Police Killings Increase As Executions Decrease

1.  Anti-death penalty advocates were elated to learn that capital punishment has been eliminated or placed on hold in 36 states in the USA partly because of torturous executions in 2014 using mystery drugs. However, police killings have increased to the point that no reduction in democide actually happened. Within one month, from mid-July until mid-August, the police body count is four killings for California and one each for Utah, Missouri, Ohio, and New York. Another beer summit might be in order to withdraw military equipment from non-military government agencies, including police departments (Ref. #1, at paragraph 9).

2.  The world is increasingly alarmed at how little freedom and justice people in America actually have. Even journalists were arrested in Ferguson, Ohio during protests over Michael Brown's shooting death by Officer Darren Wilson. Some journalists were told to turn off their cameras then attacked with rubber bullets and tear gas when they refused to comply with police orders that violated their freedom of press rights. There have been injuries among Ferguson's protesters - one that was critical - but no more deaths at the time of this writing (Ref. #2, at paragraph 9). This is #ourGaza 

3.  California police fatally shot two mentally challenged people in August, including  a 19-year-old woman in crisis and Ezell Ford, 25, an unarmed black man who witnesses say committed no crime and was completely compliant with police. California police also beat a Latino young man named Omar Abrego to death. Utah police fatally shot a 20-year-old unarmed Caucasian, Dillon Taylor. See their stories at the four(4) links below.

     i.  San Jose Police killed a 19-year-old woman who had a power drill they "thought" was a gun
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/15/san-jose-police-fatally-shoot-woman-19-after-mistaking-power-drill-for-a-gun/ 

     ii.  LAPD fatally beat a young Latino father at a traffic stop
http://laist.com/2014/08/15/video_man_dies_after_bloody.php

     iii.  Ezell Ford, 25, was reportedly laid out on the ground and shot multiple times in his back by LAPD. His death was added to "Random Killings of Disabled Americans"
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/06/random-killings-of-disabled-americans.html

     iv.  THE EIGHTH UNARMED POLICE VICTIM WITHIN ONE MONTH - Salt Lake City police fatally shot Dillon Taylor, 20, on Aug. 13. The victim was unarmed when police confronted him, his brother says. Court documents show a $25,000 arrest warrant had been issued Aug. 7 for Taylor, alleging that he had violated his probation on earlier felony robbery and obstructing justice charges.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/58300854-78/taylor-police-lake-salt.html.csp

4.  *Note: The body count below does not include inmates killed behind bars. Inmates' deaths are often subject to government cover-ups, like the secret arrest and murder of mentally, physically disabled Larry Neal in Memphis Shelby County Jail in 2003, while the jail was operating under federal oversight. Within five weeks, the following eleven(11) individuals fell victim to police violence:
NEW BODY COUNT FROM AMERICA's SUMMER OF POLICE TERROR (updated August 28, 2014).
White ~ Joseph Jennings, 18, Ottawa, KS, Aug 24 (mentally ill)
Latino ~ Hernan M. Ossorio, 61, Ellicott City, MD / Aug 23 (mentally ill)
? ~ Darren Friedman, 45, Ellicott City, MD / Aug 20 (mentally ill)
Black ~ Darius Colegarrit, 21, Chicago, IL / Aug. 20
White ~ John Winkler, 30, Los Angeles, CA / Aug 19
Black ~ Kajieme Powell, 25, Ferguson, MO / Aug 19 (mentally ill)
White ~ Diana Showman, 19, San Jose, CA / Aug. 14 (mentally ill)
White ~ Dillon Taylor, 20, Salt Lake City, UT / Aug. 13
Black ~ Dante Parker, 36, Victorville, CA / Aug. 12 (Taser)
Black ~ Ezell Ford, 25, Los Angeles, CA / Aug. 11 (mentally ill)
Black ~ Michael Brown, 18, Ferguson, MO / Aug. 9
Black ~ John Crawford, 22, Beavercreek, OH / Aug. 5
Latino~ Omar Abrego, 37, Los Angeles, CA / Aug. 2
Black ~ Eric Garner, 43, Staten Island, NY / July 17 (prosecution underway)
As you can see from this growing list of police victims, mentally ill people of any race are the most often victims of police violence. People with severe mental disabilities comprise a small percentage of the nation's population, but they are overly represented among people who are arrested, brutalized, and killed in the USA.

5.  Many people wonder what the point of agreement was at the WH Beer Summit of 2009. The outcome did not bode well for African Americans and other minorities or disabled people of any race or age. Little information has been released at this writing about the teenager police killed in San Jose, but five of the men in the body count were unarmed blacks, one was Latino, and one was Caucasian. What makes police officers perceive black men as being more worthy of deadly force? Three psychological studies offer answers at: 

"Cards Stacked Against Black Boys, Especially if Mentally Ill"
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/03/cards-stacked-against-black-boys.html

6.  The USA is a member state of the United Nations and has signed certain treaties to uphold human rights within this nation. Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) plans to bundle 100 cases evidencing overuse of force against mentally ill people during arrests, within correctional facilities, or by hospital personnel for presentation to the World Court.  Evidence presented is expected to include long-term solitary confinement torture, brutality by law enforcement, corrections officers, other inmates or inpatients, wrongful deaths, and medical neglect. Please invite persons who might have an interest in joining the Complainants to read this article in "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog:
"Police Killings Increase As Executions Decrease"
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/08/police-killings-increase-as-executions.html

7.  To have your case considered for inclusion in the 100 that will be presented to the U.N., please use the contact information below. AIMI plans to request restitution for victims or their successors as well as sanctions against the USA regarding its disregard for human rights of persons with mental illness. The 100 Complainants may also include victims of aggression by untreated mentally ill people or the victims' successors. 

8.  The USA's disregard for mentally ill persons is evidenced by the fact that 1.25 million mentally dysfunctional people are imprisoned (over half of the nation's inmates). They comprise over 60 percent of prisoners in long-term solitary confinement torture, some for decades. More than 50 percent of the nation's victims of police violence are mentally ill, although no exact numbers are kept (which also evidences disregard). Additionally, tens of thousands of mentally handicapped people are homeless and/or denied psychiatric treatment unless and until they prove, usually through crimes, that they are immediately dangerous to self and others. This is likely done to preserve untreated mentally challenged Americans for use as private prison commodities, including some veterans. 

9.  Condolences to families and friends of all eleven(11) victims named in this article. Thanks to justice officials, law enforcement administrators and officers who attempt to bring justice and restore peace to affected communities without further violations against citizens' constitutional and human rights.

TWO REFERENCES

Change.org Petition: Don't Militarize My Block
In 1991, Congress established the LESO program which allows the Defense Department to transfer excess property to state agencies who request them. The property is given to agencies - police departments, fish and wildlife services, and state universities alike. the equipment is transferred as-is and must be used by the agency within a year. LESO gives agencies access to tanks, helicopters, tear gas, machine guns, armored cars, night-vision equipment, and more battlefield-tested equipment. In 2013 alone, more than $440million in supplies were doled out to agencies in all 50 states.
http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-your-governor-don-t-militarize-my-block

Police critically wound man amid protests over Brown killing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/08/13/report-police-wound-man-in-ferguson-protest-over-michael-brown-killing/

10.  First paragraph repeated: Anti-death penalty advocates were elated to learn that capital punishment has been eliminated or placed on hold in 36 states in the USA partly because of torturous executions in 2014 using mystery drugs. However, police killings have increased to the point that no reduction in democide actually happened. Within one month, from mid-July until mid-August, the police body count is four killings for California and one each for Utah, Missouri, Ohio, and New York. Another beer summit might be in order to withdraw military equipment from non-military government agencies, including police departments (Ref. #1, at paragraph 9).

11.  Nine(9) links carrying more information are above this point in this article. Contact information with five(5) links and a comment field are below for your convenience:

*******

Thank you for giving Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill.

Mary Neal, director

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill ("AIMI")

http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi

AIMI's broadcast on Blogtalkradio, 9pm PDT on Wednesdays

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1

Website about my brother: Wrongful Death of Larry Neal

http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com/main.html

Follow and share our "Dog Justice for Mentally Ill" blog

http://DogJusticeforMentallyIll.blogspot.com 
Phone (678)531.0262 or Google Voice (571)335-1741

It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog in deadly restraint for control. That happens to mentally ill people routinely in the nation's correctional facilities. What happened to Larry Neal?

Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally. Please advocate for your congresspersons to pass H.R.3717 - The "Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act." Try to elect people who support human rights and justice for all.

Jerome Murdough Radio Interviews: Homeless Vet Baked at Riker's Island

Jerome Murdough, 56, was a homeless Marine Corps veteran who was roasted to death at Riker's Island Jail in February 2014. No New York official or prison officials notified Murdough's family when he expired in a solitary confinement cell where the temperature was over 100 degrees. Murdough was in a section of the prison where inmates should be checked by the correctional officers every 15 minutes, but this was not done.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI) will sponsor radio shows about Murdough's life and death and discuss how similarly situated Americans might be saved from what Murdough endured: numerous arrests, solitary confinement, homelessness, and avoidable death. Radio shows will be announced at this article. The general public is invited to call our radio programs during live broadcasts to share their viewpoints. Blogtalkradio links can access the live shows as well as recorded broadcasts that are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sunday, March 23: "Human Rights for Prisoners March" on Human Rights Demand channel (3pm EST Sundays). Mary Neal discusses Jerome Murdough's demise and the secret arrest and wrongful death of Larry Neal, her mentally, physically disabled brother who also perished in jail. (347) 857-3293
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/03/23/human-rights-for-prisoners-march

Tuesday, March 25: "Dr. Ansari's Human Rights Updates" on Human Rights Demand channel (1pm EST Tuesdays). Dr. Mustafa is an international human rights attorney and dean of the American Institute of Human Rights. (347) 857-3293
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/humanrightsdemand/2014/03/25/dr-ansaris-human-rights-updates

Thursday, March 27: Mary Neal interviews Bob Darby, a former member and organizer of "Food Not Bombs," author, public speaker, and advocate for the homeless mentally ill. (3pm EST on Human Rights Demand channel). (347) 857-3293, A link will be provided.

Background information regarding Jerome Murdough's death is in the next article,
"Mentally Ill Marine Vet Baked at Riker's Island: AP Blew the Cover-up"

http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2014/03/mentally-ill-marine-vet-baked-at-rikers.html

Jerome Murdough suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. He was presumably arrested for trespassing and vagrancy when he sought shelter from harsh winter weather on the roof of a building in Harlem. Murdough had endured numerous misdemeanor arrests in the past, as is common among acute mental patients from the working class whose mental illness is essentially untreated.

Murdough would ordinarily visit his family at least once every three months and sometimes more often. He is survived by his 76-year-old mother, a middle aged sister, and a host of other relatives and friends. Associated Press (AP) notified Murdough's family of his death three weeks after he died.

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill recognizes that Murdough's avoidable death is a worst case scenario of what happens when mental illness is criminalized instead of treated like a chronic health condition. Acute mental illness requires continuous monitoring and treatment like heart disease and other physical ailments. Treatment is ordinarily withheld when persons with severe mental illness suffer from anosognosia, which prevents them from realizing they have mental illness. Families are not permitted to commit mentally ill relatives to inpatient psychiatric treatment facilities unless they proved to be an immediate danger to self and others. Even when there are suicide attempts or assaults on family members and others, the mentally ill are usually jailed instead of treated in mental hospitals.

Information about anosognosia is available at Treatment Advocacy Center
http://treatmentadvocacycenter.org/component/content/article/1790

Severe mental illness is a disability that affects many of the 1.25 million mentally challenged inmates in America's jails and prisons. They comprise more than 60 percent of the 80,000 inmates who are relegated to solitary confinement, which further erodes their mental health. It costs at least $168,000 per year to incarcerate each inmate in New York and more for people who require special services like Murdough. Treating the mentally ill in AOT programs, which mandate continuous psychiatric care and provide subsistence assistance, is more affordable and just.

Please join our radio discussions about Jerome Murdough and similarly situated people.

Mary Neal, director
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill (AIMI)
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/aimi
Dog Justice for Mentally Ill
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com
Wrongful Death of Larry Neal
http://WrongfulDeathofLarryNeal.com

Paragraph 1 repeated: Jerome Murdough, 56, was a homeless Marine Corps veteran who was roasted to death at Riker's Island Jail in February 2014. No New York official or prison officials notified Murdough's family when he expired in a solitary confinement cell where the temperature was over 100 degrees. Murdough was in a section of the prison where inmates should be checked by the correctional officers every 15 minutes, but this was not done.

It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog into a deadly restraint chair for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal?

Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally.

Advocate for U.S. Congress to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act

Crime Down; Imprisonment Up

Are jails and prisons kept full by withholding psychiatric drugs from acute mental patients so they will get extra time on their sentences after psychotic episodes? That appears to be happening in Fresno County Jail, according to a report by "Community Alliance - the voice of the progressive movement since 1996."

Mentally Ill People Need Dog Justice

HOW are jails and prisons kept full? Crime is actually down. Christian Science Monitor reports: "Recessions can be the perfect storm for crime. Yet preliminary crime figures from the Federal Bureau of Investigation for 2009 show that the crime rate is falling across America, across all categories. Violent crime was down 5.5 percent and property crime down 4.9 percent between 2008 and 2009, according to FBI statistics . . . Crime in every category decreased, says FBI spokesman Bill Carter. Murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault all declined in 2009, he said. Robbery – which tends to boom in bust times – dropped 8.1 percent."

Are jails and prisons kept full by withholding psychiatric drugs from acute mental patients so they will get extra time on their sentences after psychotic episodes? See an excerpt from an article by a team of reporters at "Community Alliance."

Freefall into Madness: The Fresno County Jail’s Barbaric Treatment of the Mentally Ill

For the past six years, in an effort to cut costs, the Fresno County Jail has repeatedly denied mentally ill defendants the anti-psychotic medications prescribed to them by their outside doctors—medications needed to keep them sane.

As a result, according to Fresno County judges, former nurses, correctional officers, doctors, lawyers and the families of the defendants, the jail medical staff is triggering psychotic breakdowns in people suffering from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

The Fresno County Jail
The prolonged mental breakdowns are causing some defendants to languish in isolated confinement for years at a time, they say, creating a system of mental torture at the county jail. Denied their usual medications, defendants suffer paranoid delusions and mania so debilitating that some have tried to commit suicide multiple times in jail, slashing their throats or wrists with county-issued razors.

[Please continue to read the in-depth report at this link:

http://fresnoalliance.com/wordpress/?p=7800 ]

Disarming Realities: As Gun Sales Soar, Gun Crimes Plummet

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrybell/2013/05/14/disarming-realities-as-gun-sales-soar-gun-crimes-plummet/

According to DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. gun-related homicides dropped 39 percent over the course of 18 years, from 18,253 during 1993, to 11,101 in 2011. During the same period, non-fatal firearm crimes decreased even more, a whopping 69 percent . . . Pew researchers observed that the huge amount of attention devoted to gun violence incidents in the media has caused most Americans to be unaware that gun crime is “strikingly down” from 20 years ago. In fact, gun-related homicides in the late 2000s were “equal to those not seen since the early 1960s.”

Americans are continually plummeted with violent scenes on the evening news, but little to nothing is reported about the nation's falling crime rate. Whereas the reduction in crime is good news for the average citizen, it is not good news for prison investors or for municipalities that signed contracts with private prison companies, guaranteeing them a certain occupancy rate. Therefore, I repeat the question in paragraph 1:

Are jails and prisons kept full by withholding psychiatric drugs from acute mental patients so they will get extra time on their sentences after psychotic episodes? That appears to be happening in Fresno County Jail, according to a report by "Community Alliance - the voice of the progressive movement since 1996."

~ The members and friends of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill strongly object to withholding psychiatric drugs to induce lunacy in order to lengthen sentences of wrongly imprisoned mental patients, who should be either in mental hospitals or community care programs. 

~ We object to crime and punishment becoming an business enterprise that reduces people to commodities that are bought and sold on Wall Street. 

~ We object to privatized correctional institutions and feel the quest for success of such facilities led to mass incarceration for Americans, regardless of their innocence or mental illness. 

~ We submit to you that the War on Drugs is actually a war on middle-class and indigent Americans who are either recreational drug users or addicted to hard drugs. 

We urge everyone who is committed to prison reform to recognize this: There were no overcrowded prisons and jails and therefore no need for private correctional facilities until the mentally ill were "de-institutionalized" and evicted from mental hospitals and community psychiatric services suffered budget cuts. Mentally ill people in America are the backbone of the private prison industry, which grosses billions per year. Crime is declining, including violent crime, which generates the longest prison sentences. With the loss of "business," the mentally ill are at greater risk than ever of suffering long prison sentences to satisfy the greed of prison investors, who include judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors, and lawmakers.

America's reduction in violent crime has not generated the cheers one would expect, because it could mean less money for prison owners and investors. This places targeted populations (minorities, the mentally ill, and whites who lack wealth) at greater risk for excessive sentencing and wrongful convictions. Three examples happened recently in Florida and Louisiana: 

~Marissa Alexander is a Florida woman who had just given birth and feared serious injuries from being beaten by her ex-husband, who caused her to be hospitalized from a previous beating. As he cornered and threatened her, Alexander fired a warning shot. She was wrongly sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for firing one shot into the ceiling. Petition: "PARDON Abused Mother Marissa Alexander for Standing Her Ground" 
 http://www.thepetitionsite.com/503/600/056/dont-imprison-marissa-alexander-for-standing-her-ground/

~Sharmeka Moffitt, a woman in Louisiana, allegedly set fire to herself, causing third degree burns, and falsely claimed she was set afire by a white supremacist group. Obviously, if Moffitt did this, one should question her mental state. Instead, she faces "terrorism" charges and could be imprisoned for decades for hurting herself. See "Setting Oneself on Fire - Mental Illness" in this blog at http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2013/03/setting-oneself-on-fire-mental-illness.html

~Kiera Wilmot, a teenage Florida girl, was expelled and faced felony charges for her science experiment when her mixture of common household products caused the top to pop off a water bottle. Nobody was hurt. Due to an outcry by people nationwide and a successful Change.org petition that gathered nearly 200,000 signatures, the charges were dropped. See "Charges Dropped against Kiera Wilmot" http://legalvictories.blogspot.com/2013/05/charges-dropped-against-kiera-wilmot.html

Both women and the teen are black females, which matters more than it should in this land of "liberty and justice for all."

How far will prison owners and investors go with their "quest to arrest"? For the first time in centuries, debtors prisons are making a comeback. For the first time in America, the White House has the option under NDAA to point out any person or group of people and demand their arrest in military concentration camps without naming any crime or allowing trials. The love of money led to slavery in the 1600s, an institution that has made a comeback in America. This is particularly hard on those who through poverty or mental illness are our most vulnerable citizens.

“This county [Fresno] doesn’t care about its treatment of mentally ill behind bars or otherwise,” said Susan Anderson, the recently retired supervisor who watched her colleagues on the board implement cut after cut to the county’s mental health budget until, she said, there was nothing left but skin and bones.

“If the Board of Supervisors wanted mentally ill defendants to get their anti-psychotic medications in jail, all they would need to do is direct the sheriff, the health officer and the jail doctor to do it,” Anderson said. “But the thinking of the board, the sheriff’s [office] and the rest of the criminal justice system here is not about prevention or humanity. It’s all about punishment.”

See also "U.S. Crime Rate Down: Six Key Reasons" 

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0524/US-crime-rate-is-down-six-key-reasons

(This is the tenth(10th) link in this article.)

Homelessness, prison and death must not be America's answer to acute mental illness. No one deserves punishment for having a health crisis, especially one caused by lack of treatment. Thank you for coming to give
ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL.

Mary Neal Interviewed by Rev. Floyd Harris and Dr. Jean Kennedy

On May 8 and 9, 2013, Mary Neal, director of Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill and Dog Justice for Mentally Ill Americans, was a guest on the Rev. Floyd Harris, Jr. Blogtalkradio show, "Real Talk with No. 1 Doctors." Dr. Jean Kennedy, a psychologist, is his co-host for the show where social and political discussions are broadcast live Monday through Friday at 11:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Please play the shows in the two widgets below (links are also provided below, dated May 9 and 10 at Blogtalkradio).

Please listen to and share the two-parted radio interview. Comments are invited in the comment area below at this article and/or at Blogtalkradio's archived tapes. Access the interviews by using these link:

"Rev. Harris and Dr. Kennedy Interview Mary Neal - Part 1"
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/realtalk1dr/2013/05/09/rev-harris-dr-kennedy-interview-mary-neal

"Rev. Harris and Dr. Kennedy Interview Mary Neal - Part 2"
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/realtalk1dr/2013/05/10/rev-harris-dr-kennedy-interview-mary-neal