What do you see when you watch the video? I see an obviously ill man whose illness precludes him from
having a rational interaction with the police. And I see officers who clearly lose whatever patience they may have had toward this ill man at the outset of the encounter. And when they lose their patience, I see them become unhinged and then unremitting in their use of force, even as Thomas can be heard begging for them to stop, pleading with them that he cannot breathe. It is painful to watch it unfold knowing how it all ends.
To me, this horrible video is the epitome of the use of "excessive force"—at a minimum. So what did those jurors see that I missed in the video? What in turn did I see that they did not? How could it be that not a single member of that jury was willing to stand up for Thomas for even a single night following the lone full day of deliberations?
These policemen were, their lawyer said in court, "peace officers ... doing what they were trained to do." Defense experts agreed—and evidently, so did the jurors. And perhaps that is the most frightening component of all of this—one that transforms this local tragedy into a national question. How many police officers in America today are out on patrol and similarly untrained (or emotionally ill-equipped) to handle the mentally ill? How many other police forces have trained their officers to use their weapons in this fashion against homeless people screaming for help?
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/01/a-california-jurys-baffling-verdict/283053/
Comments (0)