Cattle Prod News
Fearing for their lives, cops taze and pepper spray a minister and his congregation
"WEBSTER, Texas – Police used a Taser on a pastor and pepper spray to disperse his congregants Wednesday after the pastor allegedly interfered with a traffic stop in the church parking lot.
Congregants say they were in the Iglesia Profetica Peniel church for an early morning prayer when pastor Jose Elias Moran went to assist the stopped driver, a church member, by asking the police what had happened.
An incident report on the Webster police department's Web site said Officer Raymond Berryman tried to calm Moran and arrest him. But police say he pushed the officer, went inside the church and returned with 40 other congregants.
The congregants say Moran fled into the church when the officer grew angry and began to yell, and Moran's family disputes that the pastor touched the officer.
Moran's son Miguel said 30 witnesses saw the officer turn aggressive and repeatedly kick the church door. Several members were hit with pepper spray and children were present, Miguel Moran said.
"They treated him as if he were a drug dealer or murderer, but he is a pastor that tries to help the community," Moran said. "The police always want to be right but they are not."
Moran's wife, Maria, said she tried to help her husband after he was hit with the Taser but police threatened to arrest her.
"My husband has a heart condition and with electrocution who knows what could've happened," Maria Moran said.
She added that police told them Moran had been taken to a hospital, but Miguel Moran said when the family arrived there, police refused to give them any information.
They learned from a bail bond firm that Moran had been released from the hospital and was in jail on $500 bail. Moran, 42, was charged with interfering in the duties of a police officer.
Police Sgt. James Lovel did not specify Moran's status, except to say he was in custody and negotiations for bail were taking place Wednesday night.
"A pastor has to tend to his flock," Maria Moran said. "That is all he was doing."
"WEBSTER, Texas – Police used a Taser on a pastor and pepper spray to disperse his congregants Wednesday after the pastor allegedly interfered with a traffic stop in the church parking lot.
Congregants say they were in the Iglesia Profetica Peniel church for an early morning prayer when pastor Jose Elias Moran went to assist the stopped driver, a church member, by asking the police what had happened.
An incident report on the Webster police department's Web site said Officer Raymond Berryman tried to calm Moran and arrest him. But police say he pushed the officer, went inside the church and returned with 40 other congregants.
The congregants say Moran fled into the church when the officer grew angry and began to yell, and Moran's family disputes that the pastor touched the officer.
Moran's son Miguel said 30 witnesses saw the officer turn aggressive and repeatedly kick the church door. Several members were hit with pepper spray and children were present, Miguel Moran said.
"They treated him as if he were a drug dealer or murderer, but he is a pastor that tries to help the community," Moran said. "The police always want to be right but they are not."
Moran's wife, Maria, said she tried to help her husband after he was hit with the Taser but police threatened to arrest her.
"My husband has a heart condition and with electrocution who knows what could've happened," Maria Moran said.
She added that police told them Moran had been taken to a hospital, but Miguel Moran said when the family arrived there, police refused to give them any information.
They learned from a bail bond firm that Moran had been released from the hospital and was in jail on $500 bail. Moran, 42, was charged with interfering in the duties of a police officer.
Police Sgt. James Lovel did not specify Moran's status, except to say he was in custody and negotiations for bail were taking place Wednesday night.
"A pastor has to tend to his flock," Maria Moran said. "That is all he was doing."
posted by nolocontendere at 9:23 PM
3 Comments:
An incident report on the Webster police department's Web site said Officer Raymond Berryman tried to calm Moran and arrest him.
Arrest him? For what? Offering his assistance??!!!
Give me a break!
I swear nick, it never ceases to amaze me the depths to which cops have sunk. With their new taser toys they're down in a hole and are still shoveling. Pregnant women, guy with broken back, grannies, babies, stuffed animals, wheelchair bound, each other....now clergy. It's insanely hilarious if it wasn't so fucking serious.
It's appalling to see that the cops have dug into their fascist modality with such relish, it's obvious that the 'fear the fuzz or else' meme is being pushed hard.
There's going to be a time however that some cop is going to go one taser shot too far to the wrong person and then martial law will result.
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