Then to the front What are you arresting Okay, it's going to be simple battery, okay? No, I haven't touched anybody. >> you. I need you to put your hands behind your back. Ma'am, this is Miss Ida. No. I got to take care of this animal. Is there anybody that we can call for you? No. Okay. So, we'll we'll take care of the dog. We'll let him inside. I'll put him inside, okay? What are you going to do? We I'm going to let your dog inside. No, but what what are you trying to do with me? You're going to You're being placed under arrest. For what? For simple battery. I told you I need you to >> anybody. I need you to put your hands behind your back. Miss ma'am, don't make this difficult. A mother, her kids, a sunny afternoon, and bubbles. That is the whole threat. That is the entire provocation. Bubbles. And because of bubbles, an elderly woman walked to her fence, raised a canister of bear mace, and unleashed a chemical agent designed to stop a 400-lb animal directly at a family standing in their own yard. Then she went back to her chair, and when the police showed up, she did not hide. She did not lie. She did not lawyer up. She told them exactly what she did. And she was absolutely certain she was the victim. Stay with me, cuz this one is going to make your head spin. Hello. Hey, honey. Hey, what's going on? So, me and my and my they were just out here um doing bubbles. Okay. And my neighbor, she out every day every day. I called the She Yeah, she's sitting there with her camera. And I And she has cameras, so she she I don't know if she watches, but she she can pull that camera footage probably back up. She walked to that gate and sprayed bear bear mace or whatever at me and my and my and And it's like if you walk probably that way you can still smell it cuz it got in my like into my chest or whatever, but then she walked back and sat down. And she every day is like, "Oh, you you and get out of my neighborhood and where for like this It's like we have footage of her of that, but >> Okay. That's like, but Okay. I wish I would have had her just now. She literally walked to that gate right here. >> Where How far were y'all standing? We were right here. I was saying I had my baby throw the little thing down. So, we were standing right here. Right here? Yeah, cuz she had her thing. And she was at the fence? Yes. So, what were She just did it. Y'all did No, they all just She wasn't yelling at y'all first? Oh, no, she was yelling at first just saying y'all stupid That But that's I don't care none about that. >> Okay. Yeah. But that bear mace or whatever that was you just nearly came to your gate and sprayed? Right. >> She said the other day when she was out here playing I wasn't here. I had a graduation yesterday, and I was getting my stuff done. So, I didn't know that this is her second time. My daughter said she did it to her while she was out playing in the pool and told her she wish she drown. And I didn't know nothing about that until I just called the police. >> She sprayed then, too? Yes, but I didn't know anything about that time cuz I wasn't here. And she just told me she sprayed it. And I told her I didn't And that was when, you said? When I got my eyebrows done yesterday Thursday. Thursday? Thursday. So, yesterday? >> Yeah. Hey. Okay, do you want medics just to check y'all out or >> Well, my chest is hurting a little bit. I don't know, but she shouldn't have that big old whatever. I thought the lady had a damn gun, honestly, because they say she pulled the gun on these people over on the other side of her. So, I don't know if she Okay. >> Yeah. So, I don't know what she had. >> want medics to come check y'all out or something? just had some water. Okay. And I just drank a little bit of ginger ale. I'm going to see if I can try and smell it when I walk over here. Was it like Like it was like a mist or is it like a spray? >> it was a mist and it was brown. Like I've never seen Who was all out with you? Was it you, Just me and my her and my Okay. What What did she say when she she walked up and did it? Like what was she saying? >> She just said you stupid and just and just sprayed. >> That's it? Yes, sir. And that's That's her favorite. Like I'm not even being My daughter probably got a hundred recordings of her. Okay. Like this is like Would it be all right if I could see where the recording is? >> Yeah. It was like she sat it down when Yeah, that Whatever Yeah, yeah. Can I >> Cuz she had just I was going to say whatever She had just sat down with it. I had to grab the phone, tried to get it the Whatever that big old black thing is, that's what she came to the fence and sprayed. What does it look like? Like it looked like That's what I said I Does it have a canister? >> Yeah, like a canister. What color is the canister? >> Black. It all looked like it was black. >> was black, too? Like it all looked like black. And then she sprayed. I was like I didn't know what she had. And then she held it up and sprayed it in like a big old black mist. And it was so like I was like it must be bear mace cuz I don't I don't been sprayed with regular mace before. Are you wanting to press charges? >> Yes. Okay. I'm sick like I don't care what she say to me and my baby kids, but my don't even like they didn't even know what that was until she started saying it. Like and she still probably don't know what my It's like she says something to her every day. I've let my landlord know. I was like this lady is a flight. That's ridiculous. >> I pay 1950 a month for rent. And now I don't even like them coming out the door. deal [laughter] with this. Do y'all have any residue on your skin? But I don't I know it's in my chest cuz I can feel it here. Okay. >> Like I can feel it. And I'm trying to find these other videos cuz I know I have more videos of this lady doing stuff. But it's really just And then they would tell me she'll make like when they walk past she'll make like gun sounds like um Watch how this mother talks to the officer. She is shaking on the inside. You can hear it in the way she searches for words. But she stays composed. She gives him details. Not just, "She sprayed me." She gives him the color of the mist, brown. The color of the canister, black. She tells him where she was standing, right here. She tells him she had to tell her baby to put the toy down first. That level of specific detail matters legally. Vague accusations fall apart under scrutiny. Specific ones build cases. She also does something really important. She separates the verbal abuse from the physical attack. She says, "I don't care about the name-calling. That is not why I called." She is drawing a clear line between what she is willing to tolerate and what crossed into criminal conduct. That line is exactly where the law lives. Then she mentioned something that stops the officer cold. This is the second time. The first time she was not even home. Her daughter was outside playing in the pool. Miss Ida sprayed her then, too. And told the child she wish she had drowned. Read that back. She wished she had drowned. And that first incident was never reported. Which means it never happened as far as the law is concerned. That is the brutal reality of documentation. If you do not call it in, it does not exist in the system. The officer asks if she wants medics. Her chest is hurting. She is trying ginger and water because she does not want to make a fuss. Meanwhile, she is carrying the weight of this entire situation on her own while managing her children's fear on a sunny afternoon that was supposed to be about bubbles. She says she thought the woman had a gun at first. That is not paranoia. That is a reasonable response to an unknown black canister being raised and fired in your direction. Under the Fourth Amendment and the standards set out in Graham versus Connor, courts evaluate the reasonableness of a response based on what a reasonable person would believe in that moment. A reasonable person seeing a large black canister fired at their family would not think bubble machine. They would think weapon. Because it was one. She is not a legal scholar. But she is describing instinctively exactly what the law recognizes as a credible threat of harm. Hello. So, um So, what's going on today? Them people keep making threats. Mhm. Like So, like >> to come over they're going to beat my ass. Mhm. And they're going to smash my face in. Okay. Put the little kids up to come over to the fence and throw stuff at me cuz all I do is sit on my back porch and read. It's okay, ma'am. >> who they are. Mhm. I couldn't even tell you their names. I don't have nothing to do with them and I don't talk to them. Okay. So, what happened today? She come over to my fence with a They They keep tripping [laughter] cell phone thing. I don't know what it They put the little cell phone in the little kids' hand. Make them walk over to the fence and they tell them to say stuff. Mhm. Okay? And then they hold the cell phone up like this here. To do what? I don't know. Okay. Trying something. And then she that woman she keeps saying she's going to take care of me, okay? What's exactly What's she saying exactly? Huh? What she say exactly? I can't hear her. Okay. I can only see her the motions and what have you, okay? >> Okay. But they sit on that back porch over there. And they'll come out and they'll paste something down that fence. Saying stuff. I ignore them. Mhm. You know. And they just back and forth back and forth. And then finally they'll go in one door out the back door. Paste something down. In the front door out the back door. Paste something down. And that one guy over there, I don't know there's a whole bunch of them. They're supposed to be four people. A man, a woman, and two children. Mhm. There's 10 people living there. Okay? But then he takes paces up and down the fence line. And makes all kinds of horrible noises, whistles, you know. Mhm. I have no peace here. Okay. Have you tried Have you tried calling us? Huh? Have you tried calling us? I You guys got enough to do. Okay? Mhm. Keep thinking that maybe cuz they The lady that owns the house, I called her about. And she knows. Mhm. And she's not going to renew the lease. Okay. But they can, you know, I don't know I don't like Mhm. I Black people are nice. You know the difference between the black people and I hope you do anyway. But black people I work with black people. I like black people. I have some know some real good black [snorts] people. Cuz I don't like. Mhm. There's a lot of drugs going on over there. A lot of cars coming in over there. They're importing something. Okay, and and that pot comes over. Okay. Okay? I mean, I get a second hand of what they're smoking and they smoke dope. Okay. As a matter of fact, Gary can tell you that across the street. The lady on the other end down there can tell you that. Okay? So I'm not going to let it hurt me. Okay. >> I will use whatever means I have to. >> And what did you do today? I used pepper spray at them. Okay, you did Did you spray it? Did it hit them? Like what what where where did you spray it from? From like right outside of my door. I didn't spray to hit them. I just want to let them know I have some protection. So you didn't like go up to the gate and start spraying like at them and the kids or anything like that. big shot of spray in the air. Okay. I have a taser. And I will use every bullet I can get my hands on. I want to go down file charges. But I don't know their name. Okay. And I called down there and and I said >> So so that's that's that's what that's what you called for us for. Huh? That's what you called us for when you know, few weeks ago, months ago, however long it's been going on, you call us when this happens so that you don't have to >> do anything. [clears throat] I mean, you shouldn't do it. I mean, it's better than not calling us and us not doing anything, right? Cuz at least when you call us, we at least know about it. So that when we come out here for something else, we we kind of know the situation cuz this is the first time I've been out here that I know of. Well, there was she called them home before. Mhm. They came out. And what happened then? Nothing. But what like no, what happened? Why why did they why did she call? What did she do? What did you do? >> my back porch reading. Mhm. Okay? And I yelled at the kids I think twice cuz they scream at the top of their lungs. I told them to shut up. Mhm. They don't have to scream that way. And she didn't like that. No. And you know, they didn't like that one bit. So the the two [snorts] girls over there, they always telling me to kiss their ass. They'll bend over and stick their ass up at me and go, "Kiss my ass." Mhm. Okay? And that woman, she's did the same thing, tell me to kiss her ass. You know, they bend over, stick it up, and put their finger right there and look at me. You can tell what they're saying. Mhm. Uh They'll get in those windows facing my house. You Nobody else can see them. So So >> facing my house. And they'll get in those windows. They'll send those kids out to the fence. And you can hear them telling them cuz the kids keeps looking back at them at the window, you know. So So So there's nothing against the law for doing that until you report it to us that it's happening over and over and over and over and over >> reported it to you last week twice to the police department. Because then it can come under harassment, okay? But until you're reporting this to us, there's nothing cuz it's not that's not a that >> a card with your home address. >> That's that's not illegal. That them doing this the same stuff over and over and over again, that possibly could become something that we can look into. But them just doing it and then you calling us, I'd say people that's the freedom of speech, you know? They can say whatever they want. >> here. Okay, I have a right to peace living in my house. >> I agree, which is why which is why we which is why we need it we need it documented over and over again because then it be it can become criminal. Because then it can become harassment. It is harassment. But it has to be us We have to you have to call and document and tell us this because I need a long like a long string of of days and and incidents of this thing occurring. Do you understand? Because them just you you telling me this that, you know, they're telling you all these things saying kiss my ass, you could tell me that right now. I can't do nothing. It's freedom of speech. I can tell you that right now. You can't do nothing. It's freedom of speech. But them doing it over and over and over again could but but we need documentation of that is what I'm saying. Can I go down and file charges? For Even though we don't know their name. For what? For harassment. >> So we we need doc We need proof of of lots of events of this happening for that to happen. Is what we need. It It can't just be just from today. You can't just We need documentation of a lot of events. >> they don't like me sitting on my back porch. And I've been sitting in the back there. And you can do that. That's your property. You can do that all you want. I do. That's fine. >> Then I pay a price too. What they're doing >> then So then when they do something or they say something or they're harassing you, you document it. You call us. You get it on camera. Show us them doing that to you over and over and over again and we can work towards something being harassment. Oops. But I will use every what means I have available to protect myself. And they keep making threats. But So if they stay on their side of the fence though, you you can't be doing that type of stuff, okay? Doing what type of stuff? Spraying mace at them if they're on their side of the fence cuz now they're on their property. They come They come off on their property at night. To your property? Mhm. So then call us so we can do something. But if they're on their property, you can't stay on your property and spray or bear mace or anything. >> at the fence. That if they're still on their property, you cannot do that. Cuz there's a fence between you guys, okay? They're on their property. Just like you're on your property. >> Right. So you can't be spraying mace, okay? So I'm going to I'm going to talk to him really quick, okay? Now we cross the fence and the entire energy of this video shifts. The officer approaches Miss Ida on her porch. She is relaxed, settled, completely at ease. She sees this officer not as someone investigating a crime she committed but as customer service finally arriving to deal with her problem. She launches straight into the grievances, threats, drugs, 10 people in the house, children being used as pawns. She is painting a picture and she is the only canvas she is interested in. Then the officer asks the four words that break the whole thing open. What did you do today? And she answers him without hesitation. I used pepper spray at them. Just like that. No pause, no lawyer, no nothing. She says it the way you would say I took the bins out this morning, matter-of-fact, justified, proud even. That sentence right there is probable cause, signed, sealed, and delivered by the suspect herself. The officer to his credit stays measured. He digs into it. Did you spray it to hit them? And she says I didn't spray to hit them. I just want to let them know I have some protection. Here is where that justification falls apart completely. Self-defense under the law is not a warning system. You cannot deploy a chemical weapon into the air near people as a way of communicating. That is not a warning shot. That is reckless endangerment at minimum and battery at most. When that mist traveled through the air and entered that mother's chest and lungs, contact was made. Offensive, unconsented, chemically induced contact under the legal standard for battery, you do not have to aim for someone's eyes. You just have to cause the harmful contact. She caused it. And then she tells the officer she has a taser and she will use everything she can get her hands on. She just told a law enforcement officer on camera that she is armed, that she has already used one weapon today, and that she intends to continue. You cannot leave that scene without making an arrest. The moment you walk away and she reaches for that taser tomorrow, the department owns whatever happens next. Now, let us talk about what else happens in this clip because it cannot be ignored. Miss Ida tells the officer she likes black people. She has worked for black people. She knows some real good black people. She does not finish the sentence. She does not have to. We all know how that sentence ends. This is a documented pattern in racially motivated incidents. The suspect draws a distinction between acceptable black people, those who are quiet, subservient, employed by her, and the ones next door who are loud, who assert themselves, and um who exist in her sightline without her permission. Her tolerance is conditional. And the moment those conditions were not met, she reached for a canister. The officer does not take that bait. He stays locked on the law. Um which is the right call, but we should not let that moment pass without naming it for exactly what it is. She then makes one final critical error before the clip ends. The officer explains that if the neighbors are on their own property, she cannot spray them. She cannot use force against people who are standing in their own yard. She pushes back. She says they come on their property at night. And the officer says it plainly, then call us. That is the whole answer. That is the entire framework she was supposed to be working within. Document it, call it in, let the system handle it. Instead, she grabbed a canister. Hey, lady. [snorts] Hey. Um so I'm just kind of wondering your your side of things. What what was kind of going on when all this happened? Like what were y'all what were y'all doing? He's talking about today. Today, yeah, with this incident. Like what You playing with the bubbles? Okay, what what did she do? She walked up to her to the gate and then she just pepper sprayed Okay. Did you Did you feel the effects of the pepper spray? No, do you need medical attention for any reason? Like do you Does your nose hurt? Does your throat hurt? Your lungs? Your throat hurt a little bit? Or your nose? Okay. We come home and you'll just hear it. That's what she said. She just sits there all night. stupid, you don't belong in this neighborhood. All this she make gun sounds like she just This is everyday that God gave her. That's what she decides to Got you. I'm going to talk to you real quick. Yeah. Hi Miss Ada. Um, hi. I know you talked to him a little bit earlier. Um, but I just want to talk to you real quick. My name is Deputy Tang, okay? I'm kind of the one um, doing this whole report, okay? Um, so I know you already told him what kind of What's What's kind of going on between y'all? I can't really I don't know what's wrong with them. Yeah. It's okay, peppers. They do drugs. Okay. I mean everybody in the neighborhood knows that they're Everybody's watching. Mhm. They're keep making threats to me. Okay. >> Call the especially those two girls and that one woman. Okay. Okay? Uh, for some reason I don't have I don't have nothing to do with them. I don't talk to them. I don't even know can't even tell you who they are. >> Mhm. Okay? But I do get out and walk I had to pick up their trash out of my yard, bags of dirty baby diapers Mhm. throwed up in my I don't know who did it. But they were dirty baby diapers and that's the only baby over there that I know of. >> Mhm. Okay? >> Okay. So there's a lot going on. Okay. Um They keep telling me how they're going to punch my face in. They're going to take and come over and beat the hell out of me. You know. When did they say that? Just about every time they see me on my back porch. Okay. This is my house. I got you. I have a right to protect myself. Sure. And I will use every what means I have to do that with. I got you. All right, so And if they're in the if if they get hit with something, that's their problem. Okay. I'm just going to read this to you real quick. Um, just cuz I have to read it to you before I keep talking to you, okay? Do you understand each each of these rights? No, not really. Do you want me to read them again? >> No. Okay. All right, Miss Ada. >> Cuz I haven't done anything except live in my house. Oops. Yes, ma'am. I understand. At this time though, I do need you to put your hands behind your back, okay? >> No, you don't do that to me. Ma'am, ma'am, please Miss Ada. Don't don't don't fight us. Don't fight us. >> Ma'am, I'm moving to the front of the >> me for? Okay, it's going to be simple battery, okay? No, I haven't touched anybody. I got you. I need you to put your hands behind your back. Ma'am. Miss Ada. No. I got to take care of this animal. Is there anybody that we can call for you? No. Okay. So we'll we'll take care of the dog. We'll let it inside. I'll put him inside, okay? What are you going to do? We I'm going to let your dog inside. No, but what what are you trying to do with me? You're going to be You're being placed under arrest. For what? For simple battery. I just I need you >> anybody. Ma'am, I need you to put your hands behind your back. Miss Ada. Ma'am, don't make this difficult. The officer crosses back to speak to a younger family member. Quick, simple confirmation. They were playing with bubbles. She walked up to the gate, she sprayed, throat hurts, nose hurts. 20 seconds of testimony that lines up with everything the mother already said. No contradictions, no embellishments, just the facts landing exactly where they were placed. Then Deputy Tang steps in to take over the report and goes back to Miss Ada and Miss Ada starts again. Drugs, threats, diapers, the face punching, every time I sit on my porch. She is cycling back through the grievance list like she is building a case for why what she did was reasonable. Then she says it again, I will use every means I have to do that with. And then if they get hit with something, that is their problem. She is not confused about what she did, she is not remorseful. She is telling a deputy to their face that she accepts no legal responsibility for harm caused to people she decided to spray. Deputy Tang reads her the Miranda warning. Miss Ada says she does not really understand her rights. The deputy offers to read them again. Miss Ada says no. And then comes the moment. At this time though, I do need you to put your hands behind your back. No, you don't do that to me. Five words. And in those five words is the entire psychology of this case. You don't do that to me. Not I didn't do anything wrong, not you have no right, but you don't do that to me. As if arrest is is something that exists in the world but operates around her, not on her. She resists. She asks what the charge is. Simple battery. She says she has not touched anybody. And that is the legal misunderstanding at the core of this whole situation. She believes battery requires her hands on someone. It does not. Under established battery law, causing harmful or offensive contact through any means including a chemical agent that enters someone's body without their consent qualifies. She touched that mother's lungs. She just used a canister to do it. The officers are incredibly patient with her, more patient than the footage probably demands. They offer to get her keys. They offer to take care of her dog. They plead with her not to make it difficult. They are doing everything short of apologizing for arresting her. You already know what this commentary has to say about that. If this had been a 25-year-old man who admitted on his front porch to spraying a chemical agent at children and then said I have a taser and I will use everything I can get my hands on, we would not be watching a 20-minute conversation. We would be watching a takedown. We would be watching the use of force report being written before the first commercial break. Status bought her time. Her age, her gender, her framing of herself as the frightened old woman next door to the danger, all of it built a psychological shield that most people who look different, who are younger, who are louder, never get. The law does not care about the shield and eventually neither did these officers. She was arrested for what she did, not what she said, not who she was, but what she actually did. Bear mace, children, bubbles. That is the case.