With the caveat that I haven’t really looked into the details of the story, or the official police response.
And yet, it does have the ring of truth to it. Perhaps Radley Balko would know better. But there is this piece to chew on.
Anyway, for your consideration:
Dear Jeff,
My big brother Ethan, who had Down syndrome, was killed by three police officers earlier this year. His crime? Not buying a $12 movie ticket. And now the police officers who killed my brother are getting off with no consequences.
On January 12, 2013, my brother Ethan went to the movies. When the movie was over, he returned to his seat to see it again. Three police officers told Ethan he had to leave, but Ethan didn't understand why. He got frustrated and afraid when the officers told him he was going to jail. His aide came into the theater and told the officers that they should not touch Ethan because it would only make him more upset. He needed time to process their request.
But the officers didn't listen. Witnesses say they threw Ethan to the ground and piled on top of him. Seconds later, Ethan couldn't breathe, and eventually died. The coroner ruled that his death was homicide by asphyxiation.
My family waited six months for the truth about what happened that night, but the officers' own department investigated and decided they deserve no punishment at all.
I started a petition on Change.org calling on the governor and attorney general of Maryland to launch a criminal investigation into the officers who killed my brother. Will you click here to sign?
Part of the problem is that police officers in Maryland aren't trained in how to deal with developmentally disabled people like my brother. I think training is an important next step in making sure that what happens to my brother never happens to anyone else. But I also want the officers who killed Ethan to be investigated for his death.
I am still in shock about what happened to my brother. I am shocked that when I go home, he isn't there. I am shocked that these police officers let a dispute over a stupid movie ticket escalate to a point where my brother died, rather than choosing a passive approach. I am shocked that the investigation was blatantly biased and the police department continues to claim the officers did nothing wrong... like my brother's life didn't matter.
I am sick of being shocked. I want to do something. I want my governor and attorney general to get justice for my brother, to find out what really happened and to implement training protocols so that no other family will ever have to experience the pain my family feels. We miss Ethan every day. He didn't deserve this. And no one else does, either.
Thank you,
Emma Saylor
Mount Airy, MD
I grew up relatively near Mt Airy, which at the time housed one of the premier Summer sleepover camps.
And while I do respect police officers as a whole, I recognize that there are far too many who act like bullies with badges — whether it be in instances like this one that allegedly led to the death of a developmentally disabled man, or with petty assertions of power, like removing a father and son from a pre-season football game because the father had the son hold his beer while he took a picture.
So I figured I’d pass this on.
Perhaps the powers that be in the very blue state of Maryland figured that, had some stupid selfish mother not felt the need to bring this human defective into the world — and just aborted it as a future burden to the state, out of civic responsibility and the good of the collective — the police wouldn’t have been put in this awkward position of having to sit on him and restrain him until they essentially strangled him to death.
So if anyone is to blame, it is she for not killing him off in the womb (or outside, if needs be) — and him, for having the audacity to try to function in a society meant for more complete examples of humanity.
Like, for instance, Oprah, or this Filner guy.
Yeah, I remember this, the guy with Down syndrome and the two retards with badges. So vile, the justifications for this manslaughter.
God only knows it sure isn’t right that one of the cops would have explained to Ethan that he can stay and watch the movie “this time”, but that it’s not allowed strictly speaking; that Ethan should never do it again without purchasing a new ticket; then simply going quietly to the movie operator and plucking down the 12 bucks on the sly to satisfy the operator’s money-lust.
I used to think those civilian review panels were nothing but a bunch of do-gooder hippy-dippy liberal busy-bodies who felt sorry for criminals because fairness or some such bullshit.
Now I’m not so sure.
Kind of reminds me of that accidental shooting at the Fruitvale (?) BART station.
Only without the cameras.
It used to be stories like this would redline the bs meter.
Not any more.
It’s hard to believe things have changed that much in my lifetime.
do the fascist hyperviolent piggy piggy copthugs have names?
I tend to be wary of these kinds of storys, but it appears to be real. My only question would be where was his “minder” before things got out of hand? I’m not excusing the police, and they very well may have decided to deploy excessive force. Yet, this man weighed 294 and became agitated. How to deal with that to protect other patrons? I don’t have the answers, but I can’t fault the deputies completely without more facts.
S.O.B. What has happened to my spelling? “Stories”
How you protect yourselves and other patrons as deputies? Shoot the dog, strangle the retard, and tell yourself that you need the roids to be able to compete with the scum you’re ridding the streets of.
Like this movie theater menace to society who quite clearly should have been aborted.
A crushed larynx? An M.E. verdict of homicide? And the grand jury just lets these three off-duty sheriff’s deputies (which is to say, civilians no different from you or me) walk?
I want names. I want these assholes branded with big fucking tattoos that read “BEWARE: I CRUSH THROATS.” I want the phone numbers of the jurors so I can ask them exactly what they were thinking.
Barring that, I want a coupon good for one free homicide. I’ll damn well make better use of it than those idiots ever could.
Yet, this man weighed 294 and became agitated. How to deal with that to protect other patrons?
This is the untold story about adults with developmental disabilities. I used to know a guy who went to our church who was about that size and who from time to time would have a “behavior” (as they say in the trade) wherein he became enraged and violent.
People in that state aren’t much different from crazed meth addicts, in that their inhibitions are pretty much gone and they resist or lash out with their full strength. It would take several grown men to immobilize that guy physically, because there was absolutely no reasoning with him once he went off. They couldn’t just ignore him the way you would a toddler in a tantrum, because he was genuinely dangerous.
Part of the problem is that police officers in Maryland aren’t trained in how to deal with developmentally disabled people like my brother.
Sometimes, there IS no dealing with them, sorry. You try to be reasonable and explain calmly why the answer is NO or why they need to do this instead of that, and they freak completely out.
OTOH, Ethan had someone with him who tried to explain to the officers that Ethan couldn’t obey instantly the way other people can, and that if they gave him a sec, it would all be cool. They should have listened, if they in fact did not.
God only knows it sure isn’t right that one of the cops would have explained to Ethan that he can stay and watch the movie “this time”… then simply going quietly to the movie operator and plucking down the 12 bucks on the sly to satisfy the operator’s money-lust.
That would have defused that particular situation, but it’s generally not a good idea to humor developmentally disabled adults too much. They’re slow but not stupid, and they often learn to get away with all kinds of bad behavior by playing dumb.
My sister used to work with developmentally disabled adults (and genuinely liked them, finding their quirks endearing) but she also wouldn’t put up with their B.S. She was pretty good at seeing through the ruses because she didn’t feel guilty about being secretly squicked out by them.
His aide came into the theater and told the officers that they should not touch Ethan because it would only make him more upset.
Was the aide in the restroom, thus enabling Ethan to wander back into the theater? Because the aide should have been the one to explain to Ethan that they couldn’t go back in, long before it all went down.
That said, it looks like the cops acted stupidly.
Greetings:
Too bad the kid didn’t look like the son President Obama diesn’t have.
Wow. And they still have their jobs?
Double Wow if so.
Jeff, perhaps I wasn’t clear. I don’t know all the facts. Certainly it looks bad from what is written, but there may be other things in play. In investigation, to the extent it has not been done is appropriate.
I do know from personal, professional experience that developmentally disabled adults can be dangerous. It’s a problem because you cannot always know in advance what will cause them distress. Of course, you want to deescalate the situation. Of course, you don’t wish to harm them. Yet sometimes, force is necessary to protect both the patient and/or others. Was it necessary here? It appears not. But, again, we don’t know all the facts.
From what I can tell, the problem wasn’t with the cops, it was with the aide, who evidently wandered off and left the disabled man on his own for some length of time. The whole reason people like this have aides who accompany them everywhere is because they cannot act properly in public, and are a danger to themselves and others. Personally, I blame the aide for the death, not the police officers.
Because it’s not a problem when three off duty sheriff’s deputy’s decide to get their Judge Dredd on over a fucking movie ticket.
Not at all.
n.b. I would feel differently if the deputies intervened because Ethan was freaking out over a theater usher trying to get him to leave.
deputies, not deputy’s
[Droopy Dawg look]
Ticket to the movie? : 12$
Not having to kill the 295lb trisomy guy today?: priceless.
Or is that all wrong and should read instead —
Killing the 295lb trisomy guy any damn day they like?: priceless.
What kind of a dick of a manager calls the cops because a retarded guy returned to the movie theatre? All of this could have been avoided if the joint still had ushers at the doors.
How do you “call” the “off duty” police, unless they are mall security when off duty.
Ah. I missed that part.
Judge Dredd would have set his lawgiver to stun and given the kid six months in an iso-cube w/ supervision and potential for early release. There’s bigger problems in the Megacity.
There’s no question that it’s homicide. Whether it was justifiable is a whole ‘nother ball of wax. In this case, that ball of wax seems to be floating in a pool of pig shit and by pig, I mean cop.
I have thirty plus years experience working with the “developmentally disabled” and there are certain behavior patterns that can be expected from those with different diagnosis’. Physical aggression would be extremely atypical in a person with Downs.
Stubborn? Yes.
I work in camp setting as a volunteer as does my wife and son. We entertain over one hundred campers every year during the week were there. I have seen teenage counselors with no experience, after only two days of training, use patience to get campers who outweigh them by a hundred pounds to do what we needed them to do.
Could this be an exception to the rule? Certainly. But to lump all “developmentally disabled” people into one category and saying they can all act like meth heads is just categorically not proven by my observation. More likely, that person was psychologically unbalanced.
What people don’t understand is that those we now call “developmentally disabled” are what we used to call retarded. And as the pioneer for the rights of those people in the state I live in, and my mentor said, until the day she died, means only…slow.
I believe if you go back and reread Dicentra’s 3:54 pm comment, you’ll find that she didn’t say what you say she said.
Thanks for sharing your experiences all the same, though.
Ernst Schreiber says August 21, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Because it’s not a problem when three off duty sheriff’s deputy’s decide to get their Judge Dredd on over a fucking movie ticket.
Apparently the theater was already getting more than its due according to the ADA. It seems caregivers for the disabled are under no obligation to purchase tickets to attend movies, but this story asserts that both Ethan and the aide had a ticket to attend the first showing.
While I don’t necessarily support the ADA, it is the law of the land, and as such ought to be enforced or repealed. Laws unequally applied, and all that…
gahrie @ 5:26
The decision to use force lay soley in the hands of the police. It was up to them.
Big violent guys are what tasers are for.
Taking dicentra’s comments above into consideration, I am still a little mystified how subduing someone can result in a crushed larnyx accidentally. There’s a couple of ways I can think of that it can happen: nightstick across the throad, or a sharp blow to the throat. Neither of those is, strictly speaking, a move you would have to put on someone to subdue them with an eye on their survival.
If this person was the kind of person who might easily present a danger to himself and/or others, they had no business letting him out in public. If otherwise, the mall cops overreacted. Don’t these guys carry ziptie restraints? Tackle the guy, ziptie the ankles, then get the hands and elbows confined and that should be the end of it.
They were off duty Slart, so presumably they weren’t carrying anything except a friendly smile and fists of justice*. Still, I was thinking along similiar lines to yours. Somebody should find out what the Sherriff’s Dept. policy is regarding choke holds.
*Anybody know if off duty LEOs are allowed to carry personal/back-up weapons on private property in gun-unfriendly Maryland?
I am still a little mystified how subduing someone can result in a crushed larnyx accidentally.
This is the kernel of my complaint earlier. Even if the Sheriff’s department could argue that it was accidental, I don’t want guys who “accidentally” crush people’s throats in my Sheriff’s department! At the very least, this community needs to know the names of the gorillas who killed this man, so they’ll know to be extra-cooperative the next time they’re busted for having a bonfire down by the crick.
Bonfire down by the crick you say? Christ, I’d be afraid to jaywalk or let me parking meter expire around these guys. Any of them. Because you have to assume that they’re representative of the entire Sheriff’s Department.
Don’t forget that Maryland is the home of “No filming the cops”.
No kidding. If this is what they’re like when they’re off-duty at the mall, I can only imagine what they’re like once they get their Authoritah on.
Bloods wear red; Crips wear blue; ThroatCrushas wear brown…
But to lump all “developmentally disabled” people into one category and saying they can all act like meth heads is just categorically not proven by my observation.
The person I’m referring to did not have Down Syndrome but rather suffered from asphyxia at birth from a prenatal umbilical cord around the neck. He was subject to grand mal seizures, had a heavy brow and “muppet hands,” and frequently had violent meltdowns.
He wanted to be normal like everyone else: to go to college and get married and have kids, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why he couldn’t. He’d take the bus to Wendy’s and just lurk there, engaging patrons in pointless, intense conversations until the cops came.
The men in our church often had to go get Dave from some public place where he was making a nuisance of himself. For their trouble, Dave would call them at home and talk for hours on end. Any audience would do.
The second point of reference I’m using is my sister’s work with the developmentally disabled, many of whom did not have Down Syndrome (Prader-Willi, for example). She had to learn how to physically restrain and take down people who were having a meltdown by wrapping herself around them from behind, pinning their arms and then pulling them to the ground.
Which she also uses to greet me from time to time.
I’m not trying to say that Ethan was dangerous and so the cops were justified; I’m saying that sometimes disabled people freak out in public, and cops are called to restrain very crazed folks. Maybe they were afraid Ethan would wig out.
Or maybe they were just jackasses.
Probably a bit of both dicentra in that they certainly weren’t trained to deal with someone like Ethan and may have not liked their authority being challenged. And I have had to do the wrap-up myself but never with someone with Downs.
One thing a lot of people don’t know is that those with Downs have some defect that makes them more likely to suffer these types of injuries. We are taught you don’t let them dive head first in the pool. We also don’t let them run and jump head first on a slip and slide. Mostly we have them sit and we pull them down the slide. Police officers should be trained on this.
Send my blessings to your sister. I love going to camp but I couldn’t do it full time. I guess that’s why they call it the toughest job you’ll ever love.