"We're From The Government, We're Here To Mace You During Your Baby Shower"

N.J. Cops Rain Mace on a Baby Shower
By CHERYL ARMSTRONG
Courthouse News Service
May. 09, 2011

TRENTON, N.J. (CN) - Trenton police Maced and beat people at a baby shower, including five children, in a fruitless search for drugs, an extended family says in Federal Court. "No drugs or contraband were found," says the family, U.S. citizens with Latino last names.

Plaintiff Carlos Rivera says he was sitting in his kitchen when the mother of his children, Melissa Cortez, told him Trenton police were raiding their home and beating a child.

Rivera ran to his living room and saw officers hitting and choking the child, Edison Soto, and hitting, kicking and Macing the child's mother Edna Rivera.

"Why are you in my house, beating and spraying my family with Mace?" Rivera shouted.

He says police responded by putting him in a chokehold, pulling his hair, spraying him in the face with Mace, punching him in the face and arresting him.

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