D.C. lawyer arrested for expressing contempt towards police

July 30th, 2009

D.C. lawyer arrested for expressing contempt towards police
By Carlos Miller

Attorney Pepin Tuma probably knows the law when it comes to expressing your First Amendment rights in front of police officers. It’s something you would hope they teach in the first year of law school.

Unfortunately, Washington D.C. police haven’t a clue.

They arrested Tuma Saturday night after the 33-year-old attorney chanted, “I hate the police. I hate the police.”

The charge: Disorderly conduct.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Disorderly conduct is the charge cops use when they can’t think of an actual crime committed.

It happened in my arrest. It happened in the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Gates. And it has happened on many of the contempt of cop arrests I write about.

Tuma, who is gay, said police pushed him against an electric utility box, ordering him to “shut up, faggot.”

Tuma had spent the evening with friends complaining about the arrest of professor Gates, saying that police had overreacted.

The conversation continued as the group of friends walked down the street, coming across five or six cop cars in an apparent traffic stop on the other side of the street.

Tuma then began his chant. “I hate the police. I hate the police.”

One officer took it personal.

“Hey! Hey! Who do you think you’re talking to?” Tuma recalled the officer shouting as he strode across an intersection to where Tuma was standing. “Who do you think you are to think you can talk to a police officer like that?” the police officer said, according to Luke Platzer, 30, one of Tuma’s companions.

Tuma said he responded, “It is not illegal to say I hate the police. It’s not illegal to express my opinion walking down the street.”

The cop pushed Tuma against the utility box, calling him a faggot as he slapped handcuffs on him. Tuma spent a few hours in jail before he was released.

He has filed a complaint and is considering suing.

Continue at: http://tinyurl.com/nxl4ch

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Friday, July 31, 2009

"Shut up, faggot!": New motto for DC cops?

Pepin Tuma, 33, was walking with some friends, Luke Platzer and Dave Stetson in Washington, DC. They were discussing the police incident with Prof. Henry Louis Gates and Tuma said: “I hate the police!” This is a sentiment he shares with many Americans, especially those who actually read news reports about how cops behave.

Tuma’s comment was overheard by police officer J. Culp. Culp, like a mad dog, became enraged and charged at Tuma “pushed him against a transformer box” and shouted “shut up, faggot” at Tuma. Culp then carted Tuma off to jail.

Meanwhile another police officer approached Platzer and Stetson and told them that he had witnessed Tuma resisting arrest and wanted the two men to sign statements to that effect. Both men told the police officer they were standing there when the police attack took place and that Tuma never resisted arrest. Platzer said: “We thought he was trying to trick us into saying that there was physical resistance by Pepin to the arrest. That is not true.”

Tuma says he did not resist: “I said nothing at this time [of the arrest], except asking why I was being detained, whether I was being arrested, and my belief that it was not a crime to offer an opinion to my friends about the police.” Tuma should know, he’s an attorney. Unfortunately for the uniformed thugs, Platzer and Stetson are attorneys as well.

Continue at: http://tinyurl.com/ljfxbj