Prosecuting Innocent Black Mental Patients

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PROSECUTING BLACK MENTAL PATIENTS FOR CRIMES EVERYBODY KNOWS THEY DID NOT DO

See an excerpt from The Black Agenda Report:

On September 14, 2013, in New York City, a mentally ill man, Glenn Broadnax, walked into vehicular traffic in Times Square. There are laws against this behavior and rightly so. Unfortunately officers of the New York City police department, trained to be trigger happy, fired at Broadnax, claiming that they thought he had a gun. Broadnax was brought down with a police taser but New York’s so-called finest also shot and injured two innocent bystanders in their efforts to subdue him. [Murder-by-police for jaywalking?]

Now Manhattan’s district attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., has chosen to prosecute Broadnax for assaulting the two victims who were in fact shot by the police. Broadnax has a history of mental illness and put himself in danger more than he did anyone else. He was originally charged with menacing, drug possession and resisting arrest. Prosecuting him lets the police off the hook and aids the city of New York in defense against law suits, but a man guilty of not taking his prescribed medication is facing the possibility of up to 25 years in prison because of an act carried out by other people.

“The punishments are becoming more cruel and indefensible.”

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This is a case where a black mental patient is being prosecuted for NOT standing still and being executed for jaywalking. It seems that Glenn Broadnax has more sense than police and prosecutors.

"Don't blame police for shooting up Time Square. Blame the jaywalker they were trying to kill. He dodged their bullets!" Cyrus Vance will tell the jury - or will he? It has come to our attention that black mental patients are thrown in jail on criminal charges that cannot be proved, then forced into plea deals they haven't the wherewithal to understand. That way the prison system gets new commodities, and people are jailed without trials. 

Each inmate jailed in New York costs taxpayers $168,000 per year to incarcerate. New Yorkers will pay dearly, if the district attorney has his way, because Glenn Broadnax did not stand still and accept being murdered for jaywalking.

Read the full Black Agenda Report article at this url:
"Freedom Rider Prosecuting Black Victims"
http://blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-prosecuting-black-victims

City’s Annual Cost Per Inmate Is $168,000, Study [by Vera Institute of Justice] Finds
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/nyregion/citys-annual-cost-per-inmate-is-nearly-168000-study-says.html

The Mentally Ill Deserve Dog Justice

Police Won Battles with a 95-yr-old, 107-yr-old, and a double amputee - Killed 'em all

John Wrana, 95

Age-onset dementia and Alzheimer's plague many people as they age. Most elders get forgetful and confused at times. Throughout the nation, concerned families place their elderly relatives in care homes to see that their needs are met around the clock. Care homes ideally provide compassionate aids, three nutritious meals daily, and take ailing senior citizens to their doctors' appointments. But if the elders resist going to doctors' appointments, the care homes may call police, then police kill the obstinate senior citizens. That 'tough love' happened to John Wrana, age 95, by Forest, Illinois police officers. Excerpts from World Socialist News Service are below:

Police kill 95-year old man in assisted living facility

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/10/illi-a10.html

[August 10, 2013] On July 27 Park Forest, Illinois, police, armed with Tasers, a shotgun and flexible batons or “bean bag” rounds and a riot shield, shot John Wrana, a 95-year-old resident of an assisted living facility, eventually killing him. In the course of subduing the elderly man, police shocked Wrana with a Taser and fired “bean bag” rounds at his chest when he refused to be transported for medical treatment . . . Victory Centre staff reportedly pleaded with police to let them help Wrana get into the ambulance . . . Claiming that he refused to comply with verbal commands to drop a knife, police proceeded to shoot the 95-year-old man with a Taser. [According to the cops], when this proved “ineffective”, police shot Warner multiple times in the chest with flexible baton “bean bag” rounds from a shotgun . . . The “bean bag” rounds used by police in the killing of Wrana consist of a fabric bag filled with lead shot. When fired from a shotgun at the chest, they have the power to push broken ribs into the heart and cause internal bleeding to the abdomen. Bean bag rounds pose a serious risk of death or injury when fired from less than 10 feet away . . . [According to the lawyer for the Wrana family, Nicholas Grapas], there is no evidence to account for the existence of a “12-inch butcher type kitchen knife” with which police claimed Wrana threatened them. Wrana’s family never saw a knife in his room on previous visits, nor did facility staff find knives or similar weapons in his possession. (Read the entire article at the link above.)

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Monroe Isadore, 107

Park Forest, Illinois police had what might have been the record for killing the world's oldest police victim for less than a month. On September 7, Pine Bluff, Arkansas SWAT officers killed Monroe Isadore, 107,  who resisted being taken to his new apartment.  Like many elders, Isadore did not welcome changing homes, so he was shot to death in a hail of at least 30 bullets, according to witnesses. 

See "Age-Onset Dementia: Monroe Isadore, 107, Killed by SWAT"
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2013/09/age-onset-dementia-monroe-isadore-107.html

The U.S. Department of Justice should require police officers not to carry deadly weapons into care homes or private homes when responding to calls regarding very elderly persons. They seem only to know "shoot to kill," and that is a highly inappropriate response to age-onset dementia and Alzeheimer's. Email the Department of Justice at AskDOJ@usdoj.gov . Perhaps police should wait until the confused elder falls asleep, then use a sheet or fishing net.

Brian Claunch

The same methods would serve to capture unarmed, psychotic double amputees from their care homes, like Brian C. Claunch, who was fatally shot by Houston cops.
Police Ridicule, Beat, Taser & Kill Amputees
http://dogjusticeformentallyill.blogspot.com/2013/09/no-charges-for-fatally-shooting.html

Fishing Net

Mary Neal

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

MaryLovesJustice@gmail.com

Police Victims Mostly Mentally Ill

An investigation by the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram has found that a disturbingly high percentage of individuals shot by police suffer from mental health problems. There are no federal statistics on police shootings of mentally ill people, but according to the investigation published this week, “a review of available reports indicates that at least half of the estimated 375 to 500 people shot and killed by police each year in this country have mental health problems.” Read the balance of the story in this article: http://www.africanglobe.net/headlines/people-shot-police-mentally-ill-investigation-finds/