Watch Woman Fight Shopkeeper, Cops

by Paul Bass | Jun 6, 2012 8:22 am

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Posted to: Downtown

A downtown merchant confronted a woman he said he was stealing from his store. She responded by attacking him—then attacking the cops who came to his aid. That’s according to Sgt. Anthony Zona, who was at the scene. The incident occurred at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. A crowd gathered on Orange Street watched what happened. Maxwell Reichert of Reichart Photography was among them. He caught the action in a combination of still photos and videos. Click on the play arrow at the top of this story to watch. The incident began inside the Sassy store on Chapel by Orange. The merchant there followed a woman outside the store after, he claimed, she stole a wig. (He later spoke with the Register’s William Kaempffer, who wrote this story.) A fight ensued on the sidewalk outside the federal building. Marshals from the federal building rushed out to help. Cops arrived too and began to handcuff her. Zona said the woman bit two of those city cops, Scott Durkin and Curtis Miller. Reichart’s video shows the woman continuing to swear at the cops and trying to fight back. “Stop kicking me,” Officer Robert DuPont is seen telling her in the video. Reichart said guards from the federal building ordered him to walk away and stop filming. Asked about that later, when they were back inside the federal building, the guards declined to answer questions. Glaring, they ordered a reporter to leave the building’s lobby.

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posted by: elmlife I’m glad my mother raised me right.

posted by: HhE on June 6, 2012 9:41am Well done NHPD, and what a demonstration of restraint.

posted by: Curious on June 6, 2012 10:17am “A downtown merchant confronted a woman he said he was stealing from his story.” Wait, so she was a plagiarist, too? Seriously, aside from lack of editing, this story shows just one more egregious example of the law trampling peoples’ rights. Not okay. This really needs to be addressed. [Editor: Typo fixed. Sorry about that. I believe if she stole from the story, it would have been a felony, punishable by three months of volunteer service on the Independent copy desk.]

posted by: southwest on June 6, 2012 11:36am Now you will understand why officers must use restraint when dealing with out of control arrestee. It’s not easy when someone is calling u every M/F in the book and resisting arrest. As an officer u are sometimes damned if u do and damned if u don’t. She was just trying to incite people to take notice of her arrest. Which the officers had p/c to do. Just a reminder every arrest is not a bad arrest.

posted by: New Haven Urbanism Curious,

It appears that in the still images at the beginning of the video that the woman is assaulting the merchant. If someone resists arrest after assaulting another person what should the officers do, just not arrest them? It sucks that she was face down on the curb with two guys on top of her, but I doubt the officers were happy about making such a difficult arrest.

posted by: Mister Jones on June 6, 2012 3:05pm Nice camera work by Maxwell Reichert. Unfortunately, it seems that the federal building security officers need a First Amendment lesson—Reichert had every right to videotape police activity on a public street, a right that is not trumped by the proximity to a federal building. [Although there have been reports of rules banning photography of various landmark buildings and bridges—I’ve seen the signs to that effect on the Whitestone Bridge—to deter potential terrorists from casing the joints. Seems pretty silly to me. Maybe I should set up a tripod near a bridge and get my self arrested to make a test case…]

posted by: Curious on June 6, 2012 3:11pm Jonathan, I am sorry my comment was not more clear. I think police should always use whatever force is necessary and reasonable to conduct their work in a safe manner. What I take offense to is the fed guards coming out and stopping the public from recording the incident. That’s not right. ***Reichart said guards from the federal building ordered him to walk away and stop filming. Asked about that later, when they were back inside the federal building, the guards declined to answer questions. ***

posted by: HhE on June 6, 2012 3:18pm Curious, exactly how are the police in this case trampling her rights? Would that be the right to assault people? The right to resist arrest?

posted by: THREEFIFTHS on June 6, 2012 9:23pm posted by: Curious on June 6, 2012 3:11pm What I take offense to is the fed guards coming out and stopping the public from recording the incident. That’s not right. The fed guards you talk about United States Marshals.U S Marshals can deputize the following individuals to perform the functions of Deputy Marshals: selected officers or employees of the Department of Justice; federal, state or local law enforcement officers; private security personnel to provide courtroom security for the Federal judiciary; and other persons designated by the Associate Attorney General.My god son is a U.S.Marshals in New York.So they can get involved.

posted by: HhE on June 7, 2012 8:41am Curious, thank you for your clarification. I agree completely. Threefifths, membership in a law enforcement agency, local, state or federal, does not grant one the right or role of suppressing Constitutionally protected rights.