Honestly, when will the public demand that we deprive the tax-feeders of their little torture toys?
Responding to a domestic violence report, police in Merced, California helped child “protection” workers abduct the two-year-old daughter of 40-year-old Gregory Williams, a double amputee who is confined to a wheelchair.
Williams, a father of three who lost his legs to deep vein thrombosis six years ago and is currently unemployed, had been arguing with his wife. Rather than trying to defuse the situation, the police summoned a CPS worker who decided to seize the two-year-old, Ginni.
When Williams objected, the police placed him under arrest and attempted to force him into the familiar “prone-out” position — face on the ground, hands out at the sides. Since he has no legs to help him break his fall, Williams likely would have landed face-down with enough force to inflict a serious injury. So he reflexively braced himself in his wheelchair.
This act of instinctive self-preservation was described as “resisting arrest” (which, incidentally, is not a crime but an individual right long recognized under common law as a way of protecting one’s self from criminal violence under the color of “authority”).
So Officer John Pinnegar shoved his Portable Electro-Shock Torture device into Williams’ ribs and pulled the trigger twice.
At least one other officer, Sgt. Rodney Court, assisted the valiant Pinnegar in subduing the legless man. Hey, can’t be too careful — “officer safety” and all that. At one point Court shoved a knee into the middle of Williams’ back while Pinnegar cuffed the victim.
The double-amputee was left sitting on the pavement, handcuffed behind the back, with his pants pulled down below the waist — in broad daylight, in full view of the residents of his apartment complex.
According to a news account, “a hostile crowd gathered as the officers tried to perform their duties” — “duties” in this case referring to the exercise of their supposed authority to commit lawless violence against helpless people. It’s a pity nobody in that crowd saw fit to intervene on behalf of the victim.
(Go here to see a video clip of Williams after he was assaulted by the police.)
Williams was held for six days on suspicion of domestic violence and resisting arrest, and then released without charges. Thanks to the ubiquity of Tasers, however, he—like many thousands of others—was subjected to potentially lethal summary punishment for “contempt of cop.”
12:32 pm on September 21, 2009
