US police pursue girl over stone

An 11-year-old girl who threw a stone at a group of boys pelting her with water balloons is being prosecuted on serious assault charges in California.

Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April in a police operation which involved three police cars and a helicopter.

She has since spent five days in detention, in which she was granted one 30 minute visit by her parents, and has spent a month under house arrest.

Her lawyer accuses the authorities of criminalising childhood behaviour.

"They're treating her like a violent parole offender," Richard Beshwate said. "It's not a felony, it's an 11-year-old acting like an 11-year-old."

The girl is due back in court at the beginning of next month.

Police say they had to investigate as the boy who was hit by the stone she threw suffered a deep gash to his head and needed hospital treatment.

He has reportedly acknowledged to officers that he started the fight in late April.

'Obligation'

The confrontation happened in a poor district of Fresno, in central California, where Maribel Cuevas lives with her Spanish-speaking family.

The girl, who speaks little English, has admitted throwing a stone at a group of boys she says were pestering her with water balloons as she walked down the street.

An ambulance was called, but arrived flanked by three police patrol vehicles. A helicopter meanwhile hovered overhead.

The 11-year-old was then read her rights twice in English before being detained.

"We responded. We determined a felony assault had taken place and the officers took the actions that were necessary," said Fresno Police Sergeant Anthony Martinez.

Another police officer told ABC News that the girl, when asked what she thought would happen if she threw the stone, replied that it would make him "bleed".

Source: BBC News (online)=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4689459.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4689459.stm

I hink it's called creating a market.

And why do they call it the justice system?

I call it a positive feedback loop.

I wrote this letter to the mayor and the police of Fresno. (Yeah, I'm an out-of-town buttinsky. Sosumi.)

-----------------------

I just got a disturbing email of an article from the Associated Press

about your police department.

What happened is WRONG! You have to get your police department under

control. They should not be harrassing a little girl who's getting

bullied already. In fact, I bet some of the officers involved in this

incident have some record of abuse, either against arrestees, or against

their own families.

It sounds like a typical "abuser finds victim" story reminiscent of

what's happened with priests and kids, or teachers and abused students.

She's the perfect victim too. She's got limited English, parents who

speak no English, is a quiet girl, and she has been the victim of

bullying from the same boy in the past.

Justice must be done, and the offending officers should be suspended and

put under some psychological study, to find out if they're going to be

dangerous to other children in vulnerable situations.

"Another police officer told ABC News that the girl, when asked what she thought would happen if she threw the stone, replied that it would make him "bleed"."

Rock?, Water Ballon? which one is childs play?

bring your kid over here and let my kid throw a rock at his head....

see if that qualifies as "child play" to you..

numbnuts..lol

...regardless of how you define it, the reaction does not fit the crime...

...and, regardless of whether the balloons could actually hurt her, she only had to believe she was under physical threat in order to make her actions self-defense, and therefor no crime at all.

...seems to me that a good lawyer would make the city pay pay pay for this idiocy...

too bad she could'nt find an ELDERLY WHITE WOMAN

to throw her rock at, ey?

perhaps she is the child of the as yet unarrested RACIST who injured the elder at the baldwin1 anti-racist protest (against illegal aliens).

> let my kid throw a rock at his head



When I was a kid in school another kid kept teasing me (verbally only) so I threw a vial of concentrated acid on him (I warned him I would if he didn't stop but he kept doing it anyway - when the acid hit him he said "ow it stings !" and ran inside. then a min later he and the janitor came out and they called the Principal who suspended me for 3 days)



it melted his winter parka coat down to nothing (nylon) within seconds

nothing beyond that happened except his parents called my parents and they agreed to pay for a new coat (.)

I was grounded from my Lab for a month (but I was still running the schools Lab plus I had chemicals in various other places like in my bedroom, the barn, etc.

During that time I snuck what chemicals I needed out to my "backup Lab" in the barn

Afterward that room became a second home to me as I ran electricity out to it, etc for lights, fans, a TV and so on..

I was known as the "Mad Scientist" in school BTW..

we used to throw rocks and stuff and that was NOTHING compared to even the acid

I never saw a policeman ever in school either

I've had kids throw rocks at me, both as a child and as an adult. I don't want them sent to juvie for it. Punishment is due, of course, but state punishment is excessive.

I also think it's okay to retalliate against bullies, even if it means hurting them a little physically. That's what she was doing. She was doing something that would make the kids stop hassling her, maybe forever.

>>too bad she could'nt find an ELDERLY WHITE WOMAN

to throw her rock at, ey?

>>perhaps she is the child of the as yet unarrested RACIST who injured the elder at the baldwin1 anti-racist protest (against illegal aliens).

You're the racist, lat.

This girl has nothing to do with what's happening here in LA.

LOL. Yeah, I remember we used to have dirt clod fights. Nobody got busted for those.

We even modified fireworks so they'd blow up or become smoke bombs. Nobody got busted for that, even though it was illegal.

Kids today can't get away with *anything*.

we used to throw apples at cars as they went by too

We also used to kneel down in the ditches and jump up and scream as the car went by at night

the acid was fuming hydrochloric (35%) - if I had aimed a few inches higher it would have blinded him - I aimed it just below his eyes on purpose so it would burn his face but not blind him

his father called and demanded to know what kind of acid it was - said he was a chemist

I outsmarted him - I claimed it was a mix of various organic acids (malic, acetic, citric)

if he really was a chemist he would have known what kind of acid dissolves nylon..

since he didn't I knew right away I could tell him anything that had the same smell

I had rinsed the vial out so no one could tell what it was

I also had concentrated sulfuric acid - if I had thrown that on him it would have eaten his face away by burning it like charcoal

but I didn't want to hurt him only scare him - that's why I didn't aim for his eyes either..

I was REALLY taunted as the mad scientist after that but also the bullies left me alone - they were afraid I'd do the same to them - and I let them know I had stronger acids too (I even made hydrofluoric acid once which will eat almost anything including glass)

I was electroplating in the Lab and I asked the teacher to order 5.lbs of potassium cyanide *and he did.*

I had enough cyanide to kill thousands of people then.

Good thing I value human life so much !

try buying large amounts of cyanide these days and you'll get a visit from the FBI as soon as you accept delivery..

This story was in the San FranciscoChronicle of 7/18/05 and on KPFA's morning show on 7/19/05. KPFA is to Berkeley what KPFK is to Los Angeles, listener-sponsored Pacifica radio station. On KPFA, they interviewed the people who are working to get the charges dropped and who organized a public meeting for tonight in Fresno.

I urge everyone in Fresno County to call the district attorney listed in their phone book and demand the charges be dropped today. This is an outrageous and unconscionable waste of tax dollars and constitutes a form of terrorism by the state against children in particular and the workingclass in general. The DA of Fresno County should be told that she will be defeated in the next election if these charges are not dropped.

The child defended herself in a manner that is very reasonable for chlidren. Female children are especially vulnerable and it is outrageous that this child was subject to 2 police cars and a helicopter to arrest her, after she was the victim of vicious harassment by a male child, put her in a prison (that is what it really was) with only 1 family visit and force her to wear a monitoring bracelet, before any hearing, much less after any hearing.

This frame-up by Fresno County would make Nazi Germany proud. The DA of Fresno County needs to be told that pressing charges is a sign of promoting fascism and she (the DA is a woman) will continue to wear the monikers of Nazi and terorist until those charges are dropped.

The child did nothing wrong at all. She and her family do have a good civil rights complaint against Fresno County, the district attorney, all of the arresting police, and the family of the male child. As far as I am concerned, this child deserves million for every minute she was under arrest, in prison and wearing a monitoring bracelet, as well as very minute she has to sit in any court hearing.

I hope you weren't in high school when all that went down.

when I was 6 the cops showed up and talked to us because a bunch of us were throwing cumquats at passing cars... kind of stupid, I know.

that was in elementary school

that amount could kill over 2,000 people - I could have mixed it with some acid in the hallway and killed everyone in school - 10 times over

But I was *trusted* by the science teachers with dangerous chemicals that's why I did my own experiments in the Lab while the rest of the students (2 classrooms - ~ 60) did normal the curriculum. Sometimes one other student would too - some kid named John :) , don't remember his last name..

One of our favorite activities was glass blowing, I taught both classrooms how to do it (I was really good at it) We went through a lot of glass tubing - used to make pretty designs like you might have seen vendors offer. I could blow ballons with walls so thin they would shatter under a slight air current, and make fiberglass too, but all that was just for fun..

This elementary school was where I got an electronics class started which I ran myself (thats why I was only suspended for 3 days - I was too valuable to the school to have away for long - I actually had to teach the teacher electronics so he could run the class so when I went to HS the class wouldn't die)

in school. Schools are so much different now.

I hear they have commercial ads (billboards on the walls) and cops running around the halls, etc

In elementary school there never were, in HS very rarely you would hear a cop came to school for a specific reason but they didn't hang out there..

While I'm on it (see my comments elsewhere) . . .

What is this, but teaching a pre-pubescent girl that she'd better not retalitate against bullying boys, even to defend herself and her little brother.

And abused women better not use a bigger weapon than their abusers to protect themselves and their children. Little Maribel Cuevas has learned the lesson that the 1000+ other women in prison for retaliating against their abusers have been taught.

Teach your children well . . .

**************************

An aside to Fed Up, who commented:

>"Another police officer told ABC News that the girl, when asked what she thought would happen if she threw the stone, replied that it would make him "bleed"."

>Rock?, Water Ballon? which one is childs play?

Bleeding? Is that what bothers you? Maribel may well be bleeding every month, or she soon will be. A little blood ain't no thing, if you're female.

Contacts

Alan Autry (Mayor of Fresno)

Jerry Dyer (Police Chief of Fresno)

Mr. Harrell (Asst. DA of Fresno)

Ms Egan (DA of Fresno)

Protest the indefensible charges against Maribel Cuevas!!

This is my letter to the Mayor

-- Mr Autry, I hope that you will seriously consider the inexcusable charges

of either Ms Egan or Mr Harrell 's decision on prosecuting 11 year old

Maribel Cuevas, to be out of total disregard for justice . When are we going to stop blaming the victim? It's

unfortunate that she actually made contact with the the boy when she

threw the rock, but haven't we all made a bad decision out of anger

when we were kids? I'm not saying it's right, but do I think the

decision of prosecuting her with "assault with a deadly" weapon is

right? Absolutly not! I don't know whats on the DA or asst. DA's

agenda, but it's probably not justice. If the way they treated Maribel

while arresting her is true, that was injust by the fresno police dept.

run by, as you know police chief Jerry Dyer, correct? That mr. mayor,

will haunt her for the rest of her natural life. This incident will

follow her all through her adult life, unlike for that young boy, who

by the way is the perpetrator (just want to clarify that). I would hope that maribels family and

people of fresno and elseware will PUSH to file a law suit against the

city of fresno after the case is over with (we both know she will not

be convicted, which puts this as a waste of time and tax payers

dollars), Maribel deserves compensation for her pain and

suffering for many years to come. Fresno govenment should really be

ashamed of themselves, and the people of fresno should stand up and

demand an apology from your da's office, and the fresno police dept for

maribel family at the very least. Please do not let this emabarressment continue any

longer then it has, make the DA accountable for their inexcusable

judgement. Apply the checks and balances----debra

Fed Up said...

>"Another police officer told ABC News that the girl, when asked what she thought would happen if she threw the stone, replied that it would make him "bleed"."

>Rock?, Water Ballon? which one is childs play?



Leslie said....

Bleeding? Is that what bothers you? Maribel may well be bleeding every month, or she soon will be. A little blood ain't no thing, if you're female.

Damn that's a great analogy...you're a friggen genius...

Menstrual bleeding compared to stitches? Hm? let me think if your point made any sense (pause) Nope.

first of all bullying of any type is not childs play at all. after the first water ballon struct, and they noticed she wasnt laughing the pestering should have stopped, but it didnt, in fact it continued. to the point frustration and mental anguish. weither she ment to make him bleed or not, which probably was a statement in by the cops thrown in by the cops, it was move of self defense and protection. she felt threatened, so she acted in the best way an eleven year old child does. they were throwing stuff, she threw something back. it just so happened to be a rock, and it was unfortunate that it hit him. i guess life always has its way of correcting incorrect situation. if anything the littleboys should have been walking her home, to make sure she got there safely, being that its such a "poor" district. as far as leslie is concerned she making refrence to the fact that women bleed atleast once a month, and it hurts sometimes, maybe all the time, i dont know im not a woman. the point is, the blood that was shed was not anything she hasnt felt, or wont be feeling soon. if you didnt have your head so far up you butt, youd see who was really injusticed. if you had a DAUGHTER that was being bully and harrased not by one but by a group of boys, you wouldnt think she was any kind of wrongdoing, in fact youd probably be the one on trial for whatever various way you thought would suffice for the treatment of your DAUGHTER. so what he gets hit in his head with "a" rock by accident, and gets stiches, a little gash wont hurt him, hes probably had worse, but you mean to tell me that the demoralization of a young girls spirit and well-being, not only by the little boys, but by the little cops too, wont stab deeper. you got to be kidding. you dont think that 3 squad cars and a helicopter was it bit Excessive!! do you now the cost of the fuel it took to put it in the helicopter to take off and hover over a little girl already surrounded by 6 "adult officers" for what, maybe 15mins. it could probably amount to your income of two months. totally unnessacery to say the least. a waste of you money and the rest of fresnos'. if i was the mayor i'd slap the police chief. i wish i could file a lawsuit against fresnos overzealous and incompetent justice system. im 18 and i dont even live in california. america is supposed to be the land of milk and honey, a place to spread your wings, and the home to make you dreams come true. but now its vastly becoming the land of empty containers, the clipper of wings, and the king of dream crusher, to illegal and legal aliens and citizens alike. people really need to grow up start thinking with their brains.