Nos genuflectitur ad non princeps sed Princeps Pacem!
Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. (Isaiah 49:1 KJV)
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.
"Upon information and belief, there were approximately 52 individuals that responded to the scene," according to the complaint.
I don't think the Founding Fathers had this in mind for American law enforcement. Of course, Maryland is one of the most fascist states. Look at what they did to Linda Tripp, and look at how BTK used the Maryland legal system to "get" Aaron Walker.
No wonder the country is broke, if we're paying 52 guys to beat diabetic seizure cases to death.
Good thing he didn't have a dog with him.
There has got to be something more to this story....did he run over a little kid or something? Crash into a school bus?
Just what in the hell would that many ‘public servants’ be responding to an interstate crash for? Something is not being told here.
Regardless, if the wife’s story is accurate and there were no other extenuating egregious injury to bystanders, any officer that carried a taser or carried a club or held him down and held pressure on him lifeless should be tried, convicted and executed in my book.
Years and years ago I was in court fighting a traffic ticket and listened to a case almost identical to this poor guy. He also had Diabetes and the cops assumed that he was drunk.
One of the very few times I’ve ever heard a judge tear into a cop - he browbeat him and shamed the crap out of him.
Oh, and I almost forgot - my speeding ticket case was next and every bit of sympathy was used up in the judge ;-)
From an earlier article:
“But Baltimore County police say Johnson got into a rumble with officers Thursday after crashing his Toyota pickup truck near a busy highway interchange, and continued fighting after being doused with pepper spray and receiving an initial hit from a Taser.”
Does a guy in a diabetic reaction fight with a bunch of cops?
“Here in Maryland we don’t get a chance to hit diabetics very often so when we do we try to take full advantage of the opportunity as a training session”.
“It’s a shame the man died of diabetes, most of our officers contribute to the Diabetes Foundation. And the Die of Beating Foundation too.”
Man you messed up! When they called your name you should have fell to the floor and started shaking like you was having a seizure! ;-)
I’m not that quick thinking on my feet, er back.
Maybe, but I doubt it. It can make a person act drunk, however.
52 cops....1 diabetic = 10 million.
Actually, that IS fair!
Put the cops in jail, where they belong.
We received extensive training 5 years ago to help with situations like this; there have been multiple incidents here where diabetics have had accidents here and they’ve been handled appropriately.
IF the complaint is all true then adequate punishment should be handed down post haste. Experienced cops should be able to discern a drunk from a diabetic from a pill head from a meth head.....it’s not that hard unless all 52 personnel were affirmative action hires or something.
One caveat I have, perhaps sufferers of certain levels of diabetes should not be able to drive....it’s not really fair but if they’re prone to seizures and passing out then the safety of other drivers should really come into play.
About a year of so ago there was a widely circulated video of from a motorcyclist who was dealt with very aggressively by a MD state trooper driving an unmarked car. The victim’s problems really began when he responded to being treated with a heavy hand by posting the video of the incident on YouTube.
It is obvious that Maryland public officials are running a Police State and they like it just fine.
Maryland, you have a big problem with your Government Class that will take a long time to solve.
This is not an isolated incident. Very common in this country. Vote against funding police at your local level. Too many cops. Too many laws. Broad discretionary powers. You Freepers who keep voting for things like seatbelt laws, testing laws are idiots.
(not speaking directly to kiryandil of course).
I wasn’t even thinking about money. No amount of money for what they did is enough, if the wife’s assertion is accurate.
And, for what seems an entire police department contingent, $10M is a drop in the bucket. One hundred million is enough of a start for that police department to seriously start looking at what it does and what kind of goons it hires.
yep...and vote for right to carry. Cost the tax payer a whole lot less, more effective at crime prevention, and its the constitutionally right thing to do.
This kinda 8ull$hit needs to stop.
” One hundred million is enough of a start for that police department to seriously start looking at what it does and what kind of goons it hires.”
Police brutality and misconduct is increasing every year.
They are hiring highly unqualified people. I wonder if they hire cops that were fired elsewhere, because they can get them cheap?
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.
So, was implementation of 911 a good idea or not?
Seems like it got us dependent on someone else to take care of a lot of situations that otherwise wouldn’t be called in, and it got a lot of knuckleheads calling the police for pranks or accidental calls, etc. - any number of things that probably don’t need police response. Or are these calls for the most part blocked by the 911 operator?
I would suggest that until we fix “cops” then I don’t want any part of them. The fact that the public school sheeple who elected Barrak the commie keep calling you doesn’t surprise me. These idiots have been conditioned by gubment schools to demand a highly ordered, controlled environment. The bell tells them when to sit, when to move, and when to piss. I don’t give two hills of shiite about the idiotcracy and its endless dramas.
So the sheeple call you constantly because cousin Sheneeka laid on the crack pipe and broke a Window. Then they call their surrogate parents who haul everyone to jail for a day or two. Everyone has been to jail or is going to jail.
Leave me out of it. No, I don’t give two hills of shiite about the village and it’s endless dramas.
I would ask that you remember that there are almost 900,000 “cops” of all sorts, and not all desire to beat people senseless nor are they all separated from the people.
For my part, I do not call citizens, “civilians”, I routinely show, for lack of better word “mercy” on traffic stops, do not support the lost War on Drugs/Citizens/Constitution, and do not use more force than is reasonable and appropriate. Of course, this is the internet, but we are out there.
The media is not in the habit of celebrating when officers resolved a situation without physical force being used. They would prefer to run the stories that have a negative emotional response. They take a person’s natural distrust of government and exploit by appealing to your sense of outrage and betrayal. You have seen how they manipulated MILLIONS with the George Zimmerman story. The MSM is not in the business of truth, only ratings and viewership, which is why they are fomenting a damn race war in this country but that’s another issue.
For example, a story about a cop pulling a person from a burning building, that you will read once, and say, “Hey, that’s nice.” Leave you with a warm and glowy for about ten seconds until you see your favorite sports team put the suck on last night.
But a story about an officer using what appears to you and others as excessive force, that will be headlines for days, and you will read it over and over again, and even make comments about it. This will be further exacerbated by the government agencys involved lack of transperancy about the incident.
It is an frustrating conundrum. People want to know why, and agencies remain silent, OR they try to explain and citizens still don’t understand why something had to be done. It’s frustrating for police as well because they simply cannot put an inquiring citizen in their car and take them to a fight or a domestic in progress and say, “Ok, resolve that up with the talents, skills and experience you currently have. BTW, don’t violate anyone’s civil rights, or get yourself hurt and be prepared to be critiqued when you are done.”
Well said
I'll have to agree with you there.
If I used those arguments at work, I would be told ‘well, you took the job. You knew what you were getting into.’
On a side note, there should be more attention is paid to these cases were there is such high levels of violence, uncontrolled use of force, and killing. Citizens should be in the business of this oversight.
They didn't need a dog this time. They had a human being to kill.
“Does a guy in a diabetic reaction fight with a bunch of cops?”
No, but he doesn’t respond to commands which they use as a free pass to beat him to death.
NO ONE truly knows what they are getting into when they get into police work. NO ONE. I didn’t, and none of my colleagues did. This is why most cops with ten or more years on don’t recommend people get into police work.
If I could stand outside a police academy and tell the new kids to run away, I would.
You have to understand that when cops screw up people die. I know you know that. You seem like a great guy.
All this is solved by removing the criminal and civil protections that cops enjoy. Send a few into bankruptcy and the rest will be more likely to think through before beating down.
Everyone in this country has contact with police. That is the problem. 900,000 cops in a country of 300,000,000.
The only time reason we have so many is because the sheeple demand more laws, so they need more cops, etc.
Every time one of those idiot motorcycle cops f-up the morning rush hour with a traffic stop on the shoulder of a congested highway I am reminded how truly stupid cops and cops bosses can be. Snarl up traffic, cause accidents, then bingo the sheeple demand more cops to control traffic. Give me a break.
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