One of the scariest moments in Bethany Renee Nava’s life was captured on camera. Last week as she took a Red Line subway in Los Angeles, she had a chilling confrontation with a cop, who aggressively dragged her off the train at the Westlake/MacArthur Park station. Bystanders said the 18-year-old student hadn’t done anything other than put her foot on a seat. The teen, who said she sprained her wrist, filed a claim against the city, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Recently, police have made code-of-conduct violations – including eating, littering, drinking, and putting feet on seats – a priority. When the officer approached her, Nava didn’t hear him because she was listening to music through earbuds. “He snapped in my face to get my attention,” she said at a press conference on Monday. “I then paused the music, turned toward him and he said ‘put your foot down’ and I did. I put my foot down and he walked away.”
Nava said she then placed her foot on her thigh, which is when the cop approached her and dragged her off the train. Nava was cited for being loud and disrupting others, but since the incident went viral, the Los Angeles Police Department has been forced to investigate the officer’s use of force.
The teen is speaking out in hopes that it deters officers from this unnecessary aggression in the future. “I feel like my rights were violated,” she added at the press conference. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.”