Fullerton Police beat Homeless Man to Death

I don't really know how to start this properly. Rather than repeat whats already been said, please take a second to read the ARTICLE. ** WARNING-GRAPHIC IMAGES AND VIDEO**


If you feel inclined to do so, please sign the PETITION to release the train station camera video tapes.

If you want to stay updated about how you can help, please visit the FACEBOOK page the family has created.

I have lived in Fullerton my entire life, and this happened in our own neighborhood. Literally. 3 blocks away from where I live. I hope this brings much needed light into a dark situation.

 

I was listening to the John and Ken show today and heard about the story. I am glad that this is coming out and people are able to take some action.

 

WOW! That's EF'D up!, but I'm sure those six police felt that their lives were threatened and their use of force was necessary to protect themselves, and I'm POSITIVE that the FPD internal investigation will show that they followed the correct procedures. To Protect and Serve.......

 

Very graphic photos of the victim in the hospital

http://www.kfiam640.com/cc-common/gallery/photos.html?album_id=289539#/0/17414674

 

Is this the video?


http://youtu.be/1ljYNgLnpxM

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1ljYNgLnpxM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Is he yelling for his dad?

It appears the FBI will investigate this unfortunate incident. The buck stop at the top.

 

charlesinoc: yes he was calling for his dad.

BROWNIE: thats what the petition is for. It would release to the public, the security tapes that should show the entire event. if you watch the video, notice that none of the cops parked facing the altercation, which means that the video cameras on board the cars would show nothing.

[In response to a public records request, the FPD’s Professional Standards Bureau just told us:

Officer “H” was placed on administrative leave on July 8th, 2011. As of the last pay period ending July 22nd, the total salary for officer “H” is $3015.36

Officer “I” was placed on administrative leave on July 10th, 2011. As of the last pay period ending July 22nd, the total salary for officer “I” is $2871.76.

For the record, these were the 8th and 9th Fullerton police officers to be put on paid leave pending an internal investigation in the past three years. Those nine officers earned a total of $227,595.92 for not working.] -Fullertonsfuture.org

 

I've been following this as well.
Those police officers murdered that guy, and they have no plausable excuse. Six guys beating down a single 135 pound, unarmed man? Seriously? Did that make them feel tough?

It appears that these police officers felt that they were above the law. It also sounds like the city is corrupt from the top down.
The DA investigator is best buddies with the police chief? No wonder there was no sense of urgency to interview the sole witness (they waited over 20 days and after the issue started to blow up).

http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/

May those police officers rot in hell.

By the way, the link to the petition in the first post needs to be fixed.

 

Sure they do. Remember that South Park, where Jimbo explains to the boys that before they blow away an animal, they have to yell, "It's coming right for us!"

All a cop has to do is say that he was afraid for his own safety. Look at what we learned from Oakland earlier this year...2 years for shooting a man in handcuffs on the ground.

 

thanks for pointing out the dead link lee..... glad to hear someone else on the forum following this as closely as I am. The DA business is totally SKETCHY. Did you read that the FPD Chief came from a different city(newport?) and left shortly after another investigation following a death caused from the police?

GOOD NEWS IN: The FBI will be taking over the investigation. Hopefully they can take care of this situation properly.
http://www.fullertonsfuture.org/201...-investigation-into-the-kelly-thomas-beating/

Seems like all FPD is good for is stealing iPads at airports, and beating people into comas.

 

Thanks for saying that Lee! I'd of like too, but the police like to treat my kind like a king... Rodney King that is!

 

I agree!

 

LOL. I lived in LA through the whole Rodney King fiasco. I remember a t-shirt that says, "Welcome to LA. We treat you like a King."

 

I've been following this a bit as well. This garbage happens way to much, ONCE is way to much. I was assaulted by Irvine police when I was 16, It really messed up my perception for a long time. The way I look at it now: most cops wouldn't have done this, but there's thousands of police officers in Orange County, even at 1 percent, thats dozens of psychopaths running around with guns and a badge, scary!

And it's just another glaring example of how this Country has Neglected the mental health care needs of it's citizens.

 

A story like this is becoming way too common in our country.

Here is another one. A woman is handcuffed after driving drunk. She is belligerent to the officer. The camera is running. The officer turns off the camera.

When the camera comes back on, the woman is in a pool of her own blood. She ends up with TWO BLACK EYES. The cop claims she got injured when she fell. His superiors accepted the answer at face value, and the cop got reinstated to his job. How does one get two black eyes from falling. Can somebody reenact that for us?

[video=youtube;3GIK5IyKd4Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GIK5IyKd4Q&feature=related[/video]

Cops protect each other. It is called the blue wall of silence. But they do this even when one of their own beats the crap out of a HANDCUFFED WOMAN? Now a 135 lbs unarmed homeless guy gets a beat down from 6 cops and dies.

We are becoming a police state if we aren't one already. The "land of the the free" boasts of the highest incarceration rate in the world. We have more prisoners per capita of any other country in the world including North Korea and Iran.

 

I ask the police to do a dirty job, to protect me, my family and friends from harm. They patrol the back alleys and put themselves in harms way on a daily basis, even in Fullerton. When we are in trouble we call them and they come, as quickly as they can, they get there.

Those photos are disturbing, and while I never want to think of them abusing an innocent man, I dont know all the facts. As bad as it seems, I will reserve judgement.

At the same time I am glad this isnt something that is just being swept under the rug. You, I, everyone needs to know this happend.

 

I think we need to think about this before making accusations.

What we know: 2 police officers were attempting to restrain 1 man, they called for backup and 4 more arrived to help. That man later died from the injuries he received as a result of police actions. One officer ended up with a broken rib, another with a broken arm.
Everything else is speculation and assumptions.

For those who watch Cops, you'll have seen numerous occasions where even 5+ officers have trouble restraining a single suspect.

In this case they tried to taze him numerous times and it didn't work. When your "non-lethal" defense is useless what do you do? The man is resisting arrest, the taser isn't working, police can't shoot unless they feel their life or another's is in danger, they have to use physical force. Did they go overboard? maybe, we don't really know. He may have been fighting until they knocked that last bit of life out of him. We just don't know.

If the police officers were wrong in their actions I will agree 100% with trying them for the crime they have committed. Until I see all of the evidence presented in a purely factual context I can't make a decision on whether these police officers were just doing their duty or if they stepped into the realm of police brutality.

 

That's horrific.

 

The latest reports indicate that the officers did not actually sustain any broken bones.

You mean the tazer didn't kill him immediately? Probably not. But...when eyewitness accounts indicate that they were tazing the man after he was already unconcious would indicate that the officers were probably going outside of policy.

I moved this to the end.

Here's what we really know: Unarmed 135 pound man vs 6 much heavier and presumably trained police officers can't restrain him even after he's unconcious? Is there any reasonable excuse for the guy to be beat up that badly even if he did resist? No. They should have been trained to restrain a person who doesn't want to be restrained. And those examples on Cops most always show extremely big, line-backer type guys trying to resist. But they always restrain them without killing them.

I think it's pretty safe to jump to the assumption that either those officers were extremely poorly trained and were completely incompetent bumbling idiots, or they murdered the guy.

Well...or both.

 

From what I heard on the radio, the broken bones statement has been retracted and now they are saying light tissue damage.

Most policemen are great people, but this investigation will help the ones that think they are above the law think twice.

 

@Kimbilly, thanks for posting this. I have been following this since it broke this morning (amazing that it happened over three weeks ago and was covered up until now). Fullerton PD obviously has some issues that need to be addressed. This is a really, really sad story.

Gary Hoffman filling in for Bill Handel covered it this morning and interviewed Kelly's father (who is an ex PD BTW):
Kelly Thomas

I only hear a bit of John and Ken's coverage of it this afternoon, but here it is:
Father Speaks
Witness Speaks
Sister Speaks