HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — The latest in the trial of an Alabama police officer accused of violating the civil rights of an Indian man in February. All times are local.
A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of an Alabama police officer charged with violating an Indian man’s civil rights and using unreasonable force as he slammed him to the ground.
U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Haikala declared a mistrial Friday in the trial of Madison police officer Eric Parker after jurors said three different times that they were unable to reach a unanimous decision.
Parker slammed 58-year-old Sureshbhai Patel (suh-REHSH’-by pah-TEL’) down face first during a suspicious person investigation. Police tried questioning Patel but the man said he doesn’t speak English. Parker has said he took Patel to the ground because he was resisting officers and reached toward his pockets.
Patel denied that through an interpreter.
Parker took the stand in his own defense and said he lost his balance while he was trying to take Patel to the ground and didn’t mean to hurt him.
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Photo: Sureshbhai Patel steadies himself with a walker as he arrives at the federal courthouse before start of a trial.
No surprise here. Sue the cop, the county and the state.
"Yea, I, ah, lost my balance. Yea, that’s the ticket. I lost my balance and knocked him to the ground, on accident. Yea. Didn’t mean to hurt him. No, never . . . "
Right, hard to believe that lying video.
What’s interesting is that if you separate this case from all the other body slamming case (and there are SOO many, aren’t there?), you might believe the officer involved. But when you look at it as a standard practice across the nation, you realize that these guys aren’t “losing their balance.” Look what happened to James Blake in NY this week. They didn’t need to do the body slam, but it’s become SOP for police. The idea that “he didn’t mean to hurt him” is laughable. You can’t body slam someone into concrete and not hurt them.
While it’s necessary to prosecute these cases individually, we also need a systemic review of police procedures, and I think that has to come from the top, the DOJ. It shouldn’t be a county by county or town by town thing, because then you treat them like isolated incidents. It’s happening all over the place. We have to look at recruitment, training, and then the step that will get the blue lives matter people upset is looking at both prejudice and the blue wall that covers up these crimes.