Another story from the taser war on the mentally ill
by digby
The mother of a 25-year-old man who died after Tukwila police allegedly tased him said she told officers that her son was mentally ill and she “begged them not to use a Taser on him,” it was reported Tuesday.
Victor Duffy’s mother, Deanne Mills, told the Seattle Times she returned to her Tukwila home on Saturday just as the police were arriving. She said her son had called 911 during a fight with his younger sister despite his “deathly” fear of police.
The Seattle Times said that, according to Mills, her son had been diagnosed as being bipolar and having PTSD after a confrontation with police in which he was tased six years ago. She told the newspaper that her son was mentally ill and had not been taking his medications.
“I begged them not to use a Taser on him,” Mills was quoted as saying by the Times. “I told them he was afraid and I asked them to take care of him.”
Naturally, they used a taser on him:
Duffy’s relatives told the newspaper they were herded outside the home and they could hear a Taser being used and Duffy screaming inside the home while they were outside. One of his cousins said Duffy then jumped out of a second-story window to get away from them and apparently broke his ankle.
In a news release issued Monday by the Tukwila Police Department, the police said that officers responded to a 911 call late Saturday morning from residents of a house in the 5600 block of South 152nd Place.
“A 26-year-old male with a history of mental illness was being combative with his family and making strange statements to the 911 operator,” the statement said. “Officers arrived to find the male holding a golf club and threatening his family.
“The male broke his ankle while trying to escape from the officers as they were taking him into custody for involuntary mental health commitment … while in the ambulance, the male began to have breathing difficulties. He was taken to Harborview Hospital for emergency care, where he later died.”
So the relatives were not in the home and none of them were in danger. Apparently the cops couldn’t be bothered to listen to the mother about his mortal fear of tasers so they zapped him and he dove out a window to escape.
Mentally ill people are being tortured and killed by police. This has been the case throughout history, but you’d think we’d be a little bit more civilized by now. Whenever I see people laughing uproariously at some poor person being tasered and screaming in agony, I’m reminded of this:
In 1675 Bedlam moved to new buildings in Moorfields designed by Robert Hooke, outside the City boundary. In the 18th century people used to go there to see the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the “show of Bethlehem” and laugh at their antics, generally of a sexual nature or violent fights. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. Visitors were permitted to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the inmates. In 1814, there were 96,000 such visits.
We haven’t come that far I’m afraid.
.