A 44-year-old Phoenix man climbed onto the roof of his apartment and began acting strangely. Police arrived to help him down, but instead ended up killing him.
Michael Angel Ruiz had a history of drug addiction. On July 28, for reasons unknown, he climbed onto the roof of his apartment. Witnesses called the police to protect his safety. This turned out to have been a fatal decision.
First they tased him several times on the roof. He finally complied and hopped down. Cops immediately swarmed him and put him in a choke-hold.
Witness Gary Carthen said that Ruiz was “getting choked out and tased at the same time.” He remained in a choke-hold for at least three minutes.
The most disturbing moments were to come. Michael Ruiz, now fully restrained, was dragged down the concrete stairs on his face. As deputies held his arms behind his back, they allowed his head to dangle and thump against every stair. At this point Ruiz may have already lost consciousness, and was making no attempt to lift his head. Video shows him lifelessly suffering head trauma on the descent down the stair case.
“I just felt sick to my stomach,” said Richard Erickson, a retired police detective. “I’d never seen anything like this before, even when I was with the police department.”
This is yet another shining example of a the excessive use of force by law enforcement being captured on video as you can see below:
You might recall last year the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a case on the constitutionality of recording police officers while they do their job.
This means the court leaves in place a lower-court ruling, which found placing limits on taping police in public spaces unconstitutional.
The ACLU of Illinois brought the a suit against Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez in 2010, after her office wanted to bring charges against ACLU staff recording audio of “police officers performing their public duties in a public place and speaking loudly enough to be heard by a passerby.”
The state attorney wanted to bring the charges based on Illinois’ eavesdropping law, which has gained much attention lately.”
Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear an Illinois prosecutor’s plea to stop people from taping police officers. Wouldn’t such a ban be a massive First Amendment violation?
SOURCES: ABC 15, Police State USA
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