You say "arrest," I say "kidnap," let's settle the whole thing in federal court

Here's another one to file under "You can't pay me enough to live south of the Mason-Dixon line": a 12-year-old African-American girl was arrested by plain-clothes police in Galveston, Texas, in August, 2006. Four officers leapt out of an unmarked van, beat the girl about the head with a flashlight (causing damage to her eardrum and throat), and threatened to shoot her puppy. One of them yelled, "You're a prostitute! You're coming with me!"

The raid's actual target was a white prostitute who lived 2 blocks away.

A few weeks later, police found the girl at school, where she is an honor student, and arrested her in front of her peers and friends for assaulting the officers and resisting arrest.

You better believe a federal suit has followed, if the document I've linked to there via courthousenews.com has actually been filed. I can't check on the website of the District Court in Galveston because I don't have a PACER ID. I also couldn't find a record of the pleadings via Lexis, which means either it's not on Lexis, or I don't have the Lexis skills I thought I did. In any event, § 1983 suits can be hard to win, even when the facts look outrageous like in this case.