Maryland Blogger alliance
The Maryland Blogger Alliance
Get religion, get killed by cops
A teenager carrying a Bible and shouting "I want Jesus" was shot twice with a police stun gun and later died at a St. Louis hospital, authorities said. In a statement obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, police in Jerseyville, about 40 miles north of St. Louis, said 17-year-old Roger Holyfield would not acknowledge officers who approached him and he continued yelling, "I want Jesus."
Police tried to calm the teen, but Holyfield became combative, according to the statement. Officers fired the stun gun at him after he ignored their warnings, then fired again when he continued struggling, police said. Holyfield was flown to St. Louis' Cardinal Glennon Hospital after the confrontation Saturday; he died there Sunday, police said. An autopsy was planned for Tuesday. The statement expressed sympathy to Holyfield's family but said city and police officials would not discuss the matter further.
Let's re-state this in plain language. Teenager has a religious epiphany, and is wandering on the street, enraptured. Some sorehead calls the cops. Cops show up, start yelling at the kid. Kid, still enraptured, is apparently unaware of them. With hurt feelings about being so rudely ignored, cops decide to zap the kid with a stun gun. Twice. Kid dies from electric shock injuries.
What's wrong with this picture? Fact of the matter is, the average police does not have a clue how to handle someone who is irrational, angry, depressed, or in some kind of walking trance. They fall back upon the old standby, muscling the citizen into submission.
I have had personal experience here. My wife once made the mistake of telling a cop I was having "an episode of depression." Actually, I was depressed, but coping pretty well until the cop showed up, on the pretext of giving me a traffic ticket. I had just finished a six-hour stint of moving boxes of books, and dealing with a very demanding customer. Being yelled at by a cop, in my own front yard, was the last straw. I refused to talk to the guy. The result: I am handcuffed, manhandled, jailed for a few hours, have to pay bail in spite of strong financial and personal ties to the community. While I am in custody, precinct captain condescendingly asks "do you feel like hurting yourself?" (Of course, the rational answer would have been, "No, dumbass. But I'd love to have a crack at YOU.")
Now, the interesting thing here is that if I had walked away from the cop, saying that I had the flu and was about to soil my pants, I would have gotten a green light. While I was on the crapper, he would have lost interest and gone about his business.
Incidentally, three independent psych evaluations were done. I was pronounced perfectly sane, although "resentful." Imagine that?
I consider myself lucky, to have only been mugged by the legal system, not killed outright. Because it is apparently legal for police in the USA to kill taxpayers whom they consider mentally disturbed.