Posted on 06/07/2012 1:49:37 PM PDT by kiryandil
BALTIMORE (CN) - When an architect crashed his car while suffering a diabetic reaction on the way home from Bible study class, state and county police pepper sprayed him in the face and clubbed and Tasered him to death, his wife claims in court.
Linda Johnson sued the Maryland State Police, Baltimore County Police, their top commanders and six officers who allegedly beat and Tasered to death Carl D. Johnson on May 27, 2010. Johnson suffered a diabetic attack sometime after 8:15 p.m. that night, after calling a friend to tell him he was leaving his Bible class, according to the complaint in Baltimore County Court. He suffered a diabetic attack, crashed on the I-795, and his car came to rest against the guardrail in the median near the merger with I-695.
According to the complaint, when State Trooper Davon Parker arrived and tapped on the window, and Johnson managed to lower the window, Parker pepper sprayed him in the face. Johnson then got out of his car and Parker clubbed him at least once in the knee. Defendant Officer Loss (fnu) then arrived and whacked Johnson at least twice with his club, the complaint states.
Baltimore County Police Officer Nicholas Wolferman then arrived, whacked Johnson "at least three times" with his own baton, then he and Officer Loss "grabbed Mr. Johnson and threw him over the guardrail," Johnson's widow says. She claims the very first officer on the scene knew or should have known that her husband was suffering from a medical problem.
Nonetheless, after throwing him over the guardrail, the cops applied pressure points to his ears and armpits, she says. Three more cops arrived, including Baltimore County Officer Andrew O'Neill, who Tasered Johnson twice. Officer Loss then punched him in the face and the six officers managed to handcuff him, the widow says. Eight more cops arrived, and someone took his wallet, which included a medical alert card about his diabetes. Nonetheless, the cops forcibly held him down, though he was not resisting, and was handcuffed, his wife says.
"Upon information and belief, there were approximately 52 individuals that responded to the scene," according to the complaint.
The widow claims Johnson was Tasered at least three times, while he was lying on his back, helpless, surrounded by police. He became "motionless and speechless" and was pronounced dead within an hour of cardiac arrest.He was the 10th person to die since 2004 after being subjected to police electroshock in Maryland, the Baltimore Sun reported in a story about Johnson's death.
Linda Johnson seeks more than $10 million in punitive damages for wrongful death, loss of consortium, false imprisonment, false arrest, battery, gross negligence and other charges. She is represented by Mark Millstein and David Silbiger, both of Baltimore.
Too many cops. Too many laws. Cops should be held personally financially responsible for incidents like this, or shooting dogs, breaking down the wrong doors. Not the FOP, not the city. Force a few of these thugs into personal bankruptcies, fire them and blacklist them from law enforcement. That way they can’t move from city to county. Make them jobless and without prospects.
Without the magical police officer shield they can’t misbehave.
Personal financial and criminal responsibility will make cops more careful. They are real good about looking out for their own skin. We just have to make it advantageous for them to use the Grey matter first and the muscles second.
” approximately 52 individuals that responded to the scene,” “
We’ve come a long way from “One riot - one Ranger”....
Remember folks, the last thing you ever want to do is interfere or talk with police while they are killing someone.
I'm sick and tired of hearing their threats every holiday. Click it or ticket, No Refusal weekend, forced blood draws, roadblocks, etc etc.
I won't support any of it now or ever again. Something has gone dreadfully wrong somewhere.
Did you hear about this?
FWIW, the symptoms of a diabetic attack are very similiar to the symptoms of being under the influence of an intoxicating beverage.
Not every officer has been trained to recognize this or ask the right questions. Similiar to mistaking the actions of a autistic person running or engaging in echolalia.
As far as the use of force, again not all use of force policies are the same nationwide. Some say don’t use any chemical or electrical control devices on a person behind the wheel, some don’t limit the use. Some agencies are still using multiple electrical shocks via Taser to “subdue” the resistor, while Taser itself has come with new techniques of going hands on as soon as the first discharge is over. Not all agencies have adopted this.
52 officers responded because it most likely went out as an officer in need of aid, which will bring a host of police to the scene. I have been to many myself, and the excess officers disperse back to the regular assignments but we have a saying in the business, “It’s better to send them away than have to ask for more.”
I can’t prove this but it would not surprise me at all that many, many police departments do far, far less in the way of investigating a potential new hire than they do for a simple DUI stop. There are accounts of police officers being fired or let go without prejudice (allowed to resign) to prevent legal problems. All they had to do was to go to the next county, state, etc. and voila, back in the intimidation business.
In all likelihood the guy should have watched the Chris Rock video about how not to get your a** kicked by the police.
The stress on his undergoing a diabetic reaction implies his actual actions may have justified this reaction, but the cops should have cut him extra slack because he was sick.
AFAIK, diabetic reactions don’t make one violent or aggressive.
We have the choice to live in a stinking cesspool with a bunch of laws and cops on every street corner. Or. We can live in a stinking cesspool without a bunch of laws and cops on every street corner.
I choose the latter.
Doughnut truck.
Well, you got me there...kudos!
As a general rule, every cop enforcing traffic laws is basically setting taxpayer dollars on fire. They are being paid to sit there and collect fees that contribute nothing to public safety but everything to police pensions. Just this morning I was ticketed fraudulently while driving several states away from home. I was driving slower than the car next to me with the cruise set at 67. I was ticketed for going 70 on a speed-trap section of 95 (a short section in a non-residential area dropped to 55 when it’s 65 within a mile in either direction). I told him I wasn’t doing 70 and that he had the wrong car and he told me I could appear in court. This is done intentionally - he can see I’m out of state and that I won’t drive to his little town to fight it.
Traffic tickets are a complete racket. At least in DC they no longer even pretend they’re about safety. They are 100% about revenue generation and that’s just for police pensions.
Personal financial and criminal responsibility for officers behavior makes the use of force policies moot.
That’s why it’s a great idea to shackle these idiots to direct consequences. It’s way to “day at the office” to throw people in jail, beat them senseless. Too long have cops been separated from the people they police, and the repercussions of bad decisions.
Perhaps there are “too many cops” in some places (cities and surrounding areas) but where I am there aren’t enough. At any given time there are only 2 local, 2 county, and 2 state on duty. Quite often every day or night we are all backed up on service calls and do minimum traffic enforcement because there aren’t enough cops to cover our city/county/district. It’s not unusual to have county or state ask us local guys for help and then see us 10 miles from town because it’s an emergency call and they (county and state) are 30 miles away.
So I don’t know what to tell you. In the big cities there are too many cops I guess but it’s not that way everywhere.
So I don’t know what to tell you. In the big cities there are too many cops I guess but it’s not that way everywhere.”
That’s why I live in a small town outside a big city. Not “enough” cops and concealed carry is just about perfect.
I hope she gets every penny. We get what we pay for.
If we don’t fix it, we should pay for it.
” That’s why I live in a small town outside a big city. Not “enough” cops and concealed carry is just about perfect. “
Our ‘local police force’ consists of an out-of-service Sheriff’s car with a dummy (literal, not the donut-eating kind) in the front seat - we take turns moving it from location to location every week or so.. ;)
We have a County Sheriff car drive through on the main highway a couple of times a week, and a State Police car a couple of times a month...
Our ‘crime rate’?? Zero - as in not one break-in, burglary, or violent incident in the past 4 years that I’ve lived here.. (Well, Carl down the road got drunk one Sunday afternoon and ventilated some clouds with his .38, but by the time the Deputy got here, he was already sleeping it off...)
Aren’t you lucky. We police a rural/farming jurisdiction with a population around 8500-9000 and we have about 20,000-25,000 calls for service per year, not counting other agency requests for assistance.
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