Natasha Burton was a criminology major at San Jose State University when she and friends were struck by San Jose police batons on Mardi Gras night 2006. Court documents describe the incident: As they sought to return to campus, the group got caught in a phalanx of police charged with crowd control. An officer nudged his horse against one member of their group, who then approached a group of officers outside City Hall demanding to know how to file a complaint.The officers told her to keep walking, then told the others that she was not permitted to be cutting through the grounds of City Hall. Burton went after her. She contends she was pushed by an officer, heard another officer say she had assaulted a cop, and then felt the baton blows. She was tackled in the street, struck again, handcuffed and arrested. Burton said on her way to jail, the officers accused them of coming from Oakland.(Hans Gutknecht/LA Daily News)
