By Teresa N.
Kelly Thomas was a thirty-seven year-old homeless man that lived in Santa Ana, CA. On July 5th, Thomas was screaming for his life as six police officers piled on him, trying to restrain him from running away, after being threatened by one of the officers. He couldn't breathe and soon died. He had many encounters with law enforcement before, but it wasn’t because he wanted too. It was because he suffered from schizophrenia, which is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation.
This trial recently took place on Tuesday January 7, 2014. Only two, out of the six officers were trialed and are NOW free on bail. I feel that it is unfair, just because they are police officers, that don’t mean they shouldn’t receive any consequences for their actions. If they had encounters with him before and knew he has schizophrenia, why threaten him or make him feel endangered? That would just make things worst.
It seemed like they purposely wanted to harm Thomas because of all the complaints he piled up. There was a surveillance video that proved he was screaming for his life, calling for his dad and saying “I cant breathe” obviously he is restrained and tired, so why stay on him until he dies? That is something that seems a little fishy to me.
This article stood out to me most because I was always interested in law enforcement, but the thing that grasp my attention the most was the title. (Kelly Thompson Was Screaming For Air As Cops Piled On Him; Trial Comes To Close). Any incidents that involves someone with authority, the authority always end up having a lighter sentence or is treated a certain way than others. They tend to give special treatment to that of authority than an average citizen. For example, Oscar Grant. The police officer that shot Oscar! That officer got hiss own private cell which protects him more from the dangers in prison. That I felt was UNFAIR!!!