A 65-year-old grandmother says she was reading a Bible and writing a sermon inside her car at a Mississippi park before she was violently assaulted by police officers and detained.
Now, a civil rights law firm is representing her.
Vivian Burks, of Leake County, was tased eight times and thrown down on July 23 by Carthage police officers after they wanted to search her vehicle at a park in the city, about a 55-mile drive northeast from Jackson, according to the Carlos Moore Law Group.
“I told them they couldn’t search my car without a warrant,” Burks said in a statement to McClatchy News on July 30. “That’s when they started to hurt me. They hurt my back, head, elbows, stomach, and legs.”
The incident stemmed from Burks having an expired vehicle tag, the Carlos Moore Law Group said in a July 29 news release.
Burks “was treated with unimaginable brutality while peacefully engaging in her own personal activities,” attorney Carlos Moore said in a statement.
“We demand transparency, accountability, and justice,” Moore added.
His firm is calling for the Carthage Police Department to release body camera footage.
Carthage Police Chief Billy McMillan confirmed on July 30 to McClatchy News that Burks was arrested.
In a statement, McMillan said Burks resisted arrest in Matlock Park on July 23 after an officer “smelled marijuana coming from” her vehicle and saw her expired tag.
The police encounter
According to Burks, a Carthage police officer came up to her vehicle on July 23 while she was parked and reading the Bible. The officer told her that her vehicle tag was expired, she said.
“I gave him my license and registration like he asked, and he even offered to put the tag on for me,” Burks said.
Then, another Carthage officer, whom Burks believes was an investigator, appeared, according to the law firm.
McMillan told McClatchy News that the first officer noticed Burks when they watched her car pull out from where she was parked in Matlock Park.
She drove to a “turnaround and reversed course” and then drove past the officer’s car, McMillan said.
“The officer smelled marijuana, turned around, saw the suspect car also had an expired tag, and executed a traffic stop,” McMillan said. “After the stop the officer continued to smell the aroma of marijuana from the car.”
The law firm told McClatchy News on July 30 that Burks was being detained at first for her expired vehicle tag before the “situation escalated when the officers insisted on searching her vehicle without providing a reason.”
When Burks tried to return to her car, an officer told her to “step away” and grabbed her, Burks said.
She refused a search and the officers continued to detain her, accusing her of not complying with their orders, according to the law firm, which said they then tased and assaulted her.
“I told them I was hurt and didn’t feel good and asked for medical help,” Burks said.
Afterward, EMTs arrived, according to Burks’ legal counsel.
“When they finally got there, I asked to go to the hospital, but they said I was fine and told the officer to take me to be booked,” Burks said.
Burks was “thrown” in the back of a police car and taken to jail, where she told staff she was diabetic and asked for water, according to the law firm.
“The medical staff at the jail saw me, and the nurse said I needed to go to the hospital,” Burks said.
Burks was then transported to a hospital and received treatment for physical injuries, the law firm told McClatchy News.
She was charged with disorderly conduct - failure to comply, resisting arrest, a DUI and marijuana possession, according to her legal counsel.
McMillan confirmed these charges against Burks and that she had “expressed opposition to the officer checking the interior of the car, saying, he needed a warrant.”
When Burks stepped out of her car, McMillan said she told the officer “she had smoked marijuana prior to coming to the park.”
“As the officer tried to arrest her she resisted,” McMillan said, adding that “an ambulance was called to the scene and paramedics cleared the woman medically.”
He did not comment on the assault accusations made against his officers.
Burks has since been released from jail, the law firm said.
“I’m deeply hurt and shaken by what happened,” Burks said. “The pain is bad, but the emotional and mental scars are even worse.”
In the U.S., about 1 million people experience threat of force, or use of force , during police encounters each year, the Law Enforcement Epidemiology Project at the University of Illinois Chicago reports, based on data from 2001 to 2021.
These encounters have resulted in about 75,000 non-fatal injuries resulting in hospital treatment and between 600 to 1,000 deaths, according to the data.
It’s more likely that Black and Hispanic Americans will face threats or force from police, the Law Enforcement Epidemiology Project says, citing the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics.
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