of "Stolen Lives" documents thousands of lives snuffed out by the cops since the 1990's. I was just out in San Diego this past February for the National Conference Against Police Brutality.I met many family members from throughout the country that have lost loved ones from cop killings. Every one of the officers that committed murder is still on the job--their actions are always found justified. The ex-Marine cop that killed my sons' father last July has killed twice since 1998. He was "awarded" a trip to Mexico 3 months later by the PD for further training. Now I surely don't need to mention the well-known brutalness of the pigs in that country do I? God only knows what torture methods he returned back to the states with.And so civil behavior we must, as well, demand from the men and women that took an oath to serve and protect. That does not allow them to become "killing machines" and take lives at their discretion. Upon landing in San Diego in February,we learned a 13 year old child had just been killed in Los Angelos by a cop that opened fire and did not wait to see who had been driving the car that was weaving before it hit a fence. Yes, he still has his job. And last night the sentence "Man resisting arrest in Florida tazed tree times by cops and dies" floats across the bottom of my TV screen on CNN channel. It doesn't go away and it is not going to stop. Police forces now consider themselves "para-military" operations. This is witnessed not only in their actions but in their dress and weaponry. This role confusion is presenting many dangers to the American public.There is a recruitment line PDs all over the nation could use: Why Go to Iraq to Kill When You Can Join Your Local PD and Do the Same Thing? If it has not hit you yet that we are fast becoming a police state---it will. The day my sons' father was killed by a cop jolted us from a world where "ignorance is bliss" and spiraled our family into the darkess days of out lives. We have no trust in a "system" that allowed this avoidable tragedy to happen but discovered we were not alone and that there is a national organization of support united with families of victims, activists, attorneys,anti-war protestors,etc. And so for all our brothers and sisters everywhere who have known the blunt end of a baton,the sting of pepper spray, tear gas, or felt the explosion of bullets into their being----all the weapons which threaten decency and life in this growing police state---we will continue to speak out and never forgot those beautiful lives wrongly stolen from us.
-- March 9, 2005 08:58 PM ∞
Kevin Brancato wrote:In an update to this post, I note that Ms. Saudi returned to Egypt to avoid prosecution for her violent behavoir.
This woman was not the victim of anti-Muslim sentiment or police brutality...
-- March 9, 2005 09:36 PM ∞
