Newly surfaced video showing a police officer tackling an 18-year-old Black woman during an Arkansas traffic stop and striking her in the head has sparked outrage and renewed calls for a formal use-of-force investigation.
Alisa Hackett, a resident of Osceola, Arkansas, was stopped on State Highway 18 near Manila around 10:45 p.m. on Aug. 1, according to an Arkansas State Police incident report. Authorities said she was driving 71 mph in a 60-mph zone while her vehicle’s hazard lights were activated.
After the stop, Hackett told state trooper Moisses Arellano that she was trying to get home quickly because a window on her car had broken, the police report states.
In the report, Arellano wrote that Hackett was not wearing a seat belt, that her license plate was covered and that a cold bottle of liquor was in the front seat. Dashcam footage captured Arellano asking, “Why do you have a Tito’s bottle, you’re not even 21?” Later in the recording, he acknowledges that the bottle was sealed.
Arellano characterized Hackett as “being difficult” while he issued citations, according to the report. He then contacted another trooper, who said Hackett had been stopped for speeding “a few days earlier” and had an open alcohol container in her vehicle but had been allowed to leave with a warning.
In the footage, the other trooper can be heard telling Arellano, “Well, she got an attitude, take her ass to jail.”
Arellano then moved to arrest Hackett, who is listed as 5-foot-1 and 118 pounds, and directed her to get out of the car, the report says. Hackett initially complied, but “she began turning around and repeatedly asked what she had done,” according to the report, which says she continued pulling away before the trooper “took her to the ground.”
“After giving multiple commands for her to roll over without compliance, I delivered one closed-fist strike to the left side of her face in an attempt to gain compliance,” Arellano wrote in the report. “After the strike, she continued resisting by pulling her wrists away and refusing to roll over.”
He pointed a stun gun at her midsection, but did not fire, and she then complied in putting her hands behind her back and she was arrested, the report said.
In the video, Hackett can be heard saying, “You cannot punch me in my face.” Arellano responds, “Who said? Who says?” and then “Who said I can’t punch you in your face?”
As he was taking her to the back of his patrol car, Hackett began yelling “Help me” and “Call my momma” to passing motorists, Arellano wrote.
When she was in the back seat of the police car, Arellano can be heard saying, “If you resist, I can punch you, I can read you the policy.”
Arkansas State Police
Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement Monday he wanted Arkansas State Police to open a use-of-force investigation through its Office of Professional Standards, make it public and release any previous use-of-force reports related to Arellano.
“This trooper slammed an 18-year-old girl to the ground and punched her in the face. He wrote it down himself: a closed fist, because she would not roll onto her stomach,” Crump said in a statement. “Alisa asked him what she had done, and the video shows what she got for asking.”
“Arkansas State Police have to explain to the public how that is a reasonable response to a teenager at a traffic stop,” Crump continued. “If you cannot handle a teenage girl without taking her to the ground, cursing at her, and punching her in the face, you should not be wearing a badge.”
Hackett was arrested for refusal to submit to arrest, possession of alcohol by a minor, speeding, not wearing a seat belt, improper display of license tags and an offense for improper headlights.
Attorney Luther Sutter filed a civil rights lawsuit against Arellano on Hackett’s behalf Monday alleging excessive force. However, Sutter said he received a letter from Hackett saying she was switching her representation to Crump, according to local news outlet NEA Report.
In response to a request for comment, the Arkansas Department of Public Safety said, “Our long-held practice is not to comment on matters that are pending litigation.”
The department did not answer whether Arellano is still on active duty.
Jason Allen
contributed to this report.
