Title: Mentally Ill Homeless Man Severely Beaten By Police Because His Beach Umbrella was Too Big Source:
Free Thought Project URL Source:http://thefreethoughtproject.com/me ... ten-police-beach-umbrella-big/ Published:Apr 24, 2015 Author:Cassandra Fairbanks Post Date:2015-04-24 08:56:07 by Deckard Keywords:None Views:6531 Comments:47
A video released on Wednesday captured eight Los Angeles police officers beating, tasing, and hogtying a mentally ill homeless man as he tried to enjoy the simple pleasure of a day at the beach.
The man and his lawyer say that this abuse at the hands of the LAPD has been a pattern over the past year, and his hospital records show it. They are now calling for a federal investigation of the violations of his civil rights.
In the video taken on August 7, 2014, eight officers are seen brutalizing Samuel Calhoun Arrington, 52, who suffers from bipolar disorder. The incident began when he reportedly refused to sign a citation for “items placed on (the) city beach” and “property outside of designated space.”
What horrible items could have had on the beach, you ask? A chair and umbrella, which everyone else brings to the beach all summer long without being targeted for assault.
“To me, what they did in full view of every person on Venice Beach was to strip a homeless man, someone mentally ill, of their last shred of humanity,” Cleo Battle, Arrington’s sister told local news outlet KTLA.
According to the police report, Arrington had lunged at officers and attempted to grab one of their belts. Nazareth Haysbert, the attorney representing Arrington, told KTLA that the report stated his client “immediately broke the officer’s hold by aggressively moving his arms forward and then pulling his arms toward his body.”
In the video, we see the unarmed Arrington lounging in his chair, entirely non-aggressive, and doing nothing like what is described from the report as the gang of officers begin to assault him. The officers also wrote in the report that there was no video taken of the incident. This is in spite of the witness video that was released which clearly shows LAPD’s Sgt. Skinner recording the assault on what appears to be her cell phone in a red case.
The woman filming the video can be heard saying, “they know that he’s not going to sign it because he didn’t do anything, but that’s what they’re hoping so that they can take him.” She begins to explain to other witnesses that the man was being cited for the umbrella and asserts it was just because they wanted to get rid of him. As the officers begin to tase the defenseless man, she screams at the officers repeatedly that they do not need to tase him.
“NO, YOU NEED TO STOP! I’M ALREADY HERE, DON’T YOU DARE PUSH ON ME!” she screams at an officer who attempts to push her away from filming their abuse.
Another woman in the background can be heard screaming that the officers are evil. The woman filming berates the officers for being in the wrong by putting their hands on her as well as on the man that they are assaulting in front of her.
A large crowd gathers to watch the assault and shame the officers for their disgusting behavior.
“The man is bleeding from head to toe, this is what our police do, in the United States. Instead of getting the criminals, they’re harassing-” she begins, “now they’ve got him like a slave back in the 30’s and 40’s and 50’s and they’ve got him- they’re carrying him like an animal!”
The crowd can be heard yelling obscenities at the police, as Sgt. Skinner, who is still filming, attempts to get the brave and bold woman who is filming to give up her information. At this point, others jump in with their cameras filming Skinner, and she gives up on her attempts at getting the witness to identify herself. Eventually, the disgraceful police walk away from the screams of angry witnesses.
Arrington was ultimately charged with resisting arrest despite there being no lawful cause to arrest him in the first place.
“He was hospitalized and later charged with felony resisting arrestand remained in county jail for over one month on the charges,” Haysbert wrote in a letter to the FBI.
To throw salt on wounds, the callous officers also left the man’s few personal possessions on the beach and never recovered them,including his clothing, bicycle, bookbag, and medical card.
Haysbert has also stated that Arrington was brutalized by the officers on two other occasions that year.
On January 5, Arrington was tased and beaten by LAPD officers. Several months later, on July 29, less than two weeks before the incident seen in this video, he was hospitalized with neck, back, and shoulder injuries. His lawyer claims these were the very same officers seen on video in the August assault.
“Arrington was beaten by LAPD officers so badly that he needed 18 staples to close a large wound on his head,” Haysbert told KTLA regarding a third incident which occured on June 27, 2011. “He was hospitalized and then jailed for over 18 months where he suffered repeated episodes of fainting, severe headaches and syncope.”
His lawyer Haysbert believes that collectively, these assaults show a pattern of deprivation of his client’s civil rights. His family asserts that this pattern of abuse has worsened Arrington’s illness.
“The video recording raises concern that the LAPD officers intentionally fabricated and, or withheld crucial evidence that may have resulted in the dismissal of criminal charges against Mr. Arrington,” Haysbert stated. “The willful concealment of this evidence holds criminal implications for these officers.”
This disgusting display of abuse MUST be investigated.
You can contact the Department of Justice via Twitter to demand justice for Samuel Arrington by including the Twitter handle @civilrights.
#1. To: Cassandra Fairbanks@ Free Thought Project, Deckard (#0)
The incident began when he reportedly refused to sign a citation for “items placed on (the) city beach” and “property outside of designated space.”
It is truly ridiculous that it takes that many offices to serve a citation. Further disturbing that it devolves into blood without the apparent need for violence. The video shows that the man was not violent, yet it shows that the police were ready to execute the offender if they thought it necessary. It would not take much to "grab the wrong weapon" and shoot the man with a service pistol instead of a taser...
I would like to see someone smash the skull of the nosy and intrusive bitch recording the incident and interfering with police business.
Then you are a piece of shit. People are on a public beach and free to record. If I was recording and you tried to take my camera. I would beat you into a coma.
"People are on a public beach and free to record."
You record me (as a private citizen) in public without my permission and I'll beat you into a coma. And doctors will have to surgically remove your cellphone from your ass.
So there.
Listen to her video. She was doing more than simply recording. She was a) interfering and b) yelling loud enough to hopefully encourage others to join her.
Listen to her video. She was doing more than simply recording. She was a) interfering and b) yelling loud enough to hopefully encourage others to join her.
I listened and watched the video.
She did absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever.
And while cops should ideally always be video and audio recorded when being paid public funds for public service, even private citizens cannot object to being recorded when in a public area.
Police used to exist to stop criminals from victimizing private citizens. Now they victimize private citizens over allenged minor regulatory issues, and that's not even considering the accusation in this case that these cops have a history of maliciously targeting this particular man.
I was glad to see so many people protesting strongly protesting this heavy handed police action. Maybe the message that these police are NOT acting in the public good will discourage similar future actions, and make these goons think about what lack of public service they did on this day.
There are laws on the books that haven't been enforced in probably 100 years, like "It's illegal to eat chocolate on a public conveyance". So if it's irrelevant I have no problem with it being ignored. Laws against having umbrellas and chairs on the beach are irrelevant to me. In fact the person who drew it up should be castrated so the shallow end of the gene pool will be a few inhabitants fewer.
It's not like this was a felony where the guy was going to be arrested and thrown in prison. All he had to do was sign a citation. That's it.
That maybe true... but officers still must follow policy and procedure... and not use excessive force. Only the level of force needed to obtain custody of said person. I didn't watch the video... I have no clue what happened... but I'll tell you the same thing I've told Deckard. If you want to leave comments with any level of credibility, you must be able to condemn illegal activity by both civilian and officer as it applies. Deckard doesn't possess the ability to objectively see criminals ever doing wrong or cops ever doing right... you seem to be inflicted with the same disease but opposite symptoms.
There are over 1.9 million officers in this country. Most officers average between 6 and 10 calls a day. Do the math.... that's millions of police calls daily that cops respond too. It's inevitable that some officers are going to do a bad job, have a bad day, make a bad decision... or just outright abuse their powers. Pretending that it doesn't happen by defending every cops actions reported in a Deckard posted article is ignorant. I'll agree most of his shit is slanted yellow bullshit... but a few are actual piss poor police performances.
I can't talk sense to him, but I'm hoping to talk sense to you. Don't feed the troll. Defend the officers that deserve it... condemn the ones that do wrong... and soon all Deckard can do is preach his hatred to the same choir.
When you're driving around about on your daily business. Do you like it when a cop gets behind you?
Doesn't bother me, but I'm sure it would bother the average motorist.
I personally don't like officers that tailgate for whatever reason. I wouldn't allow it from my subordinates if I saw them do it. When I rode double on patrol, I wouldn't allow my partner to do it. That subject has been a topic of argument between me and many partners.
