Courtesy Gestapo

Sakinah Aaron was walking into the bus area at the Wheaton Metro station several weeks ago, talking loudly on her Motorola cell phone. A little too loudly for Officer George Saoutis of the Metro Transit Police.

The police officer told Aaron, who is five months pregnant, to lower her voice. She told the officer he had no right to tell her how to speak into her cell phone.

Sakinah Aaron says she was speaking loudly on the phone but not cursing.

Their verbal dispute quickly escalated, and Saoutis grabbed Aaron by the arm and pushed her to the ground. He handcuffed the 23-year-old woman, called for backup and took her to a cell where she was held for three hours

Cell phone users can be annoying, but no one -- pregnant or not -- deserves to be manhandled by the police for an offense that should really warrant a twenty dollar ticket.

Graham Parker was a prophet in Get Started, Start a Fire:
"Joan of Arc was burning at the stake
Somebody had made a big mistake
She had lit a cigarette
In an aiport where you get
Your fingers taken off for smoking.
Meanwhile up the road a factory's choking
The ones who killed her work there
I'm not joking"