Zahra Munye Abu, an officer with the Portland Police Department, and Solmaian has been arrested on numerous misdemeanors.
A spokesman for the department stated that Abu was attending a concert but the rap artist Ja Rule (he’s still around?) and Asanti (she’s still around, too?) at the Palladium Nightclub when the disturbance happened.
“The nightclub was hosting several live musical acts,” Hazelhurst told the Press Herald. “She was (given) several opportunities to leave and refused. Eventually, she was placed under arrest.”
In all, 5 misdemeanors have been leveraged against the officer including assault and battery, trespassing, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace.
Worcester police Sgt. Kerry F. Hazelhurst, the spokesman for the department, added that Abu was bailed out of jail hours later.
“The Portland Police Department was notified late Saturday night of the arrest of Police Officer Zahra Abu in Worcester, Massachusetts,” Portland Police Chief Michael Sauschuck told the Press Herald. “This issue will be dealt with as a personnel matter from this point forward, so I will have no further comment.”
Sauchuck told the press that the officer has been placed on administrative leave with pay while the whole thing is being investigated.
Abu was born in Kenya to Somali parents, who brought her to the United States when she was only 2-years-old. If convicted, she could face up to 2 and a half years in jail.
The Portland Police Department received a lot of praise in 2016 for hiring Ms. Abu with the police chief stating, at the time, she was “the best.”
Now, this may seem trivial and I guess it sort of is. But in a way, any right-leaning outlet pointing out this arrest (and there are others) are really just trying to show liberals that immigrants are not as infallible as they might think.
One would also expect a person in Abu’s position to set a better example… like it or not, we are in the midst of a heated immigrant debate here in the United States.
What do you think? Is this just normal young people stuff?