A Latina girl says she was racially profiled and violently arrested by Redondo Seaside police for having her service canine together with her on the pier, though different folks with animals had been left alone.
Luz Maria Flores shared a video from her encounter with police and stated officers approached her and her sister whereas they had been consuming. (Warning: The video accommodates obscenity.)
Within the video, officers inform Flores she shouldn’t be allowed to have a canine on the pier. She tells officers her canine, Yare, is a service animal, however she doesn’t have the animal’s paperwork together with her. The officers requested for her identification after which informed her she was going to be detained, Flores stated in an Instagram publish. She then begins recording the encounter on her cellphone.
The video, taken about 7:30 p.m. Friday, begins with Flores asking why she’s being detained. An unidentified officer says, “For having a canine on the pier.” Town’s municipal code doesn’t permit canine on the Redondo Seaside Pier.
Flores factors on the market are different folks on the pier with canine and says the police had been questioning her as a result of she is a Latino. Whereas police are speaking to Flores, one other leashed canine may be seen within the background.
“I’ve seen f— white folks strolling up and down this pier with canine, and also you solely come and cease me,” Flores says within the video. She accuses the officers of being racist.
“This has nothing to do with race, ma’am,” one officer says to her. “Sit down over right here on the desk. We don’t find yourself desirous to need to take you to jail.”
All through the three-minute video, Flores tells officers she is making an attempt to go away, however they repeatedly inform her she’s being detained. Within the video, Flores may be seen holding the leash of Yare, a black Mexican hairless canine generally known as a Xoloitzcuintle.
“I’m making an attempt to go away,” Flores says within the video.
“You aren’t allowed to go away. You might be being detained,” the officer says.
She accuses the 2 officers of profiling her and factors out that different persons are strolling round with canine on the pier.
“This has nothing to do with race. Sadly, you’re making this about race,” one officer says.
“You’re making it about race whenever you profile me once I’m sitting down having a meal with my sister,” Flores replies.
“You’re 10 seconds away from being handcuffed and going to jail,” the officer says. “You’re resisting.”
The officer then tells her she’s being arrested and pulls her arms behind her again.
Flores screams, “Don’t contact me.”
She later may be heard within the video shouting, “I simply had my canine with me on the pier.”
Redondo Seaside police confirmed Wednesday that Flores was arrested on suspicion of getting a canine on the pier and obstructing an officer. Jail information present her bail was set at $10,000, and she or he was launched from jail Saturday morning.
Flores, who graduated from UCLA and is planning to attend legislation college, in response to her Instagram account, stated on social media that her canine was launched to her just a few hours later.
Two weeks in the past, the Redondo Seaside Police Division posted on its Instagram account a photograph of an officer posing with “Canine Whisperer” César Millan and 4 leashed canine on the pier. The division stated Millan was “given a warning” about having canine on the pier. It was not instantly clear whether or not the officer within the picture is similar man who arrested Flores.
Flores stated she has not been capable of watch the video she posted Tuesday as a result of she’s “not able to relive the expertise but.”
“However I’m okay,” she says on-line. “I meditated on my legislation college journey as I used to be sitting in my jail cell. They won’t break my spirit. My journey is obvious to me now extra so than ever. I sit up for being a civil rights legal professional in just a few years so I can file a class-action lawsuit.
“I’m not forgiving nor forgetting,” she continued. “They simply birthed a rival and should reply for his or her prejudice, and injustice in the direction of black and brown folks.”
Redondo Seaside police declined to touch upon the incident.
