Police brutality: in the words of a victim.

The following are the victim’s exact words to the police brutality he had suffered approx a year ago. WoC has made no alterations or corrections to this. This victim wished to be anonymous.

I just wanted to share this experience with everyone.

I was beaten up by the police a little over a year ago. I took a piss in a park-like area near a lake in the woods behind a tree in a bush, and got arrested for “burglary”, because there was an under-construction building nearby with a camera set up.

I was taken to jail. While I was in jail, I was asked if I was on probation.

I was. Because I was maliciously prosecuted without probable cause 2 years ago.

So I replied, “I’d prefer not to answer that without an attorney present.”

The cop said, “Fine I’m done. Go back to the waiting area.” I said “Okay,” looked up at the cop, got up, turned, and started walking back to the waiting area. When I was half-way there, the cop shouted, “Actually, you know what, go to the holding cell.”

So I turned to look at both the cop and the holding cell. Another cop had gotten up behind the first cop and was following behind the first cop.

The first cop walked around me, behind me, and randomly grabbed my arm, and twisted and yanked my arm.

I reacted very slightly mainly to the cop twisting my arm while yanking it. I mostly untwisted my arm, but also retracted it. I didn’t otherwise move. Keep in mind, the cop had walked around me, was behind me, and suddenly grabbed, twisted, and yanked my arm, from behind.

I said “okay” and allowed the cop to hold my arm, and relaxed.

The second cop walked up behind me, put one arm around my neck, and the other against the back of my head, in a “rear naked choke” or a (“carotid artery hold” in police lingo), and FORCED ME INTO UNCONSCIOUSNESS. The last thing I remember is being tipped backwards, and just trying to relax, and trying to “tap” with my one free hand, as I thought that would be best strategy to show them that I wasn’t a threat.

The next I was conscious, I was on the ground, on my stomach. The second cop still had his arm around my neck. He had shifted his other hand from the back of my head, to against the fist of his arm around my neck, to give himself extra leverage to crush my neck between his arm around my neck.

His knee was on my lower back, right on my kidney, and he had almost all his weight on that knee.

My head was turned, so I could see up a little bit.

The first cop still had my arm.

My other arm was underneath the shin of the second cop’s other leg.

This lasted about 4-6 minutes. Several things happened. I saw two other cops come, and heard a third, but didn’t get see him.

I was eventually handcuffed, lifted up, carried into the holding cell, placed on a bench face against the wall. One cop pulled out a tazer and pointed it at me until all the other cops left the cell, then said “If you move you’ll be tazered. Do you understand?” I said, “Yes. I don’t want any problems.” And the cop left.

I am suing the second cop. The one who assaulted me. I filed a claim with the County.

I was treated unreasonably dismissively by the person evaluating the claim, and was told by a County Supervisor that they don’t have any responsibility, and don’t want to politicize the situation (Sonoma County, California, Linda Hopkins, and Janelle Crane).

I was instructed to report the incident to Internal Affairs, and I did, but I shouldn’t have, because all that accomplished was ruining my chance to get untainted depositions.

I’m also suing for what I was on probation for. The magistrate judge dismissed that whole case. This is about whether they can do whatever they want because of their position in society, including commit crimes, and the judge is saying “yep”. They have “absolute immunity”, even though they had no probable cause, and I came with better legal citations than the judge. (The judge was wrong, they don’t.)

So now I have to appeal.

And I am getting ready to file this second lawsuit.