The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

Started by Syt, August 11, 2014, 04:09:04 AM

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CountDeMoney

I like how on cop cars, "To protect and serve" is in quotes, like they're being sarcastic.
--Neil Brennan

jimmy olsen

Christ, this is the worst thing posted in here by far. :bleeding::bleeding::bleeding:

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/florida-wont-charge-prison-guards-who-boiled-schizophrenic-black-man-darren-rainey-to-death-9213190

Quote

Rundle Won't Charge Prison Guards Who Allegedly Boiled Schizophrenic Black Man to Death

Friday, March 17, 2017 at 6:53 p.m.

By Jerry Iannelli

On June 23, 2012, Darren Rainey, a schizophrenic man serving time for cocaine possession, was thrown into a prison shower at the Dade Correctional Institution. The water was turned up to 180 degrees — hot enough to steep tea or cook ramen noodles.

As his punishment, four corrections officers — John Fan Fan, Cornelius Thompson, Ronald Clarke, and Edwina Williams — kept Rainey in that shower for two full hours. Rainey was heard screaming, "Please take me out! I can't take it anymore!" and kicking the shower door. Inmates said prison guards laughed at Rainey and shouted, "Is it hot enough?"

Rainey died inside that shower. He was found crumpled on the floor. When his body was pulled out, nurses said burns covered 90 percent of his body. A nurse said his body temperature was too high to register with a thermometer. And his skin fell off at the touch.

But in an unconscionable decision, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle's office announced Friday that the four guards who oversaw what amounted to a medieval-era boiling will not be charged with a crime.


"The shower was itself neither dangerous nor unsafe,'' the report says. "The evidence does not show that Rainey's well-being was grossly disregarded by the correctional staff.''

Rundle's office announced the results of its investigation in a Friday-afternoon news dump, the kind that public officials typically use to bury unflattering news or information. Rundle's office would clearly like this case to vanish over the weekend — but the facts are so inhumanely grotesque that the decision should haunt the office for eternity.

Rundle took over as Miami-Dade's top prosecutor in the 1990s after Janet Reno left to join the Bill Clinton administration. Rundle has remained the state attorney since then. In that time, she has never charged a Miami police officer for an on-duty shooting.

It's important to note that all Rundle had to do to show she cared was to charge the prison guards with a crime. It's up to a jury to assess guilt. Despite the fact that a man died in a shower and that multiple witnesses said they saw burns on his body and heard screaming, Rundle didn't think there was enough evidence to bring criminal charges.

Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown spoke to multiple witnesses, jail inmates, and staff members, who said the showers were routinely used to scald inmates who acted out or upset the guards. Brown led a 2015 investigative series into abuses at Miami-area prisons. That series led to lawsuits, firings, rule changes, and legislative hearings. But Rundle hasn't filed criminal charges.

The New Yorker magazine published an investigation about Rainey's death. The magazine detailed how a whistleblower, Harriet Krzykowski, was bullied, harassed, and forced into therapy after trying to speak out about abuses at the jail.


Rundle's 72-page close-out memo leans heavily on an autopsy report that has been roundly criticized by civil rights advocates. The report claims Rainey was not found with burns when he died. Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida American Civil Liberties Association, has said that the report, which was leaked to the media during the investigation, showed that a federal investigation was needed.

Rundle's office, however, noted that one Miami-Dade County cop reported that nurses said Rainey's body had "red areas" on it and that his skin was, indeed, "slipping off" after he was removed from the shower. Rundle's memo said, however, that this could have instead been due to "body decomposition" rather than burns.

"In response to specific questions by Detective Sanchez regarding burns, Dr. [Emma] Lew advised that Rainey did not sustain any obvious external injuries, and, particularly, that there were no thermal injuries (burns) of any kind on his body," the report says. It then adds that from 2012 to 2014, no cause of death was determined.

This was complicated, however, by the fact that Rainey's family members say they were pressured to rapidly cremate his body. If further evidence of a murder existed, it has long been burnt to ashes.

One witness quoted in the Herald and New Yorker pieces, Harold Hempstead, was an inmate serving time for felony robbery. Hempstead kept a diary and reported that he heard Rainey's screams.

But Rundle's Friday memo took great pains to disqualify Hempstead's diary as inaccurate and unreliable. Multiple inmates told Rundle's office they heard screams, but the state attorney claimed the accounts were "inconsistent" and could not be trusted.

"Accordingly and in conclusion," Rundle wrote, "the facts and evidence in this case do not meet the required elements for the filing of any criminal charge."

She then signed her name.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Syt

Tim, this is horrible, but no one who matters cares about what happens to prison inmates, and this story won't make a difference. :(
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

jimmy olsen

Quote from: Syt on March 21, 2017, 01:03:25 AM
Tim, this is horrible, but no one who matters cares about what happens to prison inmates, and this story won't make a difference. :(

That doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

The Brain

Florida was nice when I was there, I didn't see any boilings.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

CountDeMoney

Quote from: jimmy olsen on March 21, 2017, 01:26:53 AM
Quote from: Syt on March 21, 2017, 01:03:25 AM
Tim, this is horrible, but no one who matters cares about what happens to prison inmates, and this story won't make a difference. :(

That doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it.

Let's talk about how this story won't make a difference then.

derspiess

Quote from: The Brain on March 21, 2017, 02:16:03 AM
Florida was nice when I was there, I didn't see any boilings.

Depends on where you go.
"If you can play a guitar and harmonica at the same time, like Bob Dylan or Neil Young, you're a genius. But make that extra bit of effort and strap some cymbals to your knees, suddenly people want to get the hell away from you."  --Rich Hall

garbon

Quote from: The Brain on March 21, 2017, 02:16:03 AM
Florida was nice when I was there

What definition of the word 'nice' are you using? :unsure:
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."

I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

dps

Quote from: Syt on March 21, 2017, 01:03:25 AM
Tim, this is horrible, but no one who matters cares about what happens to prison inmates, and this story won't make a difference. :(

People don't much care what happens to the mentally ill, either.  This guy had a trifecta working against him--convict, crazy, and black.

But if the allegations are true, Seedy's right--this is the worst thing posted in this thread.  One thing to just flat-out shoot someone, but they tortured this guy to death over a 2-hour period.

The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Syt

Quote from: dps on March 21, 2017, 03:22:03 PM
Quote from: Syt on March 21, 2017, 01:03:25 AM
Tim, this is horrible, but no one who matters cares about what happens to prison inmates, and this story won't make a difference. :(

People don't much care what happens to the mentally ill, either.  This guy had a trifecta working against him--convict, crazy, and black.

But if the allegations are true, Seedy's right--this is the worst thing posted in this thread.  One thing to just flat-out shoot someone, but they tortured this guy to death over a 2-hour period.

There's several stories of people dying in police custody scattered throughout this thread. Again, this is a horrific story, and likely the worst in this thread, but the populace, by and large, won't care. Which is depressing.
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

The Minsky Moment

Quote from: Syt on March 21, 2017, 01:03:25 AM
Tim, this is horrible, but no one who matters cares about what happens to prison inmates, and this story won't make a difference. :(

What do mean?  Surely the federal authorities will investigate under the leadership of that paragon of civil rights AG Jefferson Bedford Forrest Johnny Reb Beauregard Sessions?
The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists.
--Joan Robinson

jimmy olsen

It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

CountDeMoney

Next time, shoot a black 6 year old and you'll walk.

HVC

Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.