On The Front Lines
Decrying Police Review as Insufficient, Rutherford Institute Asks ABC Director to Call for an Independent Review of Bottled Water Sting
Documents
Click here to read The Rutherford Institute's letter to ABC Enforcement Director Shawn Walker
Click here to read The Rutherford Institute's letter to the Virginia General Assembly
Click here to read The Rutherford Institute's letter to the Charlottesville City Council
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. —John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, is calling on the Director of Enforcement of the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC), Shawn Walker, to support an independent review of an April 2013 incident in which a University of Virginia student was targeted and terrorized by ABC agents after she purchased sparkling water at a grocery store. Elizabeth Daly was eventually jailed for daring to evade her accosters, who failed to identify themselves or approach her in a non-threatening manner. Warning that a review of the incident by state police will only result in a rubber stamping of the ABC agents’ actions, Whitehead has asked Walker to specifically request Governor McDonnell and the Virginia General Assembly to conduct an independent third-party review of the April 11th incident. Furthermore, Whitehead has asked Walker to make sure the full and complete results of this review will be made available to the public, along with the details of any disciplinary actions taken and any policy changes that have been made to prevent a reoccurrence of this kind of incident.
“By refusing to allow an independent review, state officials have signaled to the officers involved in this incident that they are immune from accountability for their actions, and to the public at large that we should not expect real reform after these kinds of incidents,” said Whitehead, who addresses these very issues in his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State (SelectBooks, 2013). “The lesson of this incident should not be that as long as someone, anyone, places a stamp of approval on the reckless actions of state agency officials, then the public should be satisfied. Instead, the lesson should be that our public officials are willing to engage in serious and searching review of their wrongful actions, and are willing to take the appropriate steps to expose them and resolve them when they do occur.”
On April 11, 2013, after leaving the Harris Teeter grocery store in Charlottesville, Va., Elizabeth Daly, a young college student at the University of Virginia, was accosted by a man and woman in street clothes, who began knocking on her car windows. The man yanked at the door handle, banged on the window and yelled at the women to exit the vehicle. Other men circled the car, one drew a gun while yet another jumped onto the hood of the car. Justifiably terrified, Daly and her two friends attempted to flee the parking lot to safety in her SUV, immediately calling 911 for help. It wasn’t until police arrived with flashing sirens and lights that Elizabeth finally learned the identity of her attackers, Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Enforcement Officers, who suspected them of purchasing alcohol. Despite the fact that the girls’ “suspected” contraband turned out to be cans of LaCroix sparkling water, Elizabeth was arrested, jailed and charged with three felonies. In calling on Walker to support an independent review of the incident, Whitehead points out that the first internal review failed to result in any disciplinary action for the agents involved and instead validated their egregious behavior. Noting that the Mayor of Charlottesville and the entirety of the Charlottesville City Council are demanding more of public officials, Whitehead implores Walker to support an independent review of the incident by the Governor’s office and the General Assembly, and to make the full and complete results of this review available to the public, along with the details of any disciplinary actions taken and any policy changes that have been made to prevent a reoccurrence of this kind of incident.
Case History
