Poll: Family at fault in sheriff confrontation

A majority of respondents in an online Argus-Courier poll said they felt the Lemos family was at fault for escalating a confrontation with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, after viewing footage from deputy body cameras.|

A majority of respondents in an online Argus-Courier poll said they felt the Lemos family was at fault for escalating a confrontation with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, after viewing footage from deputy body cameras. About 75 percent said the family was at fault, while 15 percent said the deputies were to blame. Another 10 percent said they both were at fault.

Here are some of the comments:

--

“All they had to do was comply with the officer.”

--

“Deputy Holton demonstrated patience in dealing with the racist family. I am sorry Deputy Holton had to deal with that family.”

--

“Follow deputies’ directions, and do not interfere, or suffer the consequences. Any reasonable person would have believed there was a fight going on in the vehicle.”

--

“I’m sorry but I’m tired of law enforcement always taking the blame for this stuff. That “poor innocent” teenager brought it on herself. All anyone has to do is comply with the police, end of story. In my 50 years, I’ve never had a negative experience with the police. You know why? Because I obey the law and do as I’m instructed when asked. Pretty simple concept, isn’t it.”

--

“If this dysfunctional family had just calmed down and listened to the cop, it would have been resolved on the spot. After watching all the YouTube videos, including the phone calls from the jail, it is astonishing that in 2016 there could still be such a group of racist Neanderthals in Petaluma. This mother must really be proud of her kids. In fact, I don’t know who’s more embarrassing, the kids, or the mother.”

--

“Mom should be arrested too.”

--

“She just interfered for no apparent reason.”

--

“She seems to be a smart aleck teenager that wants things her way.”

--

“The police are not at fault, and I’m not always a big supporter of the police. This family is a trash-mouthed bunch of hillbilly rubes. Thank goodness the body cams were there to show the true story.”

--

“Police need more than 19 weeks of training before interacting with the population as an authority figure. European police are typically trained for 130 weeks and they see significantly less unnecessary police violence against citizens. A grown man body-slamming and assaulting an 18 year-old girl because he was upset that she questioned his judgement? Yeah, the deputy is at fault needs more training.”

--

“The young, under-aged woman who was drunk seems to have caused most of the problems. Her family caused the rest of the problems for interfering with the deputies. Then the under-aged drunk woman resisted arrest and was forcefully subdued. It all seems pretty straight forward to me except for the timing of the charges against the under-aged drunk woman after she filed a lawsuit against the county.”

--

“This was an unnecessary provocation of a family’s unfortunate incident. If this response was about protecting citizens then I want no part in this kind of ‘protection.’ This ‘investigation’ was not well thought out, and only served to unnecessarily agitate, infuriate and hurt a family and an enforcement agency’s reputation. Such a sad mistake for all of us.”

--

“Totally excessive force.”

--

“When a police officer gives a command you obey it. Ask questions later.”

--

“When law enforcement comes up on a situation such as the one in this scenario, they never know what might come up. If it appears that someone might be in trouble, they’re there to assist. If the family simply cooperated and remained calm, no one would have gotten hurt. These folks have no respect for others, nor are they teaching their children any respect, especially for law enforcement.”

--

“When the cop/deputy gives you a direction, you know what you do? You follow it. They’re lucky they all didn’t get arrested.”

--

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.