Pointing Fingers
Aug 30, 2006 Brainwaves, In The News
Last Friday night, a gentleman died while in police custody here in Rochester.
Evidently, the man, Mark Lee, was suffering from “a pre-existing medical condition” that wasn’t immediately disclosed, but later reported to be a seizure stemming from an inoperable brain tumor. He was flailing about when officers were flagged down on the street to come to the convenience store where Lee was having his seizure. Not knowing what this was at the time, the officers did their best to restrain the man, to prevent injury to himself or to others.
Placed into protective custody, he was transported by ambulance to a nearby hospital. Two hours later, Lee was dead.
Lee’s family insists there was excessive force used on him while in custody, including the use of a Taser by the officers who first responded to the scene. There’s evidence to refute that claim, says an RPD sergeant:
“When you have Taser deployment … the cartridges leave a confetti-like paper behind,” [Sgt. Carlos] Garcia said. “There was no evidence of any of that at the scene, not from our officers’ accounts, not from the fire department personnel that was there, nor from the eyewitness accounts of the employees at the store.” Also, he said, police Tasers are bright yellow — “not something that can be easily concealed.”
Additional reports stated that the two officers on scene were not trained on the use of Tasers, and, as such, would not have been equipped with them. All department-owned Tasers contain computer chips that record the time and date of each discharge.
The police department is conducting an investigation to determine whether there was any wrongdoing, but it doesn’t really matter.
The family is already convinced that their son was tasered and roughed up, and want “justice.” Whatever happens as a result of the police investigations will result in detriment to the officers, whether they deserve it or not.
If it is determined they used undue force, they will be disciplined in some form or another.
If it’s decided everything was by-the-book, the instant response will be, “Oh, that can’t be. It’s all a cover-up. The department is protecting them,” and the image and good name of these officers is sullied.
Now, as another day has gone by, the family’s lawyer is tossing out another idea: Well, if it wasn’t a department-owned Taser, must be it was an unauthorized one. This despite the fact that it would be very difficult to hide such a weapon from other officers and superiors, as they are quite large.
Seriously, this is just silly, and it’s unfair to the officers who did their best to help someone. Quit belly-aching and crying and complaining for the press and let the investigators finish their work.
