Siwatu-Salama Ra never saw this coming living in an open carry state – with a stand your ground law in place.
Last summer, the African-American working mom and concealed carry permit holder defended herself, her mother, and infant daughter with a registered gun after a woman reportedly tried to hit them with her car.
Now, Ra is serving a two-year prison sentence for felonious assault and felony firearm convictions. She’s seven months pregnant and according to her attorneys receiving inadequate medical care – even though doctors consider her pregnancy high-risk.
Instead of being home getting ready to deliver her baby, she is suffering behind bars for using her Second Amendment right to protect herself and her family.
Ra has described how Channell Harvey, the alleged aggressor, menacingly reeved her car back and forth while her mother stood frozen, paralyzed by fear. Harvey disputes this account of events but eventually admitted to police that she might have “accidentally” hit Ra’s car.
That when Ra picked up her two-year-old daughter, grabbed her unloaded handgun and pointed it at Harvey. After Harvey left, she filed a police report.
The problem, Harvey filed a police report first. And in Detroit, the first person to submit a report becomes the “victim” in a legal dispute regardless of the facts.
Micah Rate at Bearing Arms writes:
Let’s start with the fact that the alleged attacker, Channell Harvey, was treated as the victim in this situation simply because she beat Ra to the police station. The fact that the first person to file a police report in Detroit is considered to be the victim is problematic. Imagine being slugged in a Detroit parking lot and being forced to defend yourself. Your attacker then gets away and reaches the police station first to file their report. The incident is not on camera, and it’s only your word versus theirs. You’re in for some trouble.
Even if Harvey filed the complaint first, one would think the Detroit Police Department would take into account Ra’s claim that Harvey intentionally crashed her car into her vehicle, right? If that was, in fact, the case, then it’s pretty clear the reason Ra grabbed her weapon in the first place was because of Harvey’s actions.
Well, as stated, Harvey did not mention anything about hitting Ra’s car in her report until later, and detectives could not ask for Ra’s side of the story.
In today’s society, there are plenty of stories where people play the victim, to either frame someone else or to play the system. In a situation like this, the DPD should have looked to get all of the details first. The fact that police ultimately brought felonious assault charges against Ra appears to be absurd.
In fact, it’s even worse. Ra, who delivered her first child prematurely is currently showing signs and symptoms of the same complications again.
Prison is no place for a pregnant woman, particularly on entirely circumstantial evidence.
AAN Staff
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