Jaywalkers smarting after rude encounter with cops

ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
October 9, 2007

As infractions go, jaywalking is minor. It’s not the sort of thing anyone expects will lead to scrapes, bruises and a night in jail. But what happened to Benjamin De Jong and his girlfriend after a Mariners game Sept. 15 is more than a simple case of jaywalking.

“Police brutality is more like it,” contends the 22-year-old, who was visiting from British Columbia when he got a lasting memory of Seattle, courtesy of police.

De Jong admits he and his girlfriend jaywalked across First Avenue in Pioneer Square — just like a throng always does after a sporting event. They were on the heels of friends who forged into traffic just ahead of them that evening, heading to the J&M Cafe.

“As we were 5 to 10 feet from the curb, an unmarked vehicle sped toward us,” De Jong said. “He hammered on his brakes. Two guys jumped out wearing dark clothing.”

Put yourself in De Jong’s shoes. One second you are about to join friends at a pub after going to see a Mariners game. The next, you’re terrified about who might be storming out of a strange van just feet away. Thugs? Thieves? A driver with road rage?

Nope. Try cops — though De Jong insists he and his girlfriend couldn’t tell the men were officers. “They never said to us, ‘Stop, this is Seattle police,’ or that they wanted to talk to us,” De Jong said. “You know how cops in movies show badges? Nothing like that happened. I thought they wanted to fight.”

The Seattle Police Department’s internal affairs unit is now looking at the case.

De Jong — 5 feet 7 inches tall and 150 pounds — said one of the men from the van grabbed him from behind and brusquely turned him around. He said he saw the second man from the van jerk his 105-pound girlfriend by the arm like a rag doll.

“Yes, I used choice words that night,” De Jong said. “Any guy would if he saw what was happening to his woman and thought a couple of thugs were doing it.”

De Jong was tossed on the ground. His knees got bruised. Blood oozed from his elbows. He was handcuffed and taken to jail. He faces pedestrian interference and obstructing charges. His girlfriend, Kristen Heidt, also 22 and from Canada, was roughed up; bruises were left on her body — and she has photos. She was not taken to jail or charged, even though a police report says she grabbed an officer during the confrontation. Heidt remains shaken up.

The incident is the latest to raise questions about Seattle police conduct — in which civilians accuse cops of failing to identify themselves and being unprofessional and in which officers’ police reports don’t square with victims’ accounts.

This summer, undercover Seattle police in an unmarked car shot at Jesse Toro II, who thought the police were gang-bangers trying to hurt him after a traffic dispute. Toro says at no point did the vice-unit officers show badges or flash police lights.

Last month, 21-year-old Andrew Rutherford ended up bloodied and in the hospital after an off-duty Seattle officer in a civilian car pulled over the Jeep carrying Rutherford and his friends in West Seattle. Rutherford says the officer pulled out a gun, never showed his badge and didn’t immediately identify himself. He and his friends thought they were being carjacked — until uniformed cops stampeded in.

Now comes the case of De Jong and his girlfriend, who came to town just to cheer on De Jong’s kin — Mariners pitcher Chris Reitsma.

Seattle police Capt. Steve Brown confirmed last week that the two officers were riding in an unmarked van and wearing standard uniforms, though he called back later to clarify a point: One of the officers wore a police jacket over his shirt.

Brown conceded De Jong and his girlfriend “may not have immediately recognized (the officers) because they were in a plain car.” He added De Jong was “intoxicated and belligerent.”

De Jong, however, said he had a few beers over the course of the evening — but wasn’t drunk. Either way, the police report makes no mention of drunkenness. “If I was drunk,” De Jong said, “put it in the report.” The report also claims the officers didn’t rush the couple but “walked over.”

The Police Department encourages officers to contact jaywalkers, but not necessarily issue citations.

“It doesn’t mean that a ticket has to be written, and it certainly doesn’t mean that a pedestrian is going to be put on the ground,” Brown said. “I think the pedestrian determines what the outcome will be.”

Yes, but cops determine outcomes, too. Officers are trained to identify themselves and de-escalate situations so jaywalking doesn’t end with someone getting jacked up.

De Jong is considering a lawsuit — as a matter of principle. His aim: better policing. He wonders how many others have been roughed up by overzealous officers.

His family says the City Attorney’s Office floated a deal: De Jong can agree to community service and alcohol counseling and the whole thing can go away. But they believe this is nothing more than a shameless attempt to cover up police misconduct, “a big joke,” they say.

They’re so right, it isn’t even funny.

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  1. Taylor on October 10th, 2007

    The police in so many communities feel some weird elite authority over the public now days. It’s got to be remembered and remembered well that cops are not Gods in badges. There are simply civilian citizen that happen to have a job to SERVE AND PROTECT. Every city in the country needs to have their asses sued off to stop this sort of harassing behavior and perhaps they will quit hiring thugs at their police departments.

  2. drew on October 10th, 2007

    I was arrested for a similar violation when 2 state patrol officers where hiding in the dark at night squat down, I was walking with my friends down an old rail road track we thought might be abandoned and harmless, at any case I recall my childhood where my grandmother and I would walk on the railroad for hours almost every week it wans’t a crime then, surely not a crime worth arresting over, all they needed to do would be to calmly tell me it was against the law to walk on the tracks and I would have no problem with that. But instead the 2 officers escalated the situation by leaping up, I thought they could be muggers so I dove off the bridge nearly killing myself as I fell end over end down the steep embankment, I had a gun pulled on me because they thought I was making a run for it, I had a an expensive camera in one hand because I am a professional photographer, that night I was taking pictures of the moonlit Saint Croix River it was beautiful, except for the confrontation, I was then arrested, and handcuffed if it wasn’t for my good friend in the air force having a word with them I would have spent the night in jail, at any rate I didn’t know my rights because I was so young and I ended up paying 300 in fines!
    If there is one thing I learned it was, KNOW THE LAW and know your rights! because the smallest thing could turn deadly!

  3. Joseph on October 10th, 2007

    I live in WA state and have a concealed carry permit. I’m pretty quick on the draw and would have shot dead any person assaulting me or my girlfriend. Cops who don’t announce that they’re cops or cops who used undue force can be fired upon. The supreme court has acknowledged this time and time again. You are allowed to use lethal force when violently attacked. With unbiased eyewitness’, a jury aquittal would have been a sure thing. Maybe Seattle Police need to rethink they’re behaviors before a tragedy occurs.

  4. JIM on October 10th, 2007

    Thanx Joe, the vast majority of citizens haven’t awoke to this law, but, it can be found on google as: Plummer V. State/ Bad Elk V. state. Which brings me to a question I’ve had, and maybe you can help? Understanding that the current stazi mind set is to suppress our rights with complete discression, provided you make it to a trial; Do you think a, present day court, could allow an unbiased jury trial in a case like this? If you have current info on this please include it with your answer. Thanks bro& God bless.

  5. John on October 10th, 2007

    It is the same in Los Angeles. The newer cops seem to be the worst, I had an unfortunate experience like the woman in the airport and I was handcuffed to a bench for a while until a German woman who was a visiting pysch said to get me uncuffed and get me my meds. Wasn’t smart as I saw these guys as having to respect my rights and they don’t. I excerbated the situation by making a point of singing God Bless America, but I got out of the Towers sooner than the other guys there. Many whom loose jobs, cars over minor infractions as they are forgotten. Amazing and everybody just goes along with it.
    I will never forget how the workers(nurses and ect.) are the perfects Germans,
    they are treating you like a bug, and one false tone of voice and squash!
    I would suggest to know your rights and be very careful as to how you intercat with police in Los Angeles. Unless rich you are at their mercy and more and more they resemble fascists.

  6. Dave on October 10th, 2007

    I suspect that given the rate of pay and the waning levels of education required to become a cop (there is a WAITING PERIOD for admitted drug users)
    that we’re “lucky” not to have worse. Considering the escalation of police violence in recent years, the future does seem a bit ominous for us mere Citizens.

  7. philip on October 10th, 2007

    if you put your hands on the law enforcement heroes, it’s considered a cardinal crime - but they presume to put their filthy hands upon a citizen without cause. May they burn in hell.

  8. BlueEgpytian on October 11th, 2007

    Thankfully these people weren’t tasered. Unfortunately that seems to be the next step for many of these very poorly trained cops lately. Look at what happened to Andrew Meyer and the UCLA student. What can be done about this? This infection needs to stop spreading.

  9. Joseph on October 11th, 2007

    Jim,
    I do believe it’s possible to get a fair trial. Especially with unbiased witness’. Whenever dealing with the police, always make to you get the names, license plates or other contact information from witness’ yourself. The police will make this info disappear so that you have no witness’ to testify against them or the person who attacked you. They will even threaten to arrest you for talking to people who saw what happened. As for a fair trial with unbiased witness’? I’ve got plenty of experience with that. Growing up in the big city as a tall white slender guy wearing glasses, I was often a target. After over 30 incidents in my 37 year life, I have sent at least 6 people to the hospital while defending myself. While taking Judo at the YMCA as a kid, I was required to read a book called “the law and the trained fighter”. It’s the most important book I have ever read. Without that book, I’d be serving time right now. I’ve never been charged with a felony and have never been convicted of even a violent misdemeanor. Know the law.

  10. Andrew Schlademan on October 11th, 2007

    What’s with everyone thinking that TO PROTECT AND SERVE has anything to do with them? It’s a sentance fragment and if anyone were to see the whole sentance it would continue - THE LAW (NOT YOUR SORRY ASS)

    As a former Seattle resident now living in Germany, I know what it’s like to live in places where jaywalking is not practiced and/or tolerated. When living in New York City, if I saw someone waiting for a light with no cars in sight I’d tell them in German that they could cross and they’d usually follow me, albeit hesitantly. Granted this guy’s a Canadian, but how did he get to the game? Didn’t he notice everyone waiting for pedestrian lights all day? Seattle’s the one city in America where the majority of people wouldn’t jaywalk if their lives depended on it. I’ll wait all day for a light now because I’m living in a country where that’s the norm, and I also wouldn’t walk out into traffic because that’s just asking for it and it seems that although the cops in this case were complete assholes like many are, (Kent, OH, comes to mind in particular) these people were basically asking for it.

    Get out while you still can! Nowhere’s perfect, but there’s only a few worse than the states these days. Why do you think they show Mayanmar on TV? To show you how good you’ve got it in Amerika.

  11. Jack on October 11th, 2007

    Look up the case of Jared Jenson in Colorado Springs. He was a CSPD detective who abused his authority, and was killed by a citizen in distress. He was a vice detective, who took it upon himself to apprehend a suspect in a domestic dispute. he found a man who looked like the suspect, tackled him, threatened and intimidated the man, never IDing himself as a cop. the man turned and shot him, then ran away. During the investigation, it was determined the guy used self defense. And get this, it wasn’t even the right suspect, just some dude walking down the street.

  12. Todd Peterson on October 11th, 2007

    Cops(especially the young gung-ho ones that have an insatiable lust for power over others, you know, the ones who were picked on in school and now want revenge)mostly consider anyone who is not a cop to be a criminal. Now that we have the endless wars on everyone(drugs, terrorism, etc.) they are the ones who are enjoying this authoritarian trip the most.It’s as if they were given permission to go out and mess with citizens. We have to be careful not to stick our necks out in any way if we want to avoid such confrontations with the “law”. If you have to, definitely don’t violate more than one law at a time. Like, if you want to smoke a joint in a car, don’t speed too. We have to smart in these times of authoritarian dictatorship. Don’t give them the satisfaction of encountering what is for them an “exciting opportunity to mess with someone”. Be smart. We don’t want them having fun at our expense! Some day when the rule of law is re-established we may be having the last laugh on them!

  13. Eric on October 11th, 2007

    Andrew, I, Unlike you, am not a coward and will never leave this country because it has gotten to bad. I am a patriot and i will die defend my birthright of freedom, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I am glad you left this country bacause it is people like you who are holding the rest of us back. I spent half of my childhood with a stepdad that is a police officer that understands that even though his job was to uphold the law he also knew that it was his job to protect and serve the people. Oh and by the way when the people in this country put the streets like in Burma there will be a lot different outcome. The people in this country only lay down when people like you convince them too. But if you think you can hide from the new world order in germany you are wrong and i know that i would much rather stand and fight with my fellow americans.

    In the history of our people whenever we stand united and fight we win!

  14. Joseph on October 11th, 2007

    Have you ever noticed that cops refer to non cops as civilians? They aren’t military personnel. Doesn’t that make them civilians to? I’ve also noticed that the first question asked is not “what is your name?” but “what do you do for a living?”. How you answer that question determines what financial resources you have available. That determines how they will treat you. Unemployed? You have no rights to them because you have no financial resources to defend yourself. A criminal attorney once told me that unless you have $10,000 dollars available for an attorney, you have NO constitutional rights. Sadly this is true.

  15. Laiboch on October 12th, 2007

    It’s not as simple as being able to prove you’re innocent of the charges any more. A friend was followed by an unmarked police car while driving home on his motorcycle. Fearing they were going to try and steal his bike he went through some side streets and pulled into his driveway. My friend has a concealed weapon permit and was getting ready to defend himself when they pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. After a moment they did finally identify themselves as police and they were “worried the bike may have been stolen”. After demanding to see their badges they also mentioned to him that “with the things you have been charged with it’s a surprise you still have your concealed weapon permit”. It also showed they clearly knew the bike was not reported as stolen. My friend has never been convicted of anything that would take that away, but they were looking at *charges* not convictions. Police are no longer looking at your convictions they are looking at any charge made against you, and acting as if they were convictions. Charges you have been acquitted for should not show on your record. So effectively you are becoming guilty until proven innocent.

  16. john on October 12th, 2007

    Welcome to the new world order and “China like” police tactics. The NWO minions will age and pass away just like you and me. One day they will have to face God and face up to their crimes.

  17. Ezight on October 30th, 2007

    I had planned to move to seattle.
    After reading this article; I have decided to stay in the (Tiny) city and state where i live.

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