Just in from Turley, this story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the death of Andre Thomas.
One resident on that block said Andre Thomas had knocked on some doors, yelling that someone was trying to shoot him. Police have not confirmed that account.
Swissvale officers encountered Mr. Thomas, 37, in front of a residence in the 2200 block, county investigators said.
James Morton, assistant superintendent of county police, said today that Mr. Thomas refused to comply with the policemen’s orders to submit to them. An officer used a Taser to subdue him.
A neighbor said she saw Mr. Thomas standing with the prongs of the Taser still attached to him when four Swissvale officers forced him to the ground and handcuffed him.
“I saw them shove [Mr. Thomas] to the ground, and they handcuffed him,” the neighbor said. “They killed that man. They killed him. They killed him,” she added, her hands trembling. The woman said she saw one officer stomp on Mr. Thomas’s upper back, holding his foot there while the subject lay on the sidewalk with his head hanging over the curb. Another officer “reared back and punched him in the head with all his might,” she said.
>Mr. Thomas vomited. Then, for several minutes, he lay motionless, another nearby resident said, before an ambulance was called. The rescue truck stayed on the scene for several minutes more before Mr. Thomas was taken away, the witness said.
Andre Thomas was dead.
There really isn’t anything I can add to this story. I just felt that you should know.
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Who knows? Maybe the cops will be charged with “misdemeanor manslaughter,” and then acquitted; such things have happened. Justice must, after all, be served.
I agree with Joe. Has there been any mention of him being armed? Where was the threat? If they could get close enough to taser how threatening could he have been?
If tasered, why the excess brutality if used effectively and rendered immobile?
I hope there is enough ‘internet’ press to finally make some people accountable…not just the police officers if proven it was excessive…but those who have historically pushed this under the carpet.
This is why I post these stories, so that the word gets out, the word gets spread and conduct like this doesn’t get swept under the carpet.
Things won’t change until society recognizes that a problem exists and must be addressed.
The most corrupt (criminal) behavior of law enforcement is brutality, particularly resulting in death (capital offense), second is putting innocent people in jail. Every official in government where unlawful death occurs (police criminality) is (shall be) accountable from the mayor down to the patrolman. Whether it is a lack of training, a culture bred over the years, bigotry, lack of education, the list could goes on and on. I hope the people start demonstrating, civil disobedience works (the citizens of Lima Ohio have a real cause to demonstrate). The most effective remedy will be via of the law profession. Lawsuits of large proportions will stop this criminal behavior. An effort must be made to penetrate the veil of indemnification for government employees, attack (attach) their personal assets.
PS, an honest and zealous prosecution is a good start too-is there such an animal for police brutality?
But, Scott, these are, after all, isolated incidents . Surely, surely they must be hard to find, and —
Oops.
J-dog, one of my gravest fears is that these incidents will become so commonplace that people will get innured and no longer finding it shocking, even troubling. Just another police brutality case and another dead body.
Whenever it’s not in our backyard or someone we can relate to in our circles…we become desensitized. In a world of information overload with horrors abounding it is human nature to tune out. We can only take so much. And therein lies the real danger…the remote control and the click of a mouse.
Sure. But on the positive side, the ubiquity of cameras and voice recorders means that a lot of stuff that just would have been dismissed in the court of public opinion gets seen and heard.
And it happens in a lot of backyards.