UPDATED: Christi Tasker, a two-time candidate for Miami Commission in District 2, was arrested last week after she allegedly interrupted a police traffic stop in her Brickell neighborhood. A video taken by an anonymous passerby shows she was forcibly taken to the ground before she was handcuffed.
At one point, it looks like an officer placed a foot or a knee on her back. This incident may become a problem for police, who look like they may have overreached.
Tasker, 48, was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. She screamed “Help me,” as she was thrown on the ground and physically restrained by more than one officer as another officer yelled at spectators to get back and threatened them with arrest as well, according to a video taken by someone at the scene.
“Get back! Get back! You’re going to jail! Get back,” he shouted.
And the whole episode really looks like a foreshadow of more future arrests, now that Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed Senate Bill 184, which makes it a second degree misdemeanor to get within 25 feet of a cop or firefighter after receiving a verbal warning to step back. Law enforcement call it the “halo bill” because it’s supposed to protect them. Protect them from what? From lawsuits? The legislation is solely aimed at stopping the proliferation of bad cop videos on social media.
Thank goodness all our phones have good zoom.
The incident occurred at about 12:20 p.m. on the 100 block of Southeast 25th Road, where Tasker apparently lives, and an officer made a traffic stop. Tasker and “several other persons began surrounding the officer recording him from a close distance, with the defendant at several points leaning on the white Audi near the driver’s door, interfering with the officer’s traffic stop,” the arrest report says.
The officer asked Tasker to move back and requested emergency backup. “He was on the scene by himself and the defendant and others’ actions were erratic and creating what could be an unsafe condition for the driver and the officer,” the report states.
The former candidate allegedly tells the driver to take off, saying “If he’s going to ticket you, he can ticket you in your own parking space, essentially telling the driver to flee from the officer’s traffic stop,” according to the arresting officer.
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When back-up arrived, they gave Tasker, who was standing next to the Audi, “several orders to step away and onto the sidewalk.” A Sgt. Valdes asked her to stand back. Another sergeant, a Sgt. Reyes (Miami PD has not provided Political Cortadito with first names), stepped in between her and the other officers, the report states, telling her “Ma’am, you’re interfering with a traffic stop,” while the others continued to direct her to the sidewalk.
“She refused to comply and, in an attempt to subvert the lawful orders, shelved to the passenger side front window of the Audi. She stood directly at the window and raised her arm to continue her recording.”
Ahhh. Is that why the police were so upset that they arrested her and only her?
“Sgt. Reyes once again gave her several orders to step back away from the vehicle in order to allow the other officer to continue conducting the traffic stop uninterrupted,” the report states. “The defendant refused to move back and stated, ‘I don’t have to move back. I am on private property.'”
“She continued to tell Sgt. Reyes that she was on her property.”
That’s when he began to place her under arrest. She apparently resisted.
“He placed a handcuff on her right wrist and told her several times, ‘Put your hand behind your back.’ The defendant refused to comply and tensed her arms and tried to pull away.”
It looks on the video like it took three of them to take her down.
“During the struggle to handcuff the defendant, she fell on top of Sgt. Reyes, immobilizing his legs, making it even more difficult to handcuff the defendant,” which he did once he was able to “free his legs,” the arrest form states. But it doesn’t look that way on the video.
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In the one minute clip, which started late in the game, it shows Tasker being forcibly pushed down by two officers, one of which places his foot or his knee on her back as the other holds her shoulders down on the sidewalk. It’s a little jarring as Tasker repeatedly yells “help,” to whoever was watching.
Shot on a camera phone by someone — Ladra doesn’t know who — the video shows other onlookers also taking video as the police yell at them to “stand back, stand back, stand back. You’re going to go to jail.” Some of the onlookers tried to intervene on Tasker’s behalf. Please call Ladra and send her your video if you can. Political Cortadito has already requested the body cam video from the department.
Tasker, who lost in the November election with 4% of the vote, is also Commissioner Damian Pardo‘s appointment to the code enforcement board. She announced in December that she would run next year against Mayor Francis Suarez.
She did not return a phone call or an email sent to her Wednesday for comment.
Former Miami D2 candidate arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest added by Ladra on
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