Cops who killed mentally ill man on video skate away


I take this as yet more proof there is no God. Jesus, how hard would it have been for an omnipotent being to nudge justice along when the killers were already in custody and the murder was captured on video surveillance cameras showing the victim begging for his life as the blows and taser jolts fell?

ABC News — By the time all four verdicts were read clearing two California officers of killing a homeless man, people on both sides of the gallery were sobbing. In the audience, the mother of Kelly Thomas wept into a tissue as someone shouted, “No!” A collective gasp went up from the gallery. Former Officer Jay Cicinelli’s attorney pounded twice on the defense table, grabbing his client in a bear hug, as former Officer Manuel Ramos’ family clutched hands and cried. Thomas, 37, died five days after a violent confrontation with six officers in July 2011. A surveillance camera at the busy transit center where the incident unfolded captured him screaming for his father again and again and begging for air as the police kneed him, jolted him with an electric stun gun and used the blunt end to strike him around the face and head.

In this case, the victim was found to have multiple facial fractures and choked on his own blood. He was unarmed and suffering from schizophrenia and posed no threat to two armed police officers. The officers were charged with involuntary manslaughter, that’s accidentally beating the man to death. Does anyone really believe the verdict would have been the same had the victim been a white, middle-class homeowner?

Comments

  1. says

    This is disgusting and proves there is no justice in the U.S. justice system. My brother is schizophrenic and lies in California, I fear for his life.

    There are no controls on the police it seems, they can beat, torture or kill anyone with impunity it seems. The police have become enforcers for the1% working to keep everyone else in their place.

  2. says

    Does anyone really believe the verdict would have been the same had the victim been a white, middle-class homeowner?

    It wouldn’t have been substantially different; the police still would have gotten away with it.

  3. dysomniak, darwinian socialist says

    As much as it pains me to say, I don’t think class had anything to do with it. As far as most Americans are concerned mental illness is a deadly weapon. Schizophrenia? He might as well have been walking around with an RPG.

  4. busterggi says

    Marcus is right, badges are only issued to representatives of the all-might god as far as the police are concerned.

  5. Matt G says

    All people are Children of God, and all are valuable in His eyes. Mentally ill homeless people just slightly less so….

  6. plutosdad says

    Amazing that any history of violence by the defendant can’t be used because it is prejudicial, but they can bring up the violent history of the victim as if it had anything to do with the events of that day.

  7. Shatterface says

    As much as it pains me to say, I don’t think class had anything to do with it. As far as most Americans are concerned mental illness is a deadly weapon. Schizophrenia? He might as well have been walking around with an RPG.

    Class comes into it because rich white folk aren’t schizophrenic – they’re just eccentric.

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