Cop allegedly strangles non-violent handcuffed woman

Her name is Maylene Maldonado. Though this incident happened in February of 2013, the video of her being strangled by police in Chicopee, Massachusetts is being circulated again bringing new attention to Maldonado’s case.

Maylene Maldonado arrest video

Police released a disturbing video in which the department is calling the officer’s actions admirable.

It had began as a routine arrest. Maylene Maldonado, who police allege Maldonado was drunk and high on angel dusk, was being booked for an alleged assault on an officer.

In the video you can hear Maldonado screaming that she was in pain. Instead of helping her, Sergeant Daniel Major allegedly attacked her. In the video, you can see Sgt. Daniel Major grab Maldonado by the neck and put her into a chokehold.

Lawsuit

Sgt. Major has been named a million lawsuit Maldonado filed against the department for civil rights violations. Maldonado has leveled 16 allegations including assault and battery, civil rights violations, failure to intervene by some of the officers, and the city’s alleged failure to properly train officers.

An internal review by the department found the officers acted ‘admirably’ in subduing Maldonado. With her hands cuffed behind her, three police officers then wrestle her to the ground as a fourth watched.

The police department’s new chief, who was a deputy at the time, said the sergeant’s actions were excessive and possibly criminal in nature.

Major, who has since resigned from the police force, is facing assault charges in connection to the incident.

The freethoughtproject reports:

Maldonado was originally placed under arrest after police stopped her for no reason. She was approached and detained for the suspicious act of running towards a gas station.

Upon being stopped by police, Maldonado failed to remain silent and thereby incriminated herself by admitting to the police that she had been drinking and smoking PCP.

When police tried to forcefully take her ID, she allegedly slapped one of the officers across the face and immediately apologized.

While Maldonado was wrong to slap one of the arresting officers, it can easily be said that she acted in self-defense. Remove the state’s immoral war on drugs from the equation, and the officers become the aggressors.

Maldonado had harmed no one when police approached her. Her only “crime” was thinking she was free enough to put something into her own body and travel unmolested without being kidnapped or locked in a cage. Instead, here came the police to protect her from herself, by beating her up.