Cops Gang Up, Murder Homeless Mentally Ill American

Welcome to the Police State, America. Cops can now round you up on suspicions, and while handcuffed, tase you, kick you, and beat you to death...and get away with it. Kelly Thomas, an American citizen with a history of untreated schizophrenia, spent his July 5 much like many of the other millions of homeless Americans: sitting on a bench, taking in the weather and wondering what's next. Thomas was relaxing at the Fullerton Transportation Center in sunny southern California, watching buses and commuter trains with the other homeless in the area, when he was approached by six police officers. The cops were investigating reports that a man was burglarizing cars in the area. They attempted to search his backpack (the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to the poor, of course) and, according to police, Thomas ran. Cops also claim Thomas resisted arrest. (Again, running from an illegal search now makes you qualified for arrest...and resisting arrest charges?) Thomas got the usual police spa treatment reserved for the poor in America: they beat the living shit out of him. Thomas eventually went to the hospital, where he died in the intensive care unit. His family eventually had to pull the plug on a life cut short by the very people paid to protect him — and all of us — from crime. I've seen the photos oh Thomas' bruised and bloodied face. They're far too graphic to post here, but you can easily find them if you search online if you really need to see for yourself. What you'll see looks nothing like the face of a man who was in police custody and was allegedly resisting arrest. He wasn't "roughed up a bit", like some might have you believe. Those six (or more) cops tased and beat him until his face was unrecognizable, his body was damaged, and he could no longer survive on his own. Unfortunately for the cops on the scene, the entire incident was captured by the cell phone of a bystander, as well as on the security tapes of the bus depot. Witnesses on the cell phone tape can be heard exclaiming disbelief that six cops were beating a man to death, on the streets of America, and there wasn't a thing any of them could do about it. The tape is almost as haunting as the pictures from the hospital. You can hear, over and over, the sound of tasers striking the man and electrocuting him. You can hear the sounds of a man being beaten to death while screaming out for his father. You cannot unhear any of this, sadly. One witness described the events like this: "They caught him, pound his face, pound his face against the curb ... and they beat him up," the man said. "They beat him up, and then all the cops came and they hogtied him, and he was like, 'Please God! Please Dad!'" A spokesman for the police, Sgt. Andrew Goodrich, said the case was an isolated incident. "We have a good department full of good individuals," he said. "We've made more than half-a-million law enforcement contacts over the past 4.5 years ... This is the only instance of this kind that's happened." It's a sad comment of American life that someone tries to spin it as a positive that their department has "only" brutally murdered one citizen in the past 5 years. Only one? Oh, I guess that makes it OK. Here's a thought. Does that make it OK to shoot one cop in Bakersfield, as long as it's only once every five years? Of course not! The jackboot only swings one way, buddy. Want to call or email the Fullerton Police Department and protest their treatment of Americans? Here is their contact information.

• Non-Emergency Phone Number: (714) 738-6800
• Chief of Police Michael Sellers (714) 738-6825, msellers@fullertonpd.org
• Captain of Uniform Division Dan Hughes (714) 738-6840, dhughes@fullertonpd.org
• Captain of Services Division Alex Bastreri (714) 738-6839, rbastreri@fullertonpd.org
• Captain of Investigation Division Kevin Hamilton (714) 738-6841, khamilton@fullertonpd.org
• Sergeant, Police Public Information Officer Andrew Goodrich (714) 738-6838, agoodrich@fullertonpd.org

To file a formal complaint: A citizen complaint form can be obtained at the front desk of the police department or calling the on duty watch commander at (714) 738- 6715. For more information on the story and its aftermath, click here. You can reach the author by email john@benzinga.com or on twitter @johndthorpe.