Police brutality is the name of the game.
I don't usually go on a big deal about internal workings of other countries but this story is too much not to talk about and mirrors the attitude of our local law enforcement officials. On July 5th, 2011 6 police officers from Fullerton, California came in contact with a mentally ill homeless man, now identified as Kelly Thomas. The Fullerton police department claim Kelly Thomas was stopped as the police suspected him of breaking into cars at a bus station parking lot and that Kelly Thomas "resisted" arrest. The following two videos show graphically what happened; be warned you WILL be disturbed and outraged.
This video was shot from the camera in a mobile phone of one of the people sitting at the bus station. You can hear the tazer being fired relentlessly as Kelly Thomas screams helplessly for his father.
In this video you can see more closely what the police are doing to Kelly Thomas. You can seem him motionless as police continue to pound on him and you see a Fullerton cop HIT the man videoing the scene in an attempt to get him to stop filming. They then threaten everyone with jail if they don't leave the scene and stop witnessing the event. Personally I would have chosen to stay, going to jail standing up for that guy is better to me than running away and leaving him for dead.
Kelly Thomas later died as a result of the horrific injuries he received that night from police. One look at the before and after shots below and it's not hard to imagine why he died. You have to keep in mind these injuries were dealt out by on duty police officers to a schizophrenic man whom they claim was "resisting arrest".

Now here is the kicker, out of the 6 police involved 5 not only are still on active duty, they didn't receive a single day off as a result. The 6th officer is off duty on leave unrelated to the case. In other words, none of the officers whom did the damage clearly shown have been penalised in any way. The investigative DA responsible for the internal investigation of this case is close friends with the police chief, they holiday together and hang out at each others houses. The major of Fullerton doesn't even understand what the big deal is! Listen to this local radio broadcast from the 28th of July with an anonymous friend of a Fullerton cop.
You can only imagine how horrific the video the caller is talking about is to watch. These cops have a lot to answer for, but the big question is will they? And will anything internally in the police department change as a result of this event? More than anything what I hope people take away from this event is to get involved because if more citizens had gotten involved in this incident & sooner, then there is a good chance this man would never have died. I'm pretty sure a night in the watch house is price well worth paying to save a life otherwise unjustly taken.











