There is a lot to say about how a police department is ran and the leadership that allows its sworn officers to break the law under the color of a shield which is suppose to protect all citizens and not just a certain class of citizens.
The New York City Police Department is once again under fire for a series of deaths and assaults that have popped up in and around the city. Just last week, Eric Garner, a Staten Island man was choked to death at the hands of the police simply because he was being arrested for allegedly selling untaxed cigarettes (that’s right cigarettes) and the incident was captured on video which makes it very hard for the police to refute that there was excessive force applied to the man which ultimately lead to his demise. The medical examiner’s report has yet to conclude what the real cause of his death was due to but one thing is for sure he was alive and talking moments before several plainclothes and uniformed cops piled on top of him with one in particular seen using a banned chokehold on the man. In another incident, a police review board has concluded that three officers that were assigned to the same police precinct where Eric Garner died last week are responsible for the accidental death of another man.
The NY Daily News is reporting:
The review panel has recommended disciplinary charges against three Staten Island cops — all assigned to the precinct already under fire in Eric Garner’s death — for using excessive force and failing to get medical treatment for a 52-year-old man who died while in custody, the Daily News has learned.
A lawsuit filed this week in Brooklyn Federal Court says Irving Mizell was beaten by cops who arrested him on March 7, 2013, after he violated an order of protection his girlfriend had against him.
Mizell was taken into custody about 6:30 p.m. outside the woman’s apartment door. He was then removed to the stairwell where the officers “viciously beat, and assaulted him while dragging him down seven flights of stairs,” out of view of security cameras in the elevators, according to the suit.
George Mizell, 51, the victim’s brother, acknowledged his sibling had a drinking problem but said he was “absolutely harmless.”
“It was cruel. My brother was like a bird with broken wings and they stepped on him,” Mizell said. “They thought he was a drunk, a nobody who would get a beating and nobody would find out. Well, now they’re going to find that they were wrong.”
New York City current Police Commissioner Bill Bratton should at the very least be asked to step down from his job because if his cops are violating citizens rights and the only thing he can say at a press conference is that the officers need to be retrained on how to use force when dealing with individuals, he doesn’t have a clue. Police accused of abuses should be immediately stripped of their badge and gun and if found guilty of violating a person’s right, they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law just like any other person accused of a crime. It’s just that simple. Enough of the Gestopo style leadership that is prevalent inside the New York City Police Department.
