Police Complaint Center

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A controversy is brewing in South Florida over a dash-camera video showing a Fort Pierce police officer punching a 15-year-old girl while she is resisting arrest, WPBF News 25 reported.
The tape indicates Fort Pierce police Officer Daniel Gilroy turned on his dash-camera and recorded the arrest of 15-year-old Shelwand Riley, who police said was violating curfew and acting suspiciously. She was allegedly carrying a garbage bag full of new clothes with tags still attached, WPBF reported.
Riley's aunt, Gloria Smith, said the tape shows police brutality and excessive force, even though her niece bit the arresting officer on the arm.
Well, she did that after his aggressive behavior. He never stated why he was appending her. Her rights were never read to her; she was violated all the way," Smith said.
The videotape shows Gilroy punching Riley with his fist and spraying her with pepper spray after she bit him, WPBF reported.
The tape indicates that Riley was placed into the back seat of an officer's patrol vehicle and officers attempted to wash off the pepper spray using a bottle of water.
Riley appeared in court this week represented by a public defender, who refused to comment on the case, WPBF reported. The teen pleaded not guilty to a resisting-arrest charge.
According to court documents, the case is expected to go to trial in November, where a judge will decide whether the officer used excessive force in the arrest.

(Video is embedded on this website)-http://www.wpbf.com/news/14278550/detail.html

Ive seen this one before. Its a tough call. She clearly is resisting a bit so Im not sure where I would go with this one. Just my two cents.

Curfew or not how did she present??? Was she wearing dark clothes and carrying boltcutters???? Or was she looking "suspicious" and had been shopping??? Any additional information would be helpful. If she has receipts...curfew violation with little else except speculation and extrapolation is not very convincing. Arrested for ????a curfew violation??? Seems a bit extreme when a warning or a ticket could easily serve the purpose.


I have a relative who was in WWI and WWII, in fact, was in Russia when the russian revolution took place. The stories of how Hitler came to power or about Stalin and the techniques employed did not occur instantaneously but through steps which seem strangely familiar to what I am seeing currently.


Personally, she was quite petite and is a minor, her arm was wretched pretty hard...her hand was almost touching the back of her head, and the pepper spray was administerred when the 'defendant'was not resisting from what I could see. (of curfew violation,1984) And age isn't a factor it could be a 7 yr old or a 97 yr old, there are no exceptions to this Orwellian attitudes, the ideology it brings, the tolerance for extreme measures beyond a normal and average "reasonable" approach.

To serve and protect was very old school, I do not feel threatened by the little girl-not at all. I feel threatened by a cop who acts like he is on roids and likely has a personality disorder. Hope he never has kids, who invaribly will hurt parents-lack of control....sure I would be angry if I had been bit, but the way it was handled shows me he needs further training, specifically anger management.


Regardless of their oath, they are SERVANTS-that video does not show a servant but a tyrant. I deal with medical-some patients are not appreciative of services, should I assault them? No, I am a professional and must be or my training is a facade...just my opinion

If I had not seen so much corruption and abuse I would be more agreeable to giving them greater latitude than most. However, when the penchant for abuse is monolithic, I cannot garner support for that, in any way as a human being.

It even says that he hit her and sprayed her AFTER she bit him. Don't act like an animal with police officers and things may go much better for you.
Also she said that she was not read her rights. Officer are not required to read peoples rights just for arresting someone. Rights are read before questioning.

I never have advocated Police Abuse, this is why I've advocated with the Director since he was with Hawthorne P.D. However, the video clearly shows the girl biting him and I believe the officer acted on response or impulse. Let someone bite you on the hand while you're holding something or doing something and I DON'T THINK your response will be to continue to grab or hold. I suspect your response will be to do something to get the teeth off, and since the situation of someone biting on you is almost always in a fighting situation, a person's normal response is to punch the head (where the teeth are). I also noticed on the video that after he did that, he continued on with what he was doing, which was trying to arrest the girl (he had the right to do that). I didn't see any abusive behavior beyond the instinctive punch.

Once again, I don't advocate the police, but I do advocate what's right & wrong. I'm not a fan of the police by no means. This is just an observation.