Family Want Boot Camp Guards Prosecuted (Florida Juvenile Abuse)

[NashVegas]

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- Lawmakers and the family of a teenager seen on videotape being kneed and struck by juvenile boot camp guards are calling for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the guards.

The Bay County Medical Examiner ruled that Martin Lee Anderson died of internal bleeding caused by a genetic blood disorder. But his family said Friday they believe the boy died because of the 30-minute beating that took place hours before the 14-year-old died.

...Gov. Jeb Bush said he did not support calls to shut down the state's juvenile boot camps, calling Anderson's death "one tragic incident."

"The coroner has suggested that the death was caused by this child's unique illness ... that ... the force itself did not cause the death," he said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/18/AR2006021800250.html

If I were this kid's family, I would be calling for Jeb Fucking Bush's head on a platter!

More, from a Miami Herald story posted in GD:



...

Moments later, Martin is placed on the ground, face-down. Three officers are holding him, while four others watch. An officer punches his arm with a hammer-type fist.

Four officers then lift his flaccid body off the ground. Again, he falls to the dirt. He lies for several seconds motionless. His legs writhe.

Again, four officers lift him. Again he falls. Again they drag him to his feet, but his legs wobble. As one officer appears to hold his hands on Martin's face, another punches the teen nine or 10 times on his forearm.

In one of the most violent moments, as the officers hold Martin upright, **** one of them appears to knee him in the back. His body jerks upwards, his head whiplashes and his heels leave the ground.

The officers' ''restraint'' techniques -- as officials have called them -- appear to last between 20 and 30 minutes.


**** kidneys?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. and they should be! did you see that video?

6-7 full grown men beating up on a 14 year old! It was disgusting.

[OKthatsIT]

7. what video? they actuallly released a video?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

9. CNN played it last night

highly disturbing.

[saigon68]

2. Never Happen

These Thugs and hoodlums are "OUT TO PROTECT OUR CHILDREN"

Just imagine if 14 year old hooligans were permitted to run wild

Especially the "BLACK" ones </sarcasm>

[soup]

19. Changing procedures ought to do it,

>>Sheriff McKeithen already has changed procedures.

Boot camp employees can't use ammonia capsules "for any purpose other than emergency situations, such as attempting to revive a person who has obviously passed out," a memo reads.

Employees also must "immediately refrain" from using restraint techniques known as knee strikes and hammer strikes, reads another.

Will the guards be punished? He's waiting for internal and criminal investigations to be completed.<<
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/18/State/Unsettling_tape_does_.shtml

--

Geeze, what more do you people want? :insert20drippingsarcasmanimationshere:

and as an afterthought - Wouldn't the fact that procedures were immediately changed indicate acknowledgement of wrongdoing?

[henslee]

3. This was a 14 year old kid who weighed 130 lbs. What kind of threat

could he have posed no matter how awful he was.

[NashVegas]

4. He Wasn't Awful - and Even If He Was

This was an honor student who screwed up and went joyriding - with other relatives - and smashed his grandmother's car.

But even if the kid were vermin, so what? These guards should be arrested, and someone should be calling Jeb Bush out, as the Governor of Florida, and holding him ultimately responsible.

[MrPrax]

5. Another really good question...

having watch the shorter 7 minute video is the camp's staffing 'problem'

At one point there are 8 uniformed 'men' and a nurse? How can they lose 5 staff members for nearly a half hour to attend to 1 14-yr. old kid?

Boogles the mind as to where the 'supervisor' might be in all this?

I guess fat violent men who get hired to beat up kids and wear a uniform don't really need 'supervision' and can do what they want on THEIR jobs.

Nice deal...

[Halliburton]

6. they should be prosecuted

he may have been an asshole but those officers have no right to treat a 14 year old kid like that!

[HuffleClaw]

8. bushco. amerika, the land of the 'free'

funny how when its a citizen who dies following a savage beating at the hands of these uniformed thugs the cause of death is always 'an unrelated condition' but if a citizen so much as pokes a cop with a finger and the cop dies eight weeks later of a stroke the citizen is charged with murder. oh, and of course the kid is black.

[pitohui]

10. jesus christ

they beat a kid to death and blame a blood disorder?

[laylah]

11. These power hungry

ASSHOLES should be nailed to the wall! Until late January of this year, I worked in a bootcamp in Iowa. A recent "client" was so very red in the face, to the point I told an Instructor he should back off a bit with the exercise. I was told the kid was only out of shape, he would get used to the exercises. Two days later, the kiddo has a heart monitor and a diagnosis of a heart problem! I am no longer there for many reasons! :mad:

Jenn

[NashVegas]

12. It's Really Unbelievable

Unimaginable that people running these "boot camps" think using violence on a youth is going to somehow straighten them out.

Even more fucked up that the people who are supposed to be representing us are using our tax dollars to perpetuate violence.

[Maddy McCall]

13. If you've seen the video, then you know that the...

place should be shut down.

Disgraceful that any human would treated in such a way. :(

[NashVegas]

15. I Watched It But

The incident took place so far away from the camera, and there were so many cops standing around, that it was impossible for me to notice most any individual action. The only thing I could clearly make out was one officer punching him in the forearm while he was being held up.

The thing about the video that strikes me most was how they were passing around towels for each other to wipe up.

The fact the nurse was there the whole time kind of screams pre-meditated something.

They should all be arrested for manslaughter.

[soup]

18. Part of the reason it's hard to make out what was happening

is that the video was blurred by the sheriff's department to "protect the identities of the other boot camp detainees".

So, why not block out the faces of the other detainees instead? :shrug:

and as for the 'nurse' I'd like to see her get a taste of her own 'medicine'. Her just observing the whole thing disturbed me immensely.

[judaspriestess]

14. wow, how pathetic

this is such a sad story all the way around, this young man just 14 already on probation? that just sounds so fucked up.

I know I did a foolish thing when I was fourteen, I was caught shoplifting, shit I learned my lesson I never did it again. it was a powertrip thing. I can't ever bring myself to steal again but damn probation and then to get beat in boot camp up and die...... senseless the whole entire situation.

[Zodiak]

16. oh look, another case where authority gets off scott-free

for draconian tactics that leads to a death.

It is NEVER the fault of the cops...never. The level of corruption in our society has gotten to such a level that we effectively have a police-state. Not holding authority accountable for the administration of that authority is a symptom of a police-state....and we are far past that point, especially in Florida.

[Vidar]

17. Death penalty justified in some cases. This is one.

[Evergreen Emerald]

20. Why were they hitting him?

According to the story, he was not resisting. He was not attacking the guards.

Another thing: why would Bush resist an independent investigation? What would be the downside?