It started with a verbal dispute between neighbors; a 50-year-old white man calling a 26-year-old black woman and her friend “whores” as they walked past his house in South Florida earlier this month.
The woman, Dyma Loving, responded by picking up a potted plant and throwing it into his yard.
That led to the man, Frank Tumm, pulling a shotgun and threatening to kill Loving, vowing to “shoot my burnt black-ass face off my neck,” as she described on her Facebook page (full post below).
Thinking police would protect her, Loving called 911, but Miami-Dade police arrived and promptly arrested her on a pair of contempt-of-cop charges for not bowing down to their authority quick enough.
Meanwhile, Tumm, who witnesses confirmed pulled the gun, remains free.
However, the arresting cop, Alejandro Giraldo, has since been “relieved of duty,” which may or may not mean he has been suspended without pay.
The other male cop in the video has been identified as J.F. Calderon. He has not been disciplined.
Police describe Giraldo as a “field training officer,” which just goes to show how cops are being trained these days.
The video does not show Loving breaking any laws or resisting arrest, but it does show two other cops blindly following Giraldo’s lead in violating her Constitutional rights, their power-hungry dominance on full display for the world to see.
The video begins with Giraldo telling Loving what sounds like she “need(s) to be corrected,” but what Loving said was part of a conversation where he was threatening to have her Baker Acted, which is Florida’s way of hospitalizing somebody against their will.
That is a common tactic used by police when trying to gaslight citizens into thinking they are mentally unstable, which allows them to abuse their rights even more so.
Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Sanchez took to Twitter to renounce the actions of his cops but he, like any veteran cop, should know these things happen so often that cops do not even have to think twice about following along once one of their counterparts begins abusing somebody..
Giraldo has been with the department since 2007, so any expression of surprise from his superiors about his behavior should be viewed with skepticism.
The only reason Giraldo acted that way while appearing to know he was being recorded is because he has done that so many times before, he doesn’t even try to hide it.
According to the Miami New Times, the incident took place around 10 a.m. on March 5 as soon as the cops arrived:
Officer Alejandro Giraldo pulled up. “He started interrogating us like we were the suspects,” Loving says. “I asked if he could escort us back to my friend’s house so I could put my phone on a charger and call my children. I had just had my life threatened and was terrified.
“He was so rude and aggressive from the get-go,” Loving continues. “He kept telling me I needed to calm down, but I was so scared at that moment.”
When the video begins, Giraldo can be heard telling the woman she needs to be Baker Acted. (Initial reports had the officer saying, “You need to be corrected,” but Loving clarifies that he told her she needed to go to a mental hospital.) Then he lunged at her, wrenched her wrists toward him, and slapped handcuffs onto them before throwing her into a headlock and dragging her to the ground.
“He made me feel like nothing,” Loving says. “I don’t feel safe anymore. I cry every day. I have kids, and I wonder, Who will protect them if something would happen to them? I could never call the police again.”
Loving was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, the two most common contempt-of-cop charges in Florida.
Neither charge is supported by the video, the witnesses or the police reports.
Loving, who has no prior convictions in Florida, has since been bailed out of jail and has lost all trust in police.
This is how she described the incident on her Facebook page:
So yesterday me and my friend Adri Green were minding our business and this white male began to harass us as we walked up the street when we responded in a way he didn’t like he pulled a gun out in my face and told me he would shoot my burnt black ass face off my neck. I called the police and instead of them checking him and getting him together me and my friend gets interrogated like we are the ones with the gun then I ask if I can just go in the house to charge my phone.! Officer #7839 came 3rd car to the scene acting as if because he has a badge he’s oh so bad talking down upon us and acting like what we went through didn’t matter. My emotions were high I had a barrel in my face and I just wanted to talk to my kids. The officer was acting completely ignorant and hostile towards us so I felt pressure.! He said I needed to be Vaporacted or whatever which means sent to a mental hospital because I was in shock.! Officer A.Giraldo was completely wrong in every aspect in the situation. I clearly didnt get very loud until he lounged at me and became physical with me.! Anyone whose life was just threatened is going to be fuming idc what you say there is no calm when your adrenaline is going at a million miles per hour.! So instead of the man that pulled a gun out on me going to jail I wind up going to jail for disturbing the peace when my peace was disturbed just by walking down the street, I have to be harassed and my life threatened and for resisting arrest without violence .! 1 the officer was completely wrong in this situation 2 they never read me my rights 3 what’s the problem with me going to put my phone on the charger inside a house that isn’t even involved in the investigation 4 who said I can’t be emotionally stressed after all that happened this has to stop there is no way any of this should have happened but because of my skin tone for sure I’m the one being criminalized and treated like the one with the gun.! Then when she told him he could have approached me differently he said he should have tazed an unarmed civilian female that did absolutely nothing wrong.! Everyone please share share share #blacklivesmatter #benjamincrump #miamidadepolice #crookedcop#modernslavery #modernracism #miamidadecommissioner#homesteadpolicedepartment #floridacitypolicedepartment #mdpd #policebrutality
“I think he needs to be permanently relieved of duty,” she told the Miami New Times. “That’s no way for an officer to treat anyone. I was asking for help.”