“said it was the first time he had filed charges against police officers for excessive force leading to death.”
Which is probably why they thought they could get away with it.
Good.
Although if IIRC, there were six cops involved in the beating.
This is one that haunts me, that poor man screaming and crying out for his father to help him.
Here’s some captured testimony from several eyewitnesses taken immediately after the act on a public bus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYJi3lgXLBU
I guess the only way to get rid of these dirtbag cops is to convict and incarcerate them. Anything less and they’ll just be back on the street.
It still a long way away from a conviction....
This trial is one to watch.....
Not this time. These two deserve all that is coming to them and likely more then they will actually get.
The four who watched and did nothing deserve to be punished as well.
good
Hit the guy 8 times in the face with a Tazer? You have got to be kidding. That is Torture clear and simple. I would go for first degree on both, death for the torturer.
...and in many jurisdictions, it is illegal to videotape a cop. This case is a prime example why such recordings need to be legal. Without it, some persons in authority will get away with murder.
Kelly Thomas After:
The reason this situation has us so incensed is that what happened to this poor man could happen to any of us, if our police have gotten this out of control. Any one of us could be sitting on a sidewalk curb, perhaps because our feet or our back hurt, but we’re sitting there minding our own business waiting for a ride. And some crazy cop could come up to us, and, well, it could be you or your kid, or your friend.
I sure hope they do a drug screen on these guys, see if they’re on steroids or something. Because the way they acted and what they did shows serious mental problems and use of drugs needs to be ruled out.
Finally. Or at least until these charges are actually tried. Maybe it won’t get that far. Or maybe this one was too egregious to maintain institutional arrogance. It has been coming to the point that someone being approached by a police officer has to decide whether or not to make a serious act of self defense before the officer can kill him or break his bones. Perhaps this is the start of a trend away from the cstrongly developing paradigm in which the Policeman IS the Law and Can Do No Wrong.
You know why this guy is dead? Because we abandoned him to the streets.
If it wasn’t a couple of filthy criminal predator cops, he would have been murdered by a civilian thug for the stuff in his bag. Or he would have died of some disease related to exposure. Or O.D.’ed. Or hit by a car.
Most families are not capable of handling a severely mentally ill adult. When are Californians going to flip the bird to ACLU types and demand legislation that will allow families to commit the mentally ill against their will? Right now, it’s nearly impossible. And even if you could, where could you put them? We were also bullied by busybodies into closing all the state mental hospitals.
This tragic event is the shame of all Californians, and not just because of a couple of psycho cops.