And make no mistake. It was murder.
Two Fullerton Cops were acquitted for the beating death of Kelly Thomas. A young schizophrenic man. This comes in the wake of story after story of young people with Autism, Down syndrome and other developmental disorders being mistreated, beaten, and even shot by police. Police who are increasingly trained to respond to every challenging situation with force of some kind or another. Police who are increasingly trained to see themselves as an armed security force instead of a part of the community they patrol.
There is no rage more spirit-crushing than an impotent one. And no rage harder to put into words. Fortunately, I found someone to do it for me...
(More under the fold)
... where on Earth are you going to find a jury of 12 people... that live in the community... that will have to see the police every day... that had no love or relationship with the victim... that pay the salaries of the accused... that need the accused to "serve and protect" them... to stand up and say "Fuck you". 12 innocent people, in a courtroom full of uniformed officers, to say quis custodiet ipso custodien (Who watches the watchmen?).
After all... If you stand out, the police may kill you.
These are the words of a good friend who blogs about his experiences raising an autistic child. As the father of a special needs child myself, it kills me to see stories like this play out over and over again - as if there is no point at which we will say 'enough' to this type of story.
I urge you to read the whole blog. You'll find it here. They are the words of a father terrified that his son will meet the same fate.
And to those of you who's immediate reaction is to defend to police and the 'tough job' they do that we just 'can't understand, I dare you to watch the complete video of the Kelly Thomas incident. The link is right there, on the Find My Eyes blog. Go on. Watch the video and defend it. See if you can sit through the whole thing without your soul dying a little.