Brutal Police Attack on Video
Carlos Miller, who was a guest on my radio show recently, has an incredibly disturbing video of police officers brutally beating a mentally ill homeless man to death in Fullerton, California. The video comes from a city surveillance camera, with the audio from a recorder worn by one of the officers. It’s very difficult to watch and listen to.
At no point is this man a threat to anyone. This happened while he was still sitting down:
“Now you see my fists?” Fullerton police officer Manny Ramos asked Thomas while slipping on a pair of latex gloves.
“Yeah, what about them?” Thomas responded.
“They are getting ready to fuck you up,” said Ramos, a burly cop who appears to outweigh Thomas by 100 pounds.
“Well, start punching,” Thomas responds, never once displaying any physical aggression towards Ramos.
Moments later, as Thomas is standing while Ramos is ordering him to get on his “fucking knees,” Fullerton cop Joseph Wolfe, who is not charged in the case, walks up and starts beating his legs with a baton.
They beat him into a coma; he died a few days later. The victim’s father is a retired sheriff’s deputy in Orange County. You can hear the guy crying out for his father as the officers beat him to death. One of the cops is facing second degree murder charges, the other manslaughter charges.
Spanish Inquisitor:
May 10th, 2012 at 2:46 pm
That was hard to watch.
Only second degree murder?
lowellluplow:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
OMG!!
Markita Lynda—damn climate change!:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
This and the death of a Kenneth Chamerlain are making me think that some police are actively hunting down the helpless for thrill-kills. Chamberlain, a retired marine, was sleeping in his home when his medical alert buzzer gave a false alarm. He was able to cancel the call. Before they reached the house the medical-alert company told them it was a false alarm and to call off their visit. They just went right ahead. They were recorded by the alert company.
unbound:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:29 pm
@Spanish Inquisitor – 2nd degree murder is as high as it can get unless they find evidence that the officer planned it in advance.
I’m actually more surprised that the cop is charged at all. Glad to hear something was done about it.
silomowbray:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:35 pm
Now I want to vomit. :-(
cjtotalbro:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:36 pm
These pieces of shit are on paid leave right now.
Matrim:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:42 pm
I’m not a person who is particularly swayed by visceral displays. In my life I’ve seen the results of a lot of violence, and in general I’ve managed to be fairly unaffected by it. Don’t get me wrong, I have great sympathy for the people involved, but it never really got to me in such a way as to physically shake me. And I’m talking bad stuff, I once had to do post-blast analysis at a site where a group of kids aged 4 to 9 had gotten their hands on a grenade that eventually went off. There are few things more visceral than a five year-old blown nearly in half mid-abdomen. While tragic, I still was able deal enough to do what I needed to do. I’d never vomited, never become ill due to blood and guts.
This, though… I watched the video all the way through, looked at the photos, read the transcript. For the first time in my life I became physically ill from seeing violence. I’ve long known that the police as an organization tend to be corrupt and are often violent thugs with the benefit of legitimacy. I have no understanding how anyone with any sort of human decency can do that to people. I don’t know how someone can operate as a human being while being the sort of person who would torture an unarmed person to death. What sort of thought process is at work?
I don’t know why I’m reacting so strongly; as I said, this is nothing new. There are examples of institutionalized violence at the hands of the authorities going back to the dawn of humankind. Perhaps its just because I think we should be beyond it now.
If anything, this reaffirms my believe that not only should police be held to the same standard as the average citizen, they should be held higher. In my estimation, any police officer convicted of a crime should be held to a much harsher punishment than the normal convict. If we are going to invest authority and trust in these people, they should bear all the responsibility that comes with it.
Woof:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Pretty good evidence against the existence of a benevolent god-thing.
Who Knows?:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Fucking Pigs.
Doug Little:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:50 pm
This is particularly chilling as I have no respect for law enforcement at all and so could easily see myself saying the same shit to cops. I have also been beaten by cops once I was no longer a threat (ie hands cuffed behind my back) when I was resisting arrest during a drunk and disorderly.
Matrim:
May 10th, 2012 at 3:55 pm
That depends on a lot of things. For example:
“Every person who, with the intent to cause cruel or extreme pain and suffering for the purpose of revenge, extortion, persuasion, or for any sadistic purpose, inflicts great bodily injury as defined in Section 12022.7 upon the person of another, is guilty of torture”
If they find that the officer deliberately inflicted cruel or extreme suffering on him, he can be found guilty of the crime of felony torture. Under California law, killing someone during the commission of specific felonies (including torture and mayhem, which might also apply) automatically makes it a 1st degree murder.
I doubt they’d bring torture or mayhem charges against him, though. Still, it is a possible avenue.
Gretchen:
May 10th, 2012 at 4:02 pm
Cops Vs. Cameras: The Killing of Kelly Thomas & The Power of New Media
Including interview with Thomas’ father and pictures of how Thomas looked in the hospital.
Francisco Bacopa:
May 10th, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Did I hear multiple taserings too?
How is the police station in Fullerton still standing? I’m talking about the kinda shit that’s gonna take to make this stop. They need to recieve so hard a shock that they become afraid, and they need to have a large segment of the community come together to do it.
ashleybell:
May 10th, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Cool…My city tis of me…I just heard about this organization in my very own home town. The anarchist angle they take is a bit unfortunate but their hearts are in the right place. The copwatch part of their organization is awesome though
http://wingnutrva.org/tag/richmond-copwatch/
leni:
May 10th, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Me too, only I wasn’t resisting arrest. I got dragged out of the car and about ten feet by my hair and lost a chunk about an inch or so in diameter.
This because I made fun of his mustache the whole way back to the station lol. But only after he attempted to insult me by calling me a “dyke” and a “stupid fucking lesbian”. I’m not a lesbian and I don’t care about being called one, but the mustache was not getting any respect from me. Stupid fucking cops and their stupid fucking mustaches.
While I was in holding another woman told me the cops who arrested her pocketed her money and drugs-IIRC, about $300 and .5g heroin (not much)- when they arrested her for solicitation or some bs and then just left her to detox all night. Not pretty. And I’ve seen them steal drugs and money from other people. That was the Seattle PD, by the way. Nice bunch of cops they’ve got there.
Brony:
May 10th, 2012 at 4:24 pm
I just can’t trust anyone in a government position of authority anymore. I know there are good ones, but how do I tell? I bought one of these,
http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/spy-watch-dvr-hd.html
…just in case. I wear it all the time.
Doug Little:
May 10th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
leni,
My incident happened when I walking home from the bars after they had closed. I was detouring through a side ally and needed to piss so being as drunk as I was and completely clueless that the cops in a cruiser had followed me in… well you can fill in the rest. Anyway I don’t think they took it too kindly when they were trying to arrest me for public urination and I kinda had a problem with them attempting to handcuff me. Let’s just say they had to call in reinforcements to get the job done. After they had subdued me the 6 of them kept picking me up off the ground and dropping me on my face until they decided to throw me head first into the back of the wagon. They then proceeded to drive over every roundabout from where I was picked up to the police station so that you effectively catch every hard steel corner and edge in the back as you bounce around.
tacitus:
May 10th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
I’ve never had any problems with the cops, but I know someone who refused to give a couple of off-duty cops a ride home after a football game because they had been drinking (and he didn’t know them). They put him in hospital for his trouble.
He was told it was pointless suing or pressing charges because it was his word (and his girlfriend’s) against theirs, and he would would get no cooperation from the police department or the prosecutor’s office).
This was even though he was a white professional with means.
Marcus Ranum:
May 10th, 2012 at 8:17 pm
If they find that the officer deliberately inflicted cruel or extreme suffering on him, he can be found guilty of the crime of felony torture.
Haven’t you heard? There’s no such thing as “torture” anymore.
herewegoagain:
May 10th, 2012 at 8:58 pm
I have witnessed cops behaving like thugs on more than one occasion. Since the victim was white, mentally ill and the son of an former police officer, I think justice is more likely in this case. I certainly hope these two killers are given prison time. I bet this mentally ill man wasn’t their only victim.
leni:
May 10th, 2012 at 9:18 pm
Mine was for littering. On a crowded street in Seattle on a Friday night. When he tried to stop me I ignored him and kept walking because littering? Really? So technically I was resisting arrest too.
You should have whirled like you were startled and peed on them.
leni:
May 10th, 2012 at 9:31 pm
tacitus:
You know, I don’t even know how to remove the sim card on my phone,I don’t even know where it is. But I’m going to figure it out right now.
Francisco Bacopa:
May 11th, 2012 at 1:56 am
Here’s the remedy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSvD5SM_uI4
At the the time this album came out I got a promo CD for it. I sold it for $150. That promo costs a lot more now on ebay.
mithrandir:
May 11th, 2012 at 3:05 am
leni says:
If you’re interested in protecting a recording of police brutality from confiscation by said police, may I recommend the Ustream mobile apps or some other mechanism to upload the video in real time.
Doug Little:
May 11th, 2012 at 9:51 am
leni,
Ha Ha Ha, Yeah that would have got me more of a beat down but it would have been so worth it. Seattle you say, that’s one city that’s high on my list to visit, I was in Portland over Christmas last year so I was close. BTW Portland is awesome, microbreweries literally everywhere and then Voodoo donuts to fix the hangover the next day.