HAWTHORNE, CA — A deaf man was brutally beaten by four cops while he packed his car just before he went to his regular Bible study class. The victim’s attempt to communicate using hand signals was interpreted as resistance and he was struck and tased until he was unconscious.
The incident occurred on February 13th, 2013, as Jonathan Meister, who works as an architect, was picking up some boxes and bags of his belongings being stored at his former roommate’s house. The items consisted of winter clothes and snowboarding equipment he intended to use during an upcoming trip to Utah. He retrieved the items around 6:30 p.m.
A neighbor witnessed Mr. Meister loading his car and phoned the police to report a suspicious person. When the neighbor called out to Meister from behind, he did not react because he is unable to hear.
Jonathan Meister after being served and protected. (Source: NY Daily News)
Jonathan Meister after being served and protected. (Source: NY Daily News)
Two Hawthorne police officers arrived on the scene: Officers Jeffrey Tysl and Jeffrey Salmon. They “watched Mr. Meister as he walked through the gate, out of the backyard, carrying some of his personal belongings to his car,” the complaint states. Again, Meister could not hear the voices behind him as they ordered him to stop.
When Meister saw the officers, he put down the boxes and attempted to communicate in the only way he knew how: American Sign Language. He gestured with his hands that he couldn’t hear them. He approached them but was suddenly grabbed by the wrists and spun around.
“Because he is deaf, Mr. Meister depends on using his hands while facing a person to communicate,” the lawsuit states. “The officers’ sudden aggression, which both caused pain and interfered with his ability to communicate, caused Mr. Meister reflexively to pull his hands away, hop back over the fence and step toward the gate … to create some space so that he could communicate.”
Police radioed for backup and attempted to grab Meister, who kept eluding them. Another pair of Hawthorne cops arrived: Erica Bristow and Mark Hultgren. The four continued to aggress him. Meister kept wriggling his hands away, according to police reports.
His futile attempt to reason with the officers and evade their clutches was not taken well. The cops “struck Meister with fists and feet, and forcibly took him to the ground.” In other words, Meister was punched and kicked until he collapsed.
On the ground, the battered man flailed his legs, and officers could not hogtie him. An officer then allegedly shot Meister with the probes of his taser and shocked him twice as he squirmed on the ground.
Another officer set his Taser to “Drive Stun” mode — a setting specifically designed for pain delivery, not immobilization — and jolted Meister in the abdomen.
Officers continued to kick and punch him in the back and stomach. They choked and zapped him, delivering “punishing shocks” and intentionally “burning his flesh,” Meister claims.
The officers eventually handcuffed Meister and sat on top of him. He was now face down on the ground, and knocked unconscious.
Mr. Meister was then hauled to a hospital and charged with assaulting police officers. They described his reaction as “aggressive and violent.” When it was determined that they had just beaten an innocent man, the charges were dropped out of embarrassment.
“We’re really concerned about the problem of law enforcement and people who are deaf… He wasn’t doing anything other than trying to get away from people who were hurting him.”
Hawthorne police garnered our attention last year because of an high-profile incident where a dog was shot dead in the street for trying to help its owner, who had been handcuffed for taking pictures of police.
Meister is now suing the City of Hawthorne, its police department, the police chief, and the 4 officers involved. He is claiming statutory, treble and punitive damages for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, among other civil rights violations, according to Courthouse News Service.
“We’re really concerned about the problem of law enforcement and people who are deaf,” said Meister’s attorney, Paula Pearlman, to the Daily Breeze. “He wasn’t doing anything other than trying to get away from people who were hurting him.”
Americans with disabilities are easy prey for aggressive agents of the police state. A deaf woman in Tacoma, Washington, called police for help after being victim of an assault, but was instead assaulted and tased again because of her inability to respond to their verbal orders. In another incident, police forced their way into a store bathroom and pepper-sprayed and tasered a deaf, mentally-handicapped man in Mobile, Alabama, when he could not understand their commands. A deaf driver in Oklahoma was recently badly beaten when — again — he could not understand a highway patrolman’s verbal commands during a traffic stop.
Luckily the victims above survived their attacks. Kelly Thomas and Ethan Saylor, who both have cognitive issues, were not so lucky when police singled them out.
What recourse do disabled people have when they are unable to respond to power-tripping bullies demanding complete and utter submission?
Jonathan Meister, a deaf architect, is suing Hawthorne Police for beating/tasing him.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=43d_1392730776
– wake up – organize – reclaim
NM’s new top cop has a new list of cop response saying he’s made it more aggressive. More than the cops who shot up a minivan full of kids cause the mom was speeding? Yep, so he says. He also says he would rather destroy it all than release it to the public. No Nazi’s there, well, no insignia on their uniforms anyway. I know how I’ll get to Colorado next time. Ok, here I come.
So what is to be done? Why not start with CT? What if all libertarian, survivalist, firearms, free market, alternate, and anarcho-capitalist sites enacted a blanket ban on everything concerning Connecticut?
Block their IPs. Delete their logins. Purge their records. Refuse their donations.
Boycott Connecticut. Period.
Seriously.
Why do we, the people, who understand that there is a 2nd Amendment for a reason, and that plain English is easy to understand, put up with states like Connecticut?
The rights of the citizens of CT have been trampled upon. The safety of its children has been compromised.
The manufacturing of modern sporting rifles in the State of CT has been outlawed. Connecticut – which was formerly known as the Constitution state.
CT is a state where leaders have no regard for the rights of those who produce and manufacture its wealth. If you own a business there, you should shut it down, and make arrangements to leave that state immediately.
Don’t make another purchase there. Drive to a neighboring state if you need something.
Close your doors, move away, and show the politicians the true consequences of their hasty and uninformed actions. Abandon that state as its leaders have abandoned the proud heritage that forged our freedom.
If you own a website, consider boycotting everyone and everything in Connecticut.
If a customer with CT plates on his car wants to purchase something from you. Tell him no. No hotel room for you, no gas, no food, no nothing. Go back where you came from. Return to your socialist utopia with your fellow cowards.
Don’t you dare say you “didn’t do it”? You sat still for it. You’ve failed to remove the clowns who did it. You have not done your duty as American citizens, and until you do so no other state will do business with you.
If you know anyone in CT, delete their phone number and profiles. Block them. If you have people in your business’s system from Connecticut, delete their records.
Don’t even pass through CT, find another way. Don’t knowingly associate with or buy or sell anything to people from CT.
To those who say “you can’t do that!” Yes you can. You have the right to refuse to do business with anyone for any reason. CT’s willingness to support and tolerate jackbooted thugs does not make them a protected class.
Make sure the Connecticut Yankee traitors know they have become the scourge of this nation, and they are no longer welcome on your property.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3179913
You know my response.
“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.”
Wouldn’t you have to add NY, NJ, MA, and CA, to that list, Tor?
Or is it only CT because (perhaps for a time) changing gooberment was only possible in that small state and not the others due to too many Uber-Socialists?
“Surrender Your Firearms,” Connecticut Tells Unregistered Gun Owners
http://www.infowars.com/surrender-your-firearms-connecticut-tells-unregistered-gun-owners/
They are coming after the procrastinators, and the dumb people who didn’t know about the law until the last hour, first.
I wonder how the procrastinators will react? Will they say,”Wait a minute officers, I’m not ready”?
The notice from the CT cops doesn’t have a time limit, I wonder if the law spells it out? I.e. you have thirty days to comply, or it must be done immediately?
I wonder when the first arrest will happen, and how?
I wonder if many people have been arrested for owning these outlaw tools in NY yet?
I wonder if there will be a news blackout on such, or will all the news stories be slanted to make it appear as if terrist are being rounded up?
Is CT and NY forming special Gestapo raid teams as they do in CA? Seems like the state would be compelled to do so, and begin going door to door of those on the list, yesterday.
What pleasant thoughts to start my day.
I need some caffeine before I read any more.
CT is a litte turd measuring only about 90 miles across and 55 miles high. At a minimum everyone there should be able to go to MA, NY, or RI to purchase whatever they need.
CT is the only state with 350,000 new felons. That’s 10% out of a 3.5 million population. And not the usual free shit army members. Property owners able to own afford legal guns.
You attack your enemy where you know you can win. Being laser focused on CT is a tactic that might easily have a major effect. It’s a place where those with property can prevail against the impoverished masses with nothing to lose.
CT Gun Owners Openly Defiant
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/13/tens-of-thousands-of-connecticut-gun-owners-may-be-staging-a-massive-act-of-civil-disobedience/
CT Starting to Threaten Gun Owners With Confiscation
http://www.dailypaul.com/313178/ct-is-starting-to-threaten-gun-owners-with-confiscation
CT Thinks They Are Up For Confiscating Guns
http://victorygirlsblog.com/?p=18305
Ah, I see. From The Blaze link above:
“Mike Lawlor, “the state’s top official in criminal justice, […] said an aggressive push to prosecute gun owners in the state is not going to happen at this point.”
They’re waiting.
In the meantime, they’ll pick people off as they go along.
This is just like the seatbelt laws. At first, they just gave you a ticket if they pulled you over for something else. It was later, when such a law was more accepted that they started pulling people over for simply not wearing their seatbelt. In between the two periods the seatbelt law spread across the nation as if it were being directed.
Dear Helot,
Why not be Angry Birds?
Angry Birds – Pigs Must Die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5ikHiIV1hY
Angry Birds – Zombie Pigs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROjcVrbmL-E
Drunk Angry Birds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYFyIvHuNiE
Won’t work for CT. It is basically a bedroom community for ultra rich NYC bankers, brokers and high up military officers. A nice place to keep their wives, girlfriends, exotic cars and horses.
They are positioning to confiscate loot in CT. They care about international power, not local. The Affordable Care Act, gun confiscations, it’s going to hit with shockingly breakneck speed.
Look what is happening to wealthy CT financial planner Lou Pelletier’s daughter:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2556179/Last-January-ice-skating-competition-Now-shes-wheelchair-constant-pain-Parents-teen-girl-imprisoned-psych-ward-doctors-YEAR-tell-desperation-home.html
CT Teen Long Custody Battle
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/02/25/conn-teen-long-custody-battle-move-again/P2e5jYYQHOwD4QnTPW09eN/story.html
@Tor – Where do you think the real TPTB members have at least one residence? The rest are just low and mid level prols.
I have no issue with people being rich. Doing anything peaceful with their money. The problem is those that use their wealth to buy pull. To steal.
Rank, state, millionaires, mill. per 1000 hshlds
1. Hawaii 29,423 43.1
2. New Jersey 207,693 42.5
3. Connecticut 84,508 41.4
4. Maryland 132,354 39.1
5. Massachusetts 141,186 37.1
6. California 663,394 35.7
White people have no reason to hate black people and we and the rest of non-whites have all the reason to hate them and we still don’t! Still love yall!
TPTB have deliberately fostered a violent/indolent/race-hate-suffused (toward whites) black underclass. In order to:
Justify police state tactics.
Keeps whites (rightly) terrified (see first point above).
Encourage enmity and division; divide and conquer.
Both groups have much more reason to hate the system and those who serve as its enforcers than they do each other.
Spot on Eric, the PTB have managed to get us all to fight over the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table while keeping the majority anesthetized with the bread and circus of fuuuhtball and NASCAR. I hope I live long enough to see an awakening of the masses of sheeple but even if that happens TPTB have way more powerful weapons than us. Don’t think I could stop a tank when they roll down my street to prove who’s in charge. When all the costumed thugs finish murdering people in Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else they might be busy I’m sure they’ll put their skills to use here if ordered to, especially if we don’t grovel before their awesomeness.