Police suspended for wheelchair dumping
Four Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies have been suspended after purposely tipping a quadriplegic man out of his wheelchair at a jail, authorities said Tuesday.
Orient Road Jail surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows veteran deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation.
Sterner said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.
"She was irked that I wasn't complying to what she was telling me to do," he told The Tampa Tribune. "It didn't register with her that she was asking me to do something I can't do."
Jones has been suspended without pay, and Sgt. Gary Hinson, 51, Cpl. Steven Dickey, 45 and Cpl. Decondra Williams, 36 have also been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
"The actions are indefensible at every level," Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said. "Based on what I saw, anything short of dismissal would be inappropriate."
He said the officers' actions were an aberration."
If you believe that this was, as the Chief Deputy states, an aberration, then I've got a statue on an island near Manhattan that I'd like to sell you.
No, this is only the the unique combination of . . .
1.) Abusing the RIGHT demographic: It would be difficult, but not impossible, to be more cold-hearted. Maybe they could have tripped a blind man? Or tasered a senior citizen? (Oops. That actually happened. More than once.) These days, plain old vanilla cruelty does not rate in the eyes of the media. You have to really be special.
2.) Committing the indiscretion against someone focused and mature enough to bring the incident to public attention. In the best of situations, holding the police accountable for their actions is a full-time job. Few people have that kind of tenacity. And anyhow, the victims usually tend to blame themselves. That's the really clever part about the system! Anytime a cop beats, humiliates or tasers a person, they will always tell you that YOU made them do it. While they are beating you, they will tell you that you made them do it.
3.) And finally, they got the behavior on videotape and then SOMEHOW got ahold of it. Maybe the man subpoenaed the police? Maybe an honest cop turned it in? Maybe it was leaked?
It's also telling that the police woman's superiors were also suspended, which could mean a variety of things, but the one I think makes the most sense is that they attempted to shelter her from charges. It also stands to reason that they did not view her behavior as being particularly unusual.
Orient Road Jail surveillance footage from Jan. 29 shows veteran deputy Charlette Marshall-Jones, 44, dumping Brian Sterner out of his wheelchair and searching him on the floor after he was brought in on a warrant after a traffic violation.
Sterner said when he was taken into a booking room and told to stand up, Jones grew agitated when he told her that he could not.
"She was irked that I wasn't complying to what she was telling me to do," he told The Tampa Tribune. "It didn't register with her that she was asking me to do something I can't do."
Jones has been suspended without pay, and Sgt. Gary Hinson, 51, Cpl. Steven Dickey, 45 and Cpl. Decondra Williams, 36 have also been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.
"The actions are indefensible at every level," Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said. "Based on what I saw, anything short of dismissal would be inappropriate."
He said the officers' actions were an aberration."
If you believe that this was, as the Chief Deputy states, an aberration, then I've got a statue on an island near Manhattan that I'd like to sell you.
No, this is only the the unique combination of . . .
1.) Abusing the RIGHT demographic: It would be difficult, but not impossible, to be more cold-hearted. Maybe they could have tripped a blind man? Or tasered a senior citizen? (Oops. That actually happened. More than once.) These days, plain old vanilla cruelty does not rate in the eyes of the media. You have to really be special.
2.) Committing the indiscretion against someone focused and mature enough to bring the incident to public attention. In the best of situations, holding the police accountable for their actions is a full-time job. Few people have that kind of tenacity. And anyhow, the victims usually tend to blame themselves. That's the really clever part about the system! Anytime a cop beats, humiliates or tasers a person, they will always tell you that YOU made them do it. While they are beating you, they will tell you that you made them do it.
3.) And finally, they got the behavior on videotape and then SOMEHOW got ahold of it. Maybe the man subpoenaed the police? Maybe an honest cop turned it in? Maybe it was leaked?
It's also telling that the police woman's superiors were also suspended, which could mean a variety of things, but the one I think makes the most sense is that they attempted to shelter her from charges. It also stands to reason that they did not view her behavior as being particularly unusual.