Name: VIDEO: 70-year-old Miss. woman charged with resisting arrest
Brand: wdam.com
SKU: wdam-com-4
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

VIDEO: 70-year-old Miss. woman charged with resisting arrest

preview

PETAL, Miss. (WDAM) - A 70-year-old Petal woman known for frequently protesting in front of City Hall was arrested Wednesday. began protesting outside City Hall following in May about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. She often wore signs calling for justice and an end to police brutality.Petal Police Chief Matthew Hiatt said police were called to an intersection of South Main Street and Fourth Street around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday where Bates was walking in the road. Bates’ attorney Matt Lawrence said in a statement on Facebook that Bates was walking to Corner Market when she was stopped by two police cars.Hiatt said Bates had been asked on numerous occasions to not walk in the road. Bates had previously complained to city leaders about the poor conditions of the sidewalks, which make it difficult for her to walk on them with her walker.Officers at the scene asked Bates to get out of the road and offered to drive her to her destination, Hiatt said. Bates then laid down on the road and wouldn’t move, and Hiatt said officers picked her up and transported her to the police station to issue citations.According to Lawrence, officers dragged Bates into the car rather than carrying her.“She told me they flung her around like a rag doll and hit her head on the car’s door jam,” Lawrence said in the post.Video of the incident obtained from the Petal Police Department shows Bates, wearing a shirt that says “Black Lives Matter, Let Me Breathe,” laying in the roadway with officers around her.Officers asked Bates to please get on the sidewalk.“So what you’re telling me is that no matter what we do for you, you’re not going to get out of the street,” an officer can be heard saying to Bates in the video.“What I’m saying is that they knew I can’t walk on the sidewalk,” Bates replied. “They know I can’t walk on that sidewalk.”An officer told Bates they are going to pick her up and take her to the station to process her.In the video, two officers picked Bates up by her arms and pulled her toward a police car with her feet dragging on the roadway.Once beside the car door, officers asked her to sit up and get off the ground so they could get her in the police car. After asking her multiple times, Bates stayed on the ground. Officers then picked her up and began putting her in the car, with Bates screaming “leave me alone.”Once at the station, Hiatt said Bates laid down on the floor and officers called an ambulance. According to Hiatt, Bates refused help before changing her mind.Lawrence said he was not allowed to speak to Bates at the station, even though he said Bates requested to speak with her attorney.Bates was issued two citations, one for resisting arrest and another for obstructing traffic.During a Petal Board of Aldermen meeting on July 7, Bates complained about the poor state of the sidewalks. Bates said the sidewalks made it difficult for her to walk with her walker, saying she has injured herself on the sidewalk.In the meeting, Bates said police stopped her multiple times for walking in the road, and she told officers she couldn’t walk on the sidewalk with her walker.Marx told Bates that other people had brought up issues with the sidewalks before, and the city could have someone survey the sidewalks and find the worst spots to improve.Marx said they did not want Bates walking in the street because people had called to say they had almost hit her with their cars, but Bates told Marx they were lying and that she always moves to the side when a car approaches.Lawrence said city leaders failed to repair the sidewalks after the meeting. In his statement, Lawrence said Bates was bruised and banged up and had a bad headache after the arrest.“My hope is that the people of Petal demand better from its leaders and police force,” Lawrence told WDAM.You can read Lawrence’s full Facebook statement below:“Today, Ms. Lorraine Bates was arrested for walking down the street in Petal, MS and charged with obstructing traffic and resisting arrest. She has no other way to travel and the sidewalks are not passable for her because she has to walk with a walker. She has brought up this issue to the city before and most recently two weeks ago in a long and detailed statement to the mayor, Hal Marx, and the board of aldermen. They acknowledged this danger and said that they would be repairing the sidewalk immediately, which they have not done. She was on her way to Corner Market in Petal when she was stopped by two cop cars. She was arrested and drug to the cop car, despite the fact that there were at least 4 officers who could have carried her to the car. She told me they flung her around like a rag doll and hit her head on the car’s door jam [sic]. Once she was at the police station, she was not allowed to speak with me, her attorney, despite the fact that she asked to do so. I was present at the station and had demanded to speak with her. The officer simply turned his back on me and walked away after saying he didn’t know if I was actually her attorney. They did not inform me that she was being sent to the emergency room. I did not have any knowledge of what was going on until the live video I shared earlier began. Only then did I even get to see her, and it was only because they had to take her outside to get her in the ambulance that that was even possible. I saw her earlier this afternoon in the hospital, and she is bruised and banged up with a bad headache. But she should be just fine in no time. Thanks everyone for your outpouring of support for her. She told me to tell you all that she loves and appreciates you! Believe me, there are many legal experts working on this who are going to do everything we can to ensure that justice is served.”Copyright 2020 WDAM. All rights reserved.

PETAL, Miss. (WDAM) - A 70-year-old Petal woman known for frequently protesting in front of City Hall was arrested Wednesday. began protesting outside City Hall following in May about the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minn. She often wore signs calling for justice and an end to police brutality.Petal Police Chief Matthew Hiatt said police were called to an intersection of South Main Street and Fourth Street around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday where Bates was walking in the road. Bates’ attorney Matt Lawrence said in a statement on Facebook that Bates was walking to Corner Market when she...

VIDEO: 70-year-old Miss. woman charged with resisting arrest

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS