Cop attacks homeless, disabled woman; chokes her service dog. :(((( [View all]

[CoffeeCat]

I am trying to wrap my brain around this incident that happened just a few miles from my home.

An Altoona, Iowa woman--who is homeless and disabled--was at an intersection asking passengers in cars for money. I have seen her at this intersection several times, on my way to work. According to reports, she has been asking passersby for money, without incident, for several months.

The woman, Diane Smith, says that a police officer ordered her over to his car. She produced a concealed-carry permit as identification, at which point Deputy Adam Rogers became enraged and accused the woman of threatening the police officer. Because she was not arrested, she began to walk away. He followed her, wrestled her to the ground and caused major bruising to her upper torso and fractured one of her ribs. He also picked up her service dog by the neck and hung him in the air--as the dog struggled and choked. The dog struggled and cried, but never bit him.

I heard this woman discuss this incident on a local radio program. She is articulate, intelligent and she seemed most upset by what she saw this officer do to her poor service dog.

She is disabled and it sounds like she has had a difficult time finding work and has resorted to asking for money at this street corner.

I am so upset about this. I grieve for this woman and her plight. I can't imagine what she has endured in her lifetime. I am sure she is traumatized by what this police officer did to her and what she saw happen to her loyal service dog.

Lastly, the shock of this story is only deepened--by the sheriff's office absolute refusal to release the dash-cam video which shows exactly what happened. What do you want to bet that this video completely corroborates this woman's account--and that the video shows this sick police officer choking and hanging a service dog in the air--while the woman cries? They're suppressing video that they know will go viral and cause untold public outrage.

I feel that this story must go viral, and that an avalanche of public pressure must fall down on this cop (and the sheriff's office that is protecting this cop). They MUST release that video! I am so sick and tired of these cop-horror stories that never end. This must END!

Here's the link to the story with video: http://whotv.com/2014/08/25/homeless-woman-says-deputy-used-excessive-force/