Chicago to pay 55K to woman tasered by cops while pregnant

Chicago to pay 55K to woman tasered by cops while pregnant

Your Black World

     The city of Chicago reportedly plans to pay a $55,000 settlement to a woman who was tasered by police in front of her two young children while she was pregnant.

    Tiffany Rent, 31, sued the city after Officer Reginald Pippen used a taser on her while she was eight months pregnant, according to the Chicago Sun Times.

    Rent says the trouble began when she pulled into a handicapped parking spot in the Walgreen’s parking lot while her fiance ran into the store to pick up a few things. She says she had just gotten out of her car to reseat her three-year-old when a police officer pulled up and began writing her a parking ticket.

    According to police, Rent tore up the ticket and threw it at the cop, then refused to provide identification when asked. The officer said he tasered Rent when she tried to get in her car and drive away.

    “I don’t think that it should have went this far,” she said. “It just makes me afraid of the Chicago Police Department because there’s other women that may have went through this or that’s going through this.”

    Attorney Keenan Saulter argued that a parking ticket is not a reason to use a stun gun.

“A parking ticket,” he said. “Not even a moving violation, but a parking ticket should not involve someone pulling out a Taser.”

    The cop who tasered Rent is under review.

    Police Supt. Garry McCarthy said stun guns should be used when overcoming assault or preventing escape and “you can’t always tell if somebody’s pregnant.”

    Rent gave birth in July.