43 replies to this topic

[Spidergawd]

This happened a couple of years back but is in the media again from a family-filed lawsuit. Disgusting. But I'm sure the naked, tied, masked 62-year-old somehow managed to scoot forward in his restraints and make the officers fear for their safety...

Sadistic assholes.

[URL="http://rt.com/usa/news/florida-sheriffs-pepper-spray-christie-173/"]http://rt.com/usa/ne...y-christie-173/[/URL]

[QUOTE]
Florida Sheriffs pepper-spray retiree to death

The Sheriff

[vic]

sounds like a few officers are in big trouble...30 day suspensions with pay...that oughta show em, like it always does:rolleyes:

[Joker]

Wow, I wonder WTF was going on there

[Java Time]

This happened a couple of years back but is in the media again from a family-filed lawsuit. Disgusting. But I'm sure the naked, tied, masked 62-year-old somehow managed to scoot forward in his restraints and make the officers fear for their safety...

Sadistic assholes.

http://rt.com/usa/ne...y-christie-173/

are they kidding?!? the DA can't find any proof of a crime? you don't need intent or proof of intent when you're a civilian...why should this be any different?

in the act of comitting anything illegal...even a parking violation, where in those actions cuased the death of another...what load of BS are they trying to sell?

negligible homicide, involuntary manslaughter...are just a couple of things that the individuals involved in can be charged with...somebody died in their custody, it doesn't matter what pictures/videos show:sad:

[Lazy Lightning]

Ugh. I can't even imagine what would go thru anyone's mind to treat another human being (or any other living creature for that matter) in the manner.

[Joker]

Some back story here

The Prosecutor Who Cleared Nick Christie’s Jailers For Pepper-Spraying Him to Death Had a History of Letting Cops Off the Hook


http://reason.com/bl...d-nick-christie

[vic]

Ugh. I can't even imagine what would go thru anyone's mind to treat another human being (or any other living creature for that matter) in the manner.

milgram'd

[Jabadoodle]

I'm very curious to know what the dead man (Nick Christie) was brought
in for in the first place. Not that anything can justify the police behavior,
just wondering what it is they thought they were doing? Did they think
they had a drug king-pin or a terrorist on their hands?

[vic]

I'm very curious to know what the dead man (Nick Christie) was brought
in for in the first place. Not that anything can justify the police behavior,
just wondering what it is they thought they were doing? Did they think
they had a drug king-pin or a terrorist on their hands?

in the OP:

For the family of the man, who was arrested for disorderly intoxication, dismissing the crime as not criminal is a travesty.

[Jabadoodle]

in the OP:

I missed that. Thanks.

Would police really strip a person, tie them to a chair, blindfold
them, and pepper-spray them over two days just for disorderly
conduct? Again, there can be no justification, but there has to be
more to the situation than that. Doesn't there?

[Spidergawd]

I missed that. Thanks.

Would police really strip a person, tie them to a chair, blindfold
them, and pepper-spray them over two days just for disorderly
conduct? Again, there can be no justification, but there has to be
more to the situation than that. Doesn't there?

I sure hope so, Gary, but I'm having a REALLY hard time thinking of anything whatsoever that would justify blatant torture of the suspect.

[vic]

maybe the guy mouthed off to them. that's the worst i can think of. maybe he spit on one of them. maybe one of the cops got so heated from something the guy said to him that he decided to make his life hell, consequently killing him.

[Joker]

MEMO


TO: Stephen B. Russell, State Attorney

FROM: Dean R. Plattner, Assistant State Attorney

DATE: January 5, 2010

RE: Lee County Jail Death, Nicholas Christie
SAO # 1477369; LCSO # 09-134809


Chief Investigator Kevin Smith and I have completed our review of the Lee County
Sheriff

[Spidergawd]

Especially when one is in custody, restrained, there is NO excuse, no matter what the one does, for this kind of behavior. No excuse whatsoever.

[Spidergawd]

in order to prove
manslaughter, we would have to prove that someone acted more than merely negligently
or by failure to use ordinary care. We would have to prove that the conduct of the jail
personnel was “gross and flagrant”, showed “reckless disregard for human life”, and was
such that they “must have known, or reasonably should have known, was likely to cause
death or great bodily injury”. The facts of the case do not support this level of proof.

Imma go ahead and call some bull-to-the-mothafuckin-SHIT on that one. Thin blue line'd

[Jabadoodle]

maybe the guy mouthed off to them. that's the worst i can think of. maybe he spit on one of them. maybe one of the cops got so heated from something the guy said to him that he decided to make his life hell, consequently killing him.

See, this is what's getting me. Say the guy mouths off or spits
on an officer, the officer gets wound up and hits the guy 12
times with his night-stick. Not acceptable, but at least I can
understand how it went down.

But when it happens over days, when it happens in a way
other officers must know what's going on, when it isn't just
a momentary lapse but a prolonged purposeful action...
WTF times a million.

[vic]

food for thought: mumia abu-jamal was convicted of killing a cop, no matter howyou may think the case was handled, and got the death penalty and practically a pitchfork and torch crowd calling for that death sentence to be carried out.

officers tortured and ultimately killed this man, and criminal charges are not even being considered.

[Joker]

Lots more and video at link



Christie was first arrested on March 25, for public intoxication. Though there's evidence Christie had been drinking, he was also beginning his mental deterioration, and may have merely been disoriented. One fast-food worker he interacted with that night said she thought he was suffering from Alzheimer's. Though confused (he couldn't remember his wife's or brother's phone number), Christie did inform the jail attendants of his various medical conditions, and gave them a list of the medications he was taking. He was released the next day.

Christie was then arrested again on March 27, this time for misdemeanor trespassing. Nicholas DiCello, whose Cleveland firm Spangenberg Shibley & Liber has filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Joyce and Christie's estate, says the second arrest was for a minor offense. "It was for trespassing at the hotel where was staying," DiCello says. "He was having another mental episode. He was bewildered, acting crazy, and so the hotel got fed up and asked him to leave. When he didn't go, they called the police."

According to DiCello, the jail staff and the staff for Prison Health Services, the private company contracted to provide medical service to the jail, ordered no advanced physical or mental health screening for Christie before he was jailed, despite the long list of medical conditions already in his file from his prior arrest. There is also no indication that anyone was made aware of Joyce Christie's notification of Lee County officials, in which she informed them about her husband's conditions. According to the lawsuit, after the second arrest, Lee County deputies locked Christie's medications in his truck. During his 43 hours in custody, he was never given medication.

Christie was uncooperative and nonsensical from the time he was arrested, but at some point after his incarceration, he became combative. Lee County deputies responded by either directly spraying him or fogging his cell with pepper spray at least 10 times. (According to police, Christie was sprayed eight times. A cell mate was sprayed two other times, which may have affected Christie.) He was never allowed to "decontaminate" -- to wash the spray off. Other inmates in the jail, who weren't targeted with the spray, told the Fort Myers News-Press the blasts were so strong that the secondary effects caused them to gag.

The deputies then put Christie into a restraining chair, a controversial device that binds inmates at both wrists, both ankles, and across the chest. In depositions, the other inmates, along with a deputy trainee named Monshay Gibbs, testified that Christie was sprayed at least two more times after he had been strapped to the chair. He was also stripped naked, and outfitted with a "spit mask," a hood designed to prevent inmates from spitting on jail personnel. In Christie's case, the mask kept the pepper spray in close proximity to his nose and mouth, ensuring he would continue to inhale it for the full six hours he was in the restraint chair.

http://www.huffingto..._n_1192412.html

[Spidergawd]

Nice. Death penalty for misdemeanor trespassing. And for the possibility of being mentally ill. Ugh.

[PeaceFrog]

Is it really anyone's first choice to be a cop?

I figure that if you're a cop, you must have failed at whatever your first choice was and fell back on becoming a cop.

[Jabadoodle]

Is it really anyone's first choice to be a cop?

I figure that if you're a cop, you must have failed at whatever your first choice was and fell back on becoming a cop.

This, PeaceFrog, is where you go off the rails. Its where you
are just wrong. Just ignorant. To answer your question: Yes,
I know a fine young man, kind, compassionate, smart -- and
he is a police officer -- and it was his first choice of career. His
mother is a nurse. His sister is a nurse. Being in emergency /
medical / helping careers is in their family marrow and ethic.

You figure wrong.

I really hope that was sarcasm. If it was, you're not very good at it.
If it was trolling, then I guess I fell for it. Bravo.

[PeaceFrog]

well, you can count on him not being kind and compassionate for very long.

the only cops I know did that as their second choice in life. They failed the Bar exam or something so became a cop instead.

I know there's exceptions to everything. I was being a little too general I guess.

I'd like to conduct a study.

[Spidergawd]

This, PeaceFrog, is where you go off the rails. Its where you
are just wrong. Just ignorant. To answer your question: Yes,
I know a fine young man, kind, compassionate, smart -- and
he is a police officer -- and it was his first choice of career. His
mother is a nurse. His sister is a nurse. Being in emergency /
medical / helping careers is in their family marrow and ethic.

You figure wrong.

I really hope that was sarcasm. If it was, you're not very good at it.
If it was trolling, then I guess I fell for it. Bravo.

Definitely this.

well, you can count on him not being kind and compassionate for very long.

the only cops I know did that as their second choice in life. They failed the Bar exam or something so became a cop instead.

This is right up there with one of the most ignorant things I've seen you write. You should be ashamed.

I know there's exceptions to everything. I was being a little too general I guess.

I'd like to conduct a study.

Here's an idea, why don't you do that before you run your mouth and lump thousands of good people in with a handful of bad ones. Generalizations like this destroy any credibility you may have had and makes you no better than the apologists and ultracons.

I abhor bad LEO behavior and think they should be prosecuted fully for it, just as you or I would be. But when you talk like that, you make any of us trying to point out and address that bad behavior look like a bunch of radical, ignorant assholes. Do us and the cause a favor, and knock it off.

[Tim the Beek]

Would that the boards had a way to hide quoted posts of the people on my ignore list.

[MeOmYo]

[PeaceFrog]

I got a better idea. How about you remove the stick from your ass?

[Spidergawd]

[PeaceFrog]

oh shit, well that just really screws up my plans on running for town justice... fuck.

[PeaceFrog]

liberals who oppose free speech are even worse than conservatives who do.

I don't enjoy having to choose between fascists and communist dictators.

[Java Time]

Is it really anyone's first choice to be a cop?

I figure that if you're a cop, you must have failed at whatever your first choice was and fell back on becoming a cop.

First choice was to be an Occupy Wall Streeter...

[PeaceFrog]

Wait, Spidergawd, aren't you the one who said, and I quote "nothing here is sacred"

I guess your exception is when it comes to the fine brotherhood of citizens who make up the police.

[Joker]

First choice was to be an Occupy Wall Streeter...

If you can't join them, beat them

[Spidergawd]

Wait, Spidergawd, aren't you the one who said, and I quote "nothing here is sacred"

I guess your exception is when it comes to the fine brotherhood of citizens who make up the police.

Yup, and I still stand by it. That is why I, and others, are as free to call your bullshit out as you are to post it.

I actually don't disagree with you on some topics. But the generalizing you're doing helps nothing. Actually works against what you're trying to support in many cases.

[PeaceFrog]

well, the police aren't sacred to me and I'm sorry that I shattered your image of perfection that you had of me.

[Spidergawd]

Not sacred to me either, hence my activity in posting activities by the bad ones. But I will not classify them all as bad, as that is simply not the case. Doing so only makes people less inclined to listen to any valid points you may bring to the table and defeat the whole purpose of raising the points to begin with. So you're doing nothing but verbally masturbating at that point.

Image of perfection. That's a good one. My only image of you was that your heart is in the right place on many issues, but you're either not smart enough to engage in a way that causes people to consider your points or just want to start shit.

Why do you suppose so many people here with whom you probably agree on some issues have relegated you to the ignore list? I guess it's all them and isn't related at all to the way you present your points, huh?

I'll digress now, though. I don't feel like playing your game.

[PeaceFrog]

Somewhere out there a law enforcement officer is weeping because PeaceFrog hurt his or her feelings.

it's up to you to judge whether or not something I say as credible. There are such things as jokes. I don't expect anyone to take me any more seriously than they do George Carlin. Then again, I really don't take anyone more seriously than George Carlin, either... it evens out.

I think everyone's heart is in the "right place" for themselves, or what they consider to be the right place. I'm sure there were even people who thought Hitler's heart was in the right place. Of course, just because he was a sociopath doesn't mean that he didn't make a valid point on occasion.

I'm just here for the lulz, man. I'm not planning on running for office or trying to change the world via the Vibes message board. If I get a few chuckles out of it, that's good enough. If it jiggles someones brain from asleep to awake, then that's even better.

Oh, another thing, I really don't care who ignores me. It's usually the same people who accuse others of hiding their head in the sand.

[syd_25]

goodwin'd

[vic]

Not sacred to me either, hence my activity in posting activities by the bad ones. But I will not classify them all as bad, as that is simply not the case. Doing so only makes people less inclined to listen to any valid points you may bring to the table and defeat the whole purpose of raising the points to begin with. So you're doing nothing but verbally masturbating at that point.

Image of perfection. That's a good one. My only image of you was that your heart is in the right place on many issues, but you're either not smart enough to engage in a way that causes people to consider your points or just want to start shit.

Why do you suppose so many people here with whom you probably agree on some issues have relegated you to the ignore list? I guess it's all them and isn't related at all to the way you present your points, huh?

I'll digress now, though. I don't feel like playing your game.

ya know, he may be terrible at wording- what he says, but there's a point around there somewhere

here's a pretty good fact-based assessment:

TO ANYONE WHO THINKS SOME COPS ARE GOOD
I know it

[PeaceFrog]

at least I respect a law enforcement officer's right to belong to a union.

with that in mind, who is the real asshole here?

[Joker]

It's the police unions that make it so difficult to get rid of the bad cops

[Spidergawd]

Came across this last night. This is so disgusting and outrageous it's tough to contemplate.

http://www.dailymail...ayed-death.html

Here's a link to the video in the story. I couldn't get it to embed, for some reason:

Strapped to the 'Devil's Chair' and 'pepper-sprayed to death': Horrific fate of mentally ill grandfather 'tortured by police until he died'

* Nick Christie, 62, was detained by Florida police in March 2009
* Had been suffering depression and had a 'mental breakdown'
* No-one has ever been charged following the incident
* Relatives now suing Lee Country Sheriff's Department for 'wrongful death'

A mentally ill grandfather died after police officers strapped him naked to a chair, smothered him with a 'spit hood' and pepper-sprayed him 10 times during a 43-hour ordeal, it has been claimed.

Nick Christie, 62, was allegedly tortured in the 'Devil's Chair' at Lee County jail after being detained by Florida police officers in March 2009 following a 'mental breakdown'.

The hood, designed to stop him from spitting at officers, meant he could not escape the noxious spray's fumes - and he was never allowed to clean the residue from his body.

His family is now suing Lee County Sheriff's Department for 'wrongful death'.



The incident has raised concern about the behaviour of U.S. police officers, especially as no-one has ever been charged in connection with the alleged crime.
It is not clear who exactly took the shocking photograph, which was later handed to FOX 13's news team, of Christie strapped into the chair with a hood over his face.

The retired boilermaker, from Ohio, had suffered from heart disease and emphysema, put down to his years as a smoker and of continual exposure to asbestos.

He was being treated for depression when he decided to take some time out and visit his brother in Fort Myers.

Prior to the trip, his doctor moved away, leaving no-one to manage his emotional state or possible side effects of his drugs.

His wife Joyce was so worried about his trip that she contacted Lee County police to ask them to keep an eye out for him.

She also asked a captain from the Girard, Ohio, police to urge his Florida counterparts to take him to hospital if they found him.

Christie was first arrested on March 25 for being drunk in a public place. This has subsequently been contested as he may merely have been in a severely confused state.

He was released after telling jail attendants of his various medical conditions. Two days later, on March 27, he was arrested for trespassing at the hotel where he was staying.





Nicholas DiCello, whose Cleveland firm Spangenberg Shibley & Liber has filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of his estate, said it was a 'minor' offence.

He said: 'He was having another mental episode. He was bewildered, acting crazy, and so the hotel got fed up and asked him to leave. When he didn't go, they called the police.'

DiCello said jail staff did not screen Christie's mental health before he was jailed, even though they had the list of his conditions from his first arrest, and locked his medications in a truck.

He was never given any drugs during his 43 hours in custody, he also claimed. The trouble started when Christie, who was uncooperative from the time of his arrest, became angry.

Deputies responded by directly spraying him or fogging his cell with pepper spray at least 10 times. He was never allowed to wash the spray off.

Other inmates in the jail told Fort Myers News-Press that the blasts were so strong the secondary effects caused them to gag.

Christie was then placed into a restraining chair to bind inmates at both wrists, both ankles, and across the chest.

Inmates, along with a deputy trainee named Monshay Gibbs, have already testified that Christie was sprayed at least two more times after he had been strapped to the chair.

He was also stripped naked, and outfitted with a spit mask, a hood designed to prevent inmates from spitting on jail personnel.

But the mask kept the pepper spray close to his nose and mouth, meaning he kept inhaling it for six hours. Christie, whose wife Joyce flew to Florida on hearing of his arrest, is said to have pleaded with officers by saying the mask made it difficult for him to breathe.

DiCello added: 'She was actually relieved to hear he had been arrested She thought they had responded to her pleas for help, that they would take him to a hospital to be treated.'

Mrs Christie was not allowed to see her husband who, on March 29, went into respiratory distress and was taken to the Gulf Coast Medical Centre in Fort Myers.

It was there that doctors had to repeatedly change their gloves because of the amount of pepper spray on his body, hospital staff said.

Christie suffered multiple heart attacks over the next two days before being declared brain dead and his life support switched off on March 31.

Deputy Medical Examiner Dr Robert Pfalzgraf later noted in his autopsy report that, two days after his death, brown-orange liquid pepper spray was still all over Christie's body.

Pfalzgraf ruled the death a homicide, as Christie's heart gave out due to stress from his exposure to pepper spray. An internal investigation concluded there no wrongdoing on the part of any Lee County deputy.

None of the deputies involved were disciplined in any way and Florida State Attorney Stephen Russell declined to press criminal charges. The wrongful death case is expected to go before a judge later this year.

[Joker]

I think that's the same video in the link I posted a few days ago.

From the sounds of it he may have been fighting with other inmates in the cell before being moved to the chair outside the cell.

[nikkiblue]

all cops love donuts.

[PeaceFrog]

all cops love donuts.

controversy!

Being an electrician wasn't my first choice. I really wanted to be an astronaut.