La vidéo est terrible. elle relate un évènement qui s'est produit en juillet mais dont les images ne nous parviennent que depuis 2 jours. Ces images doivent être diffusées non par voyeurisme mais parce qu'il est important que le monde sache que derrière la belle face de la première démocratie au monde se cache des horreurs, des meurtres inacceptables, la barbarie qui a un nom et un visage, la police, le système répressif .
"Video revealing the circumstances of how a mentally ill homeless man
in Fullerton, Calif. died last July was finally published Monday,
revealing a stunningly brutal police assault that left Kelly Thomas
bleeding, broken and near death.
In the video, one of the
officers can be heard telling Thomas, who was schizophrenic, “See my
fists? They’re getting ready to start fucking you up.” When he doesn’t
immediately comply and instead stands up, another officer charges in and
hits him with a baton, and a scuffle ensues.
For the next
approximately eight minutes, Thomas is pinned by the two officers, then
up to as many as four more arrive and pile on. As Thomas pleads for
mercy and complains that he cannot breathe, he’s tased and punched
repeatedly. The treatment continues until Thomas’s cries morph into
inaudible grunts and moans.
He was comatose after the beating,
and died five days later after being taken off life support. Needless to
say, the video is not for the faint of heart.
The cause of
death, officially, was compression of his thorax. Two officers were
charged in the case, one of them with second-degree murder.
Activists in Fullerton have been demonstrating for months, and Thomas’s
parents have been trying to force the tape into public view. One of
them, Ron Thomas, is a former Orange County Sheriff’s deputy — and in
the video, his son can be heard crying for his father repeatedly.
Because of their status and the shocking nature of the killing, their
petitions have even been supported by a member of the Fullerton City
Council.
The footage was first shown in a courtroom on Monday,
when it was also revealed that a paramedic who was charged with treating
Thomas had paused to attend to the officers first, even though they’d
only suffered minor scrapes from wrestling Thomas to the pavement. An
earlier tape, shot from across the street, did not show Thomas’s ordeal
in nearly as much detail.
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