A retired New York City cop ended up facedown in the grass in handcuffs in Florida after rushing to the scene of a car accident involving her 16-year-old son during the Super Bowl Sunday.
Rosemary Aquino was shocked that Florida deputies from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office would treat her like such a common citizen.
It was all caught on video, which is now going viral.
“NYPD, I know my rights,” she says.
“We’re a little different in Florida,” a deputy replies.
As if the NYPD would have anymore respect.
According to CBS12:
The phone rang during halftime at the Super Bowl. Bryan, her youngest son, was in a car crash.
“I pretty much had tunnel vision because all I kept thinking about was he okay? Wasn’t sure if there was other people involved. When your son says he totaled his car, you are thinking he wrapped it around a pole. He’s my youngest. I don’t care if he’s 16, he’s my baby,” said Rosemary Aquino, who drove 30 minutes to get to her son, who wrecked just south of Cove Road and US 1 in South Stuart.
“He said, ‘Mom, I totaled my car and he was upset. I was hysterical because he’s my youngest. There’s a turning lane. I was not impeding traffic. I was not in the middle of the road, I put my hazard lights on and pulled off to the side of the turning lane.” Aquino said.
“There were 3 to 4 police cars there. And I ran over to him and grabbed and hugged him, and I was crying to make sure was he ok.”
Aquino’s son said he was fine.
“It was a matter of seconds. Seconds from the time I jumped out of my car to go make sure he was okay.” Aquino said, as tears swelled in her eyes.
“One of the officers grabbed me and said, ‘You need to move your car now.’ I said, ‘First of all don’t touch me. I am going to my car now.’ And so another came up from behind me as I was walking, shoved me from behind, pushed me, and as he was pushing me said, ‘get your f—ing ass in the car, now!’ Then, I turned around and said, ‘How dare you talk to me like that in front of my children.’”
“Then, one of the officers took his foot and then knocked me down, face first into the grass,” said Aquino.
While she was down, she told one of her sons to get their names and badge numbers. Seconds later, that son was arrested.
Miraculously, the family member recording did not get arrested.
Both were charged with resisting arrest, which is the usual contempt of cop charge used in Florida. In New York, it’s obstruction of governmental operations, which at least sounds legitimate.
After all, how can you resist arrest without an underlying arrest to begin with?
Nevertheless, the incident left the son who was recording in shock.
This is how he explained it on Live Leak:
My mother, brother, aunt and myself rushed out of the house to ensure my brother was okay. When we arrived at the scene of the accident my mother parked the car in the turning lane and got out of the car, I immediately got in the driver seat to move the truck and park when a sheriff stopped me and advised I was receiving a ticket for illegally parking the truck. The sheriff yelled at my mother and told her she needed to move her car, another sheriff came from behind and then grabbed her by her shoulder and told her she needed to get her “a** in her car” my mother responded saying “How dare you talk to me like that in front of my kids” the deputy’s response was “put your hands behind
your back you’re under arrest” 3 officers proceeded to lift my mother off her feet and slam her into the ground.
The attached video shows the the actions that followed my mother being forced to the ground.
My 16 year old brother was also placed under arrest after following an instruction given by our mother to get a pen and paper in order to get the names and badge numbers of the deputies on scene; as soon as the officer told my brother he was being arrested he dropped to his knees
with his hands behind his back and was still aggressively forced to the ground and the deputies continued to put the full force of their body on top on my 16 year old brother who was not resisting.
My mother nor my brother resisted arrest or disobeyed any laws; we called 911 in order to protect my brother from any additional harm after the accident…
The charges filed against my brother and mom are for resisting arrest… They weren’t resisting…
What are you supposed to do when the people who a sworn to protect you are the same people who are causing the harm??
I was raised my 2 N.Y.P.D. officers both are retired, my brothers and I were taught to respect the men and women with badges… I fear for my life the next time I have to call 911 in order to protect myself, will I be the one to end up in hand cuffs for trying to be a respectable law-abiding citizen.
Martin County is just above Palm Beach County. Last month, deputies prided themselves on making 75 arrests during a “3-day drug program,” which consisted of pulling people over on I-95 and interrogating everybody in the car.
According to WPTV:
“We send the message that Martin County’s stretch of I-95 is enforced for traffic violations,” Snyder said. And, by the way, if you commit a violation and you’re carrying drugs, you may be in a lot more trouble.”
Sheriff’s officials don’t have a set schedule for running drug interdictions and won’t say how often they do it so as not to reveal their methods.
“It’s not just people getting pulled over because they didn’t do anything wrong,” said sheriff’s Lt. John Budensiek. “They have to commit a traffic violation, and we work it from there.”
During a drug interdiction stop, deputies talk to the people in the vehicle to try to get conflicting statements between the driver and the passenger, Budensiek said. Sometimes, deputies can smell the odor of drugs coming from a vehicle. Other times, people throw drugs out the vehicle’s window while they’re being stopped.
Nearly all those arrested during this latest drug interdiction were from outside the county, Budensiek said. Some were from elsewhere on the Treasure Coast, and many were from out of state.
“We think our local people know our reputation,” Snyder said. “They tend to try to stay away from us. These out-of-county people don’t know how dangerous it is for them to come in here.”
When a sheriff prides himself on the local people being afraid of his deputies and the fact that out-of-towners might not realize how “dangerous it is for them to come in here,” then it’s obvious they couldn’t have cared less about Aquino’s NYPD status.
UPDATE: Jonathan Rosado, the 26-year-old son of the retired cop, posted a video update because so many commenters were criticizing his little brother for using profanity.
Profanity is protected by the First Amendment, so there is no need to apologize. There was no need for the deputies to become so aggressive.
Nevertheless, he appears to have gone from an apologist to a realist.
