When The Badge is Viewed as License to be Judge, Jury and Executioner . . .

This sad story is from The Gadfly's neck of the woods:

Two former Fullerton police officers were found not guilty Monday in the beating death of Kelly Thomas and charges against a third officer will be dropped.

Family and supporters of the homeless schizophrenic man, who died after a violent 2011 altercation with police, are now hoping federal authorities will step in.

Ron Thomas, Kelly's father and a former sheriff's deputy, said he hoped that the U.S. Justice Department would file federal charges against the officers. The FBI had been investigating and monitoring the case.

"I've never seen something so bad happen to a human being, and have it done by on-duty police officers," Thomas said. "And they can walk away scot-free."

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-kelly-thomas-federal-charges-20140114,0,2468508.story#axzz2qOo3Y2tf


The Gadfly knows what a dangerous and difficult job civilian law enforcement officers have and The Gadfly appreciates most of what it is that they provide to society.

But it is also quite obvious to The Gadfly that there are quite a few individuals currently in uniform, with a badge and a gun, and the power of the state legal apparatus behind them, who quite frankly, are clearly unfit to be granted such power in our communities.

When 6 large policemen end up leaving a skinny, 110 pound homeless guy looking like this . . .

. . . it is not a stretch to any extent to postulate that something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Kelly Thomas died from the injuries he received from his confrontation with the Fullerton Police department a few days after being admitted to the hospital in a comatose condition.  All of the bones in his face were broken, he had a skull fracture, his ribs were fractured, and his thorax was crushed.  He never woke up.

Yesterday - a Fullerton, California jury let the cops go free.  Not at all surprising considering that that area in Orange County is a solid red, conservative enclave, and we all know how much conservatives loves them some law and order.  Unfortunately for Kelly Thomas, it's the type of law an order that is typically meted out in third-world dictatorships and eastern bloc authoritarian regimes.

But to the larger point, when trust in the people that the community invests faith in to protect and serve is weakened, and doubt is sowed as to whether they are able to competently discharge their sworn duties in accordance with the law and constitutional judiciousness, in addition to dealing with the individual's they come in contact with in the course of those duties with dispassionate judgement, then there is reason to seriously question whether those public officials should be in such a position to begin with.

It's too late for Kelly Thomas of course, but the hope is that eventually some lesson will emerge from this unnecessary tragedy that sends a message to law enforcement which unambiguously warns them that their powers are not omnipotent, and that justice cuts both ways in America.



----TFG