Death By Bad Decisions Update
There's more news on Nathaniel Jones. His autopsy revealed not only an enlarged heart, but both cocaine and PCP were found in his system. That would help to explain why, aside from his girth, it was so difficult for the officers to restrain him. I wonder what the opportunists will be able to make of the situation now?
My assorted ramblings and opinions on people, entertainment, and current events.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
Monday, December 01, 2003
Death By Bad Decisions
The news always has something interesting to talk about. Dennis Miller would prepare for his show by reading USA Today. There is just too much craziness going on in the world today.
It seems that the latest controversy centers around Nathaniel Jones, a 41 year old 400 lb black man, from Cincinnati, Ohio. The controversy is that he died in police custody after being beaten by police. A la Rodney King, the "attack" was caught on tape by a video camera in a police cruiser.
The way this whole incident started is rather suspicious. An employee of a White Castle restaurant called 911 to report that there was a man passed out in the grass outside the restaurant, Mr. Jones. The call went not to the police, but the fire department who arrived on the scene to tend to Mr. Jones, who was there with a female companion who was also under medical distress. Mr. Jones regained consciousness and then became a nuisance, according to police radio transmissions.
That is when two police officers responded, Baron Osterman and James Pike. Both of these officers, as seen on the tape, are considerably smaller than Nathaniel Jones. After ordering Jones to stay back, the officers started to strike Jones when he came at them. The entire time that the officers defended themselves, they could be heard ordering Jones to put his hands behind his back.
From watching what was shown on CNN, you could see that the officers had great difficulty in restraining Mr. Jones. You could see Jones punch one of the officers and the struggle took on a cartoonish quality with the camera being the midpoint and the participants moving in out of frame seemingly chasing one another.
More officers arrived on the scene and they were eventually able to subdue Mr. Jones and handcuff him. The fire department had left when the officers first arrived on the scene and were called back when Mr. Jones was once again in distress. Jones was taken to University Hospital and was pronounced dead minutes after his arrival.
Black activists are already in an uproar in Cincinnati and called for the police chief's dismissal, which the mayor has refused. Cincinnati was the scene of massive riots two years ago after a white officer shot a black man. This incident with Mr. Jones will undoubtedly cause more racial difficulties in that city.
I have problems with what happened but for different reasons. I cannot help but include Rodney King as it is somewhat related. I have no sympathy for Rodney King's beating at all. Is it because I am racist? No. Is it for my great love of the police? Ha ha. No. It is because Rodney King is a career criminal. Rodney King was tasered twice before the police started in on him with their nightsticks. I do not consider what happened to him a racial attack for three big reasons. First, one of the officers, his name escapes me, was awarded a medal by the mayor for saving a victim's life by performing mouth to mouth resuscitation. How does this show him not to be racist? The victim was a transvestite, black prostitute. Two, there were two other black men in the car with King, and unlike him, they did not resist the officers. Three, there were black officers on the scene.
Understandably, I have not seen the whole tape and there are things that I may have not seen. However, from what I have seen, Mr. Jones was not only resisting arrest but attacking the officers. Mr. Jones was a very powerful man and his continued struggling with the police only added to his beating and contributed to his death.
I am disgusted with racial opportunists who make martyrs out of scum. Rodney King is a cancer upon society, he has been arrested numerous times since his famous beating, but no one wants to talk about that. In a prostitution sting operation, he tried to run a police officer down with his car. Yes, clearly King is a hero. Now the opportunists are protesting for Jones. A man who is found passed out in the grass and then assaults police officers is someone to protest for?
There is a saying that I have heard in the black community called "guilty of being black." Protestors will undoubtedly be screaming that here as we have the death of a black man and white officers involved. Consequently, of the four officers that arrived as backup, one of them was black. To the people who use the saying I referred to, innocence is equally not automatic because the person is black.
Black activists say the death Sunday of Nathaniel Jones, 41, was another example of police doing little or nothing to stop deaths of black men in encounters with police in recent years. To them I ask, so it's alright for Jones, who was arrested for cocaine possession in 1998, to attack police officers?
Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said it best,
"What I saw was a 400-pound man violently attacking a police officer in a manner that put the lives of police officers at risk," Luken said after viewing the videotape, which police released to the media. "While the investigations will continue, there is nothing on those tapes to suggest that the police did anything wrong."
The news always has something interesting to talk about. Dennis Miller would prepare for his show by reading USA Today. There is just too much craziness going on in the world today.
It seems that the latest controversy centers around Nathaniel Jones, a 41 year old 400 lb black man, from Cincinnati, Ohio. The controversy is that he died in police custody after being beaten by police. A la Rodney King, the "attack" was caught on tape by a video camera in a police cruiser.
The way this whole incident started is rather suspicious. An employee of a White Castle restaurant called 911 to report that there was a man passed out in the grass outside the restaurant, Mr. Jones. The call went not to the police, but the fire department who arrived on the scene to tend to Mr. Jones, who was there with a female companion who was also under medical distress. Mr. Jones regained consciousness and then became a nuisance, according to police radio transmissions.
That is when two police officers responded, Baron Osterman and James Pike. Both of these officers, as seen on the tape, are considerably smaller than Nathaniel Jones. After ordering Jones to stay back, the officers started to strike Jones when he came at them. The entire time that the officers defended themselves, they could be heard ordering Jones to put his hands behind his back.
From watching what was shown on CNN, you could see that the officers had great difficulty in restraining Mr. Jones. You could see Jones punch one of the officers and the struggle took on a cartoonish quality with the camera being the midpoint and the participants moving in out of frame seemingly chasing one another.
More officers arrived on the scene and they were eventually able to subdue Mr. Jones and handcuff him. The fire department had left when the officers first arrived on the scene and were called back when Mr. Jones was once again in distress. Jones was taken to University Hospital and was pronounced dead minutes after his arrival.
Black activists are already in an uproar in Cincinnati and called for the police chief's dismissal, which the mayor has refused. Cincinnati was the scene of massive riots two years ago after a white officer shot a black man. This incident with Mr. Jones will undoubtedly cause more racial difficulties in that city.
I have problems with what happened but for different reasons. I cannot help but include Rodney King as it is somewhat related. I have no sympathy for Rodney King's beating at all. Is it because I am racist? No. Is it for my great love of the police? Ha ha. No. It is because Rodney King is a career criminal. Rodney King was tasered twice before the police started in on him with their nightsticks. I do not consider what happened to him a racial attack for three big reasons. First, one of the officers, his name escapes me, was awarded a medal by the mayor for saving a victim's life by performing mouth to mouth resuscitation. How does this show him not to be racist? The victim was a transvestite, black prostitute. Two, there were two other black men in the car with King, and unlike him, they did not resist the officers. Three, there were black officers on the scene.
Understandably, I have not seen the whole tape and there are things that I may have not seen. However, from what I have seen, Mr. Jones was not only resisting arrest but attacking the officers. Mr. Jones was a very powerful man and his continued struggling with the police only added to his beating and contributed to his death.
I am disgusted with racial opportunists who make martyrs out of scum. Rodney King is a cancer upon society, he has been arrested numerous times since his famous beating, but no one wants to talk about that. In a prostitution sting operation, he tried to run a police officer down with his car. Yes, clearly King is a hero. Now the opportunists are protesting for Jones. A man who is found passed out in the grass and then assaults police officers is someone to protest for?
There is a saying that I have heard in the black community called "guilty of being black." Protestors will undoubtedly be screaming that here as we have the death of a black man and white officers involved. Consequently, of the four officers that arrived as backup, one of them was black. To the people who use the saying I referred to, innocence is equally not automatic because the person is black.
Black activists say the death Sunday of Nathaniel Jones, 41, was another example of police doing little or nothing to stop deaths of black men in encounters with police in recent years. To them I ask, so it's alright for Jones, who was arrested for cocaine possession in 1998, to attack police officers?
Cincinnati Mayor Charlie Luken said it best,
"What I saw was a 400-pound man violently attacking a police officer in a manner that put the lives of police officers at risk," Luken said after viewing the videotape, which police released to the media. "While the investigations will continue, there is nothing on those tapes to suggest that the police did anything wrong."