Posted on 08/07/2011 1:19:38 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Hundreds joined Ron Thomas at a rally Saturday at Fullerton Police Department wanted to see the police chief step down.
At a rally in front of the Fullerton Police Department Saturday calling for the police chief’s resignation, the father of the 37-year-old schizophrenic man who was beaten by police and died said he wanted to see stiff penalties for those involved.
“What I want to see done is the primary guy that was beating my son in the back of the head with a Taser, because this was indeed a hate crime against the homeless and mentally ill, needs to be convicted of a brutal murder with special circumstances,” said Ron Thomas. “I want him to get the death penalty and I’ll pull the switch.”
More than 500 people joined Thomas at the rally many shouting “Justice for Kelly! Jail Killer Cops!” in response to the beating and death of a Kelly Thomas who allegedly fought with officers July 5.
Andy Anderson, a Fullerton resident who helped organize the protest, said they wanted to see the policemen involved lose their jobs.
“The main goal is to get Chief Sellers to step down,” he said. “We are going to show him through unity and all the people here that we don’t want him here anymore. The ultimate goal is prosecution for the 6 officers involved.”
Anderson said Kelly was a fixture in the community and that the beating more evidence of what he described as an overly aggressive police force.
“We are trying to keep his mental illness really out of it,” said Anderson about Kelly’s medical condition. “What it comes down to is, he was a schizophrenic yeah, he was a homeless guy, but six police officers beat him to death and that is really the story here and I think sometimes the mental illness thing is putting a shroud over what actually happened.”
He said in addition to the chief stepping down he wants to see the desk officer who watched the video during the beating lose his job and the six officers lose their jobs, pension and serve jail time, “just like any other citizen would.”
A Fullerton police lieutenant, who refused to give his name, said there have been no arrests and that crowd has not been unruly. He also said there has been no special police deployment for the protest.
“It's just our regular number of officers that are serving the city today,” he said. “Nothing's going on. That's all I have to say. We're (the police department) not making any statements about this (protest).”
Members of the coalition of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, or ANSWER, and mental health advocates joined the parents of Kelly Thomas in the demonstration.
Six officers believed to be involved in Thomas' arrest were publicly identified by a blogger, and that reportedly caused the wife and children of one of the officers to move to a hotel after the family received a death threat.
Kelly Thomas was allegedly suspected of trying to break into cars at the Fullerton transit center. He was in a coma and died in a hospital five days after the arrest. His father, a former sheriff's deputy, made public an image of his bloodied and bruised son in a hospital bed, with at least one black eye, a big cut on his forehead and what appeared to be broken nose.
Surveillance video shows part of the arrest, but authorities say they will not make it public. The FBI is monitoring the investigation and will hand up its findings to the Justice Department.
A candlelight vigil is planned for Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Fullerton City Hall.
OK stupid I’m sixty four years old, my mother is dead, and if any one needs to grow up it’s you...the fact you think it would be just fine to get rid of all the police shows what a whithering lunitic you are....so what happened ..did the bad old police take your stash??
Joint VentureA person can be found guilty of a criminal offense even if he did not personally commit the crime, but instead, aided and abetted its commission as part of a 'joint venture' with other persons.
He probably just tripped.
The tape (or tapes) will be revealing. The camera mounted on the pole at the transportation center is lined up right where the beating took place. The critical footage will be what happened BEFORE the take-down began, when Kelly Thomas, according to witnesses, was sitting there on a bench and was approached by the first two officers. He allegedly ran away when they tried to take and search his backpack. The FPD's story is that they took him down because he "resisted arrest." However, witnesses have stated he never resisted, that "he wasn't doing nothing." His father said he most likely ran because he was scared as he is schitzophrenic.
The tape should provide the answers. There is also a patrol car camera that reportedly filmed the entire event, according to a police informer, and two dispatchers watched the entire thing. A real estate agent was also taping the whole event from about 15-20 feet away. Unfortunately, the police "borrowed" that tape and no one seems to be able to find it now.
Call me cynic, but I don't think it is going to turn up.
Oh no! he was having a prayer meeting and six cops jumped on him and beat him to death!!!!
Remind me again, which offenses carry the penalty of summary execution by police stomping?
Relax. It probably won't be your son or daughter next time.
The following article (very thorough and informative) says the bus station tape may be obscured (you'll have to cut and paste, I can't link):
http://www.centredaily.com/2011/08/06/2870668/hundreds-protest-fullerton-mans.html
"Fullerton's use-of-force policy explicitly directs officers to intercede if they see fellow officers applying what they believe to be excessive force."
At tyhis point all you know is the guy died and there were six cops present when he did.
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We know much more than that. We know he was beaten to death and six cops were present at the time.
So if someone else beat him to death the cops did nothing to stop it. If one or more of those six cops beat him to death, the others did nothing to stop them.
Every jurisdiction needs an independent civilian review board with full investigative powers to look into possible crimes and misconduct by police. The board should also have an independent prosecutor for cases where they find reasonable cause to believe a crime was committed.
My son or daughter has a much better chance of being killed by a drug related criminal offender(homeless person) than a police officer.
I have no problem with this....as I am sure there was police malfeasance involved in this....but according to some on this thread all the cops are guilty and should be hanged immediately...you see some people on this site don't like having their stash confiscated!!!
Not to excuse the cops. None of the six beaters should be on the force, all should be in jail on conviction of manslaughter. If the local political and police apparatus doesn't attend to this promptly, then it is reasonable to find the entire lot of them corrupt.
Has a single Fullerton cop spoken out AGAINST the department?
True as that might be, it is neither relevant nor responsive to the specific incident being discussed in this thread.
Mostly I see people who don’t like it when cops act like thugs and other cops cover for the bad actors.
The us vs them mentality of far too many cops has spread to the general public and that is bad for society. Good cops need to turn on the bad ones before things get worse.
I imagine the father of the victim was quite shocked too - particularly since he was ex-law enforcement; I mean what are the odds, right?
Without looking back to make sure, I believe the animus is directed to the six who were on scene, the one who witnessed the beating action from a desk (via cam) and the chief.
All six on scene are pretty easily guilty of manslaughter, since, from the moment the accused submits, law enforcement is to bring the accused to a safe place.
I wouldn't hang 'em; but they'd be sentenced to the maximum for manslaughter; and they'd be felons. The public can reasonably expect BETTER behavior from law enforcement, than from the general public.
He was beaten, but not to death. Death came days later.
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His death was a result of the beating. If you shoot me and I die days later, I was shot to death.
In fairness, I believe they have been instructed not to discuss this case. I have heard rumors that some of them are also quite disgusted and angry, but again, those are just rumors.
One of the pictures I took yesterday was of a young man holding a sign that said, "I Support the Police: BUT NOT THIS TIME."
I really think he speaks for our community. This sort of "policing" is unacceptable.
If they are tried and found guilty they should be punished....but at the moment no one knows exactly what the cops did or what the perp did....we are relying on what was reported to have happened.
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