NYPD Officers Slam Pregnant Woman to the Ground

An incident over the weekend has left a mom-to-be worried for her baby and residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood worried for their safety. Late Saturday night, Sandra Amezquita and her family were leaving a restaurant when police arrived and arrested her 17-year-old son for possessing a knife.

When the 44-year-old pregnant mother tried to intervene, the police got physical. They restrained Amezquita's arms and shoved her to the ground, belly first. Onlookers told the police she was pregnant and tried to stop them, but they were ignored or, in one woman's case, shoved out of the way.

At a press conference this week, Amezquita's lawyer revealed that she suffered vaginal bleeding shortly after the incident. She was treated at a local hospital, but doctors are still trying to determine the condition of her fetus. Amezquita, who is 5 months pregnant, also says police beat her with a baton and burned her with a Taser. During the press conference, her lawyer released photos that show bruises and burns along her stomach — all because she was trying to protect her son.

"She was doing nothing wrong, an innocent victim," Sanford Rubenstein, Amezquita's attorney, says. "And certainly a pregnant woman — any woman — should not be treated the way she was."

The police's attack on Amezquita is not the first of its kind. Earlier this month, a police officer in the same precinct was suspended for kicking a street vendor. As her unborn child's life hangs in the balance, Amezquita and fellow Brooklynites wonder if the police are there to help or hurt them. Front Page