Feb 3, 2015 - Rapid City Police Department Harasses Lakota Mother; Injures Her Arm, By Karin Eagle

A report of police harassment here in Rapid City has been received by Last Real Indians. A young Lakota mother reports being harassed and assaulted by a RCPD Kyle Thiesen on February 1, 2015 in the already racially tense town at approximately 9:00 pm.

Raven Shott Waln, Oglala Lakota, reports that the officer followed her from her home in Lakota Homes in North Rapid to the apartment complexed Knollwood Townhouses, locally known as ABC Apartments. The distance was approximately a half of a mile.  After she pulled into the apartment parking lot the officer turned his lights on and pulled in behind her when she parked. The apartment she parked in front of belongs to her sister who she was coming to visit.

The officer, whom was identified by Waln as Officer Thiesen, approached her window and asked her why she was “dodging him.”. He told her that he followed her after running her license plates and name because he “knew” she did not have a drivers’s license.

Waln called her attorney while she was sitting in her car. After the call was completed Thiesen grabbed her hand and told her that she was going to jail. He didn’t tell her at that point what she was being arrested for. As she exited her car and was attempting to lock the car as she placed a call to her husband to meet her at the jail, Thiesen grabbed her cell phone out of her hand and pulled her to the police unit by her left arm. She was cuffed and put in the car, no Miranda Rights and still no answer to her questions as to what she was being arrested for. It was only after she was put in the back seat of his unit that he stated that she was arrested for no license and no insurance.

While he had her in the car he asked her “Why do you want to go to jail?” Then he offered an option…take the ticket for no proof of insurance and driving under suspension. Waln admits to having had her license suspended in late 2014 but that the suspension ended on December 21, 2014. She was informed of her eligibility to reapply for her license.

Regardless of how unnerving her pseudo-arrest was the story gets more twisted. The traffic ticket that Waln received states that he stopped her at Paha Sapa Rd and Haines Avenue when in fact Paha Sapa Rd is merely where he started following her; he stopped her about a half a mile down the road.

Thiesen released Waln from her handcuffs and let her out of the car after she asked him when he was going to take her to the jail so that she could go through the booking process and get bailed out because she had to make sure she could get to work the next morning. After her release from Thiesen’s custody, he called her car in to be impounded.

Waln now has to raise funds to get her vehicle out of the impound. She was never given the option of having her sister take possession of the car.

Thiesen had stopped Waln a few days prior to this incident for having a small area of white light showing past a taped tail light. That light has since been replaced.

Last Real Indians is going to pay close attention to what comes of this amd report on all developments.

It certainly raises the questions: Is this cop cruising around looking up license plates and then owners names doing warrant checks……is this a RCPD policy to do this?