Pregnant Black Woman Tazed Over Illegal Parking Dispute

Who knew ripping up a parking ticket and doing a little yelling could get you zapped, even when you’re an expecting mother.

 By: Taren Vaughan

Getting a parking ticket is always the worst, especially when you were in a hurry and just so happened to park in the wrong spot. Pitching a pure fit is the first thing that comes to mind. And if the person who gave the ticket is around, they are sure to get an earful of every choice word you can think of. It just so happens though that this heated argument between an officer and a woman resulted in not a shooting, but a stunning.

At a local Walgreens in Chicago, two sisters quickly pulled into a handicapped parking space in front of the store, trying to calm down an unhappy child, the daughter of 30-year-old Tiffany Rent. With all her attention focused on her child, Rent was instantly “greeted” by the police and a parking ticket.

And the arguing began.

The result…A ripped ticket, a stunned pregnant woman and a trip to the hospital.

Not at all sympathetic to her bulging belly, the officer proceeded to shock Rent with a stun gun amidst the shouting fest. Rent said the shock was then followed by some rather harsh words from the officer.

Sharita Rent, the victim’s sister who was in the car with her, said that Tiffany had no time to get out of the parking space:

“She pulled up in a handicapped space. The police came behind her, and she said they blocked her in. She asked them, were they writing her a ticket, and they told her yes,”

“She tried to explain to them what happened, as far as her little getting out of the car, and her trying to calm her down and console her, and the guy gave her a ticket for $200. She ripped the ticket up, tore it in half, and threw it on the ground.”

Jim Williams of CBS 2 reported that Rent never denied parking illegally or ripping up the ticket that the officer gave her. But she felt that him pulling out the stun gun on her was not even necessary:

“I got scared, and closed the door. I didn’t hit him. I didn’t mean to harm him, or anything. He Tasered me through the window,”

Rent was taken to a local hospital where the officers were said to be finding much humor in her pain:

“They were laughing. They said … I know she’s pregnant. Then one of the other officers said I deserve it. Another officer said, ‘Go get Jesse Jackson,’”

“They were all laughing, like it was so funny.”

That Jesse Jackson comment though…

To save face, the officer claimed that he didn’t know she was pregnant:

“First of all, you can’t always tell if somebody’s pregnant. You want to use it where you’re overcoming an assault, or preventing escape,”

Eight months pregnant and he couldn’t tell?

Not only did Tiffany Rent walk away a stunned mother-to-be but she also was charged with resisting arrest and simple assault. She was said to have used explicit language towards the officer and threw the ripped up ticket in his face. The stun gun didn’t come into play until she tried to drive away according to the officer.

The incident is under further investigation by the Independent Police Review Authority as a result of Rent’s complaint.