[Mrluvaluva]

Youtube video

It is a minute and 45 seconds into the security camera video. Kelly Thomas, 37, jaws with police officers at a Fullerton bus depot, his arms crossed over his bare chest, his backpack double-strapped. It is the night of July 5, 2011, about 8:30. It's still 80 degrees outside. A few pedestrians wander by. A car passes. There is no indication that the lives of every person on the tape are about to change.

"You planning on going to sleep pretty soon?" one officer asks.

"I'd like to," Thomas replies.

But another officer, Manuel Ramos, isn't done. "It seems like every day we have to talk to you about something," Ramos says, twirling his baton. "Do you enjoy it?"

It is a critical moment — 2:12 on the video. From that point forward, the exchange spirals out of control. At 15:47, Thomas receives the first blow from a baton. At 17:29, officers pile on top of Thomas, who screams: "I can't breathe!" At 21:25, blood gurgles in Thomas' throat. At 21:49, he shrieks: "Daddy! Daddy!" At 22:36 come his last words: "Help me! Help me!"

This week, after the tape was played for the first time in court, it exploded in the public consciousness — one YouTube version had been viewed 91 times each minute — and became an instant touchstone for those who advocate for a more robust and effective mental health system.

Advocates for the mentally ill said they viewed the recording, the centerpiece of the prosecution's case against two officers accused in Thomas' death, as something akin to their Rodney King video.

In the case of the King video, civic activists felt they had a record, at long last, of something they'd been trying to articulate for years: that the relationship between African Americans and Los Angeles police was fundamentally broken. Similarly, advocates for the mentally ill say they now have a record of a scattershot, chronically underfunded mental health system. This is what it looks like, they said, when schizophrenics fend for themselves on the streets, when their only interface with the government is with haplessly unprepared police officers.

"I think I'm a fairly strong woman. I've seen a lot of tragedy over the years. But I am reeling," said Carla Jacobs, a veteran Southern California mental health activist, shortly after watching the recording.

The tape, she noted, will be picked apart during the legal proceedings. Some will argue, she said, that Thomas should have been more respectful, and worked harder to follow instructions. Others will argue that the officers should have received better training. None of that, she contended, will matter in the end.

"As far as I'm concerned, the blame — the guilt — is on the mental health system that left Kelly out on the street and didn't provide him with the treatment that could have prevented this horror," she said. "I hope we can develop a collective memory and recognize the tragedy that we have caused."

In interviews, advocates said the beating death and its recording could fuel meaningful reform — in mental health funding; in the use of coordinated, "wrap-around" social services; in persuading wary or defiant patients to consent to treatment; and, in particular, in the training of police officers to defuse encounters with the mentally ill.

"It is my personal crusade to change the way police officers deal with the mentally ill," said Thomas' father, Ron Thomas.

Kelly Thomas suffered brain injuries, shattered facial bones, broken ribs and a crushed thorax. He was taken off life support by his family and died five days after his beating.

Ramos, 38, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter; a second officer, Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, 40, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and using excessive force. Ramos faces a life prison term; Cicinelli could be sentenced to four years in prison. Both have pleaded not guilty.

The black-and-white recording, lifted from a city surveillance camera, was played in public for the first time Monday at a preliminary hearing to determine whether the case should go to trial.

The recording was not equipped with sound, but authorities paired it with audio recordings lifted from devices attached to some of the officers' uniforms. On the recording, Ramos is seen pulling on latex gloves — and can be heard telling Thomas that he is "getting ready to f— you up." Cicinelli can be seen striking Thomas — and heard telling a colleague: "I just smashed his face to hell."

"The audio is what is key," Ron Thomas said. "Without the audio the brutality isn't as devastating."


LA Times


You can hear he is deteriorating in the video but it does not seem to alarm any of the officers? He was also quite placid and compliant at first. Shocking.

[Kizzy]

I don't know what to say, that is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen... It smacks of a case I researched which happened in my home town in the 60s.
David Oluwale was a mentally ill homeless man murdered by police officers.

Youtube video

http://www.irr.org.uk/news/the-hound...david-oluwale/

[arista]

"Kelly Thomas suffered brain injuries, shattered facial bones, broken ribs and a crushed thorax. He was taken off life support by his family and died five days after his beating."

Thats America
for you.

[Kizzy]

The recording was not equipped with sound, but authorities paired it with audio recordings lifted from devices attached to some of the officers' uniforms.

This is interesting,what devices...their radios?

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by arista

"Kelly Thomas suffered brain injuries, shattered facial bones, broken ribs and a crushed thorax. He was taken off life support by his family and died five days after his beating."

Thats America
for you.

It will be here soon, when the tories have unregulated gangs of 'enforcers' on minimum wage prowling the streets instead of educated trained police officers.

[arista]

Originally Posted by kizzy

It will be here soon, when the tories have unregulated gangs of 'enforcers' on minimum wage prowling the streets instead of educated trained police officers.

Stop talking Rubbish
kizzy

[Vicky.]

Even if the man wasnt mentally ill..the way he was treat by the officers was ****ing barbaric. Unfortunately stuff like this happens...police get caught up on a power trip and think they can do what they like. I hope they are punished adequately and better training is given in the future, not that training would stop the odd arsehole from slipping through the net into the force like.

Its easy enough to say the mentally ill shouldnt be left out on the street, but there are only so many shelters etc...and to give 'priority' tosome people over others would open up a masive can of worms IMO. In this case, I doubt the doctors are wrong about this man...but I know how easy it is to get signed off on the grounds of mental illness(as one of my friends is signed off as a 'manic depressive' right now, and there is seriously not a thing wrong with him, hes just a good actor/liar)...so if you were on the street all you would have to do is find a gullible doctor to say you were ill and you would get priority over someone else who also needs help.

Everything in this world is ****ed up.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by arista

Stop talking Rubbish
kizzy

I'm not...thats how I feel, and for someone who posts in haikus ....

[Mrluvaluva]

Originally Posted by kizzy

The recording was not equipped with sound, but authorities paired it with audio recordings lifted from devices attached to some of the officers' uniforms.

This is interesting,what devices...their radios?

"The grainy footage from the bus station camera, combined with audio picked up on radio microphones the officers wore, has never been played in public before the hearing on Monday."


Sky

[Jack_]

Couldn't watch the whole thing, I think I'd probably end up in tears if I did. From the bits I saw, I'm disgusted. Absolutely barbaric.

These power obsessed, disgusting thugs have serious mental issues that need addressing. What possesses someone to commit such a vile attack?

[Niall]

I'm glad its been taken down from YouTube. From the description posted it seems like that video would have been near impossible to watch.

But this just shows the racist undercurrent that still lies within some American communities. Its awful.

[Mrluvaluva]

Kelly Thomas' family and supporters have called for the arrest of Officer Joseph Wolfe, one of six police officers involved in the fatal altercation. In a video of the beating, Wolfe is seen striking Thomas. Wolfe and Officer Manuel Ramos, who is facing charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, were the officers on the scene.

Rackauckas did not name any additional officers, but when asked specifically about Wolfe, he said: "We are not done with this case.... We are still considering all the evidence."

Outside the courtroom, Christina Walker, 41, of Fullerton wore a baby blue shirt that said, "Justice 4 Kelly Thomas" and vowed to keep the pressure on -- even after a judge on Wednesday ordered Ramos and Cpl. Jay Cicinelli to stand trial in connection with Thomas' death.

"There is no way I can feel happy about this," Walker said. "It's just one teeny tiny slice of victory on the way to justice."

I was reading that the police claimed that Thomas was resisting when they tried to arrest him, although a witness to the beating, Mark Turgeon, claimed he was not resisting, and it does not seem so either since the emergence of the video.

“They kept beating him and Tasering him. I could hear zapping, and he wasn’t even moving,” Turgeon said. “He had one arm in front of him like this, he wasn’t resisting. And they kept telling him, ‘He’s resisting, quit resisting,’ and he wasn’t resisting.”

Thomas's death certificate rules his death a homicide and proclaims that he died from ”mechanical chest compression with blunt cranial-facial injuries sustained during physical altercation with law enforcement.

Following the initial incident, the Fullerton Police Department claimed that two officers involved in the encounter had suffered broken noses — a statement that was later retracted.

This is how he was left after the event:



The more I read about this, the more I am appalled and angered by the incident.

[Kizzy]

My god! the poor bloke...