Dyma Loving was brutally arrested after calling the police for help.

Dyma was on her way to do her taxes when she passed by the house of her neighbor Frank Tumm. Tumm engaged Dyma into a heated conversation where moments later, Tumm pulled out a shotgun and told Dyma he was going to “shoot her Black ass head off.” Dyma did what a lot of people would do in the same situation. She called the police for help. Instead of confronting Tumm for brandishing a weapon, Officer Alejandro Giraldo and three other officers violently arrested Dyma -- the officers shoved her into a chain-link fence, pulled her to the ground, then forced her in handcuffs.

When Dyma responded to officers with pleas to contact her children, and questions of why she was being abused, she was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

All too often, Black women are left out of the conversation about police use of lethal and violent force against Black communities. Last year in a similarly cruel interaction with the police, Chikesia Clemons was thrown to the ground and attacked while being arrested by police officers in Alabama. Black girls and women are constantly perceived as aggressive, and more likely to disobey authority -- a stereotype that has so clearly permeated the Miami-Dade Police Department. 

It’s time to bring attention to the ways Black women are policed. Black women and gender nonconforming Black people are often subjected to forms of sexual assault by the police that flies under the radar of popular media and current legislation. When the video dropped, Giraldo was suspended from the Miami-Dade police department, but this is not enough. Police officers will continue to believe this behavior is acceptable as long as no action has is taken to hold them responsible.

Dyma was initially charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, and now that the charges against her have been dropped, Dyma is calling the police officers at the scene be charged with assault. We are joining Dyma in her efforts. Help us call on Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez to file criminal charges against the police officers who brutally arrested Dyma.

Here is the Petition:

Dear State Attorney Katherine Fernandez, 

Suspending Officer Giraldo for his attack on Dyma Loving is just the first step. We are calling on both you to change the pattern of police terror against Black communities in Miami-Dade County. The video provides evidence that Dyma made no verbal or physical threat to the police officers at the scene -- getting angry with a police officer does not justify a vicious and violent arrest.

 

We urge you to file criminal charges against Officer Giraldo immediately and commit to taking deliberate steps to remedy the culture of brutality against Black communities in the Miami-Dade police department.