Abu Ghraib 92683: The Brutal Tortures Right Here At Home!

I couldn't believe it when I read this. Here I'd seen Kent State, the WTO riots, Watts, you name it and I really take it for granted that, unless we are ever vigilant, police brutality and corruption will be the norm. But even a cynic like myself am amazed that Abu Ghraib seems to have come to the US.


And the courts condone it.

medical records show that during his visit to the jail he suffered a concussion, broken ribs, a gash in his leg, an eye contusion, broken veins in his feet, a shattered front tooth, lacerations and bruises over his body, contusions to a knee, neck pain, a fractured right wrist and nerve damage to his left hand. The handcuffs were locked so tightly that the steel sliced his hands and caused dangerous swelling. An imprint of a deputy’s boot could be seen on the back of his leg for days.

The beating was so severe that Hall defecated in his pants. Deputies laughed and called him a “shit monkey.” When they returned to his cell later, they cursed at him again—and tied a black mesh hood over his head.

All that for having a blood alcohol count of 0.00 and having taken a Praxil before causing minor damage in a fender bender while backing out of his house. But this isn't the only case of sadistic treatment reminiscent of Abu Ghraib for those unfortunate enough to be drug into the Orange County Jail. Not only are the police corrupt, but the Orange County Courts have condoned even worse.

As the article goes on to say:

law enforcement sources, defense lawyers and former inmates tell the Weekly that a minority of officers in the Orange County Jail are, as a sheriff’s department official familiar with excessive force cases described them, “pure and simple thugs who don’t have the mental or emotional makeup to wear a badge.”

“Outsiders might think the department wouldn’t tolerate these bad apples,” said the official. “But they’re definitely there. They’re an embarrassment to the department. They’ve even had names, including ‘The Psycho Crew.’”

...Orange County Register investigative reporter Aldrin Brown had previously written a series of articles describing the horrific results of the beatings in local jails: detached retinas, ruptured eardrums, shattered jaws, severed arteries, broken limbs—even death from trauma.

... In 2001, Brown and Register reporter John McDonald disclosed that four deputies had taken a 20-year-old inmate to an isolated area of the jail in December 1999 and crushed his testicles. Prosecutors agreed that the man had been tortured but said a code of silence among jail personnel prevented the filing of charges. Deputies claimed their Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination when they were brought before the grand jury.

Nobody had a better opportunity to demand reform than federal judge Gary L. Taylor. Prompted by Herman’s class-action lawsuit, Taylor conceded in April that “there is room for improvement” inside the jail but suggested the grievances aren’t serious. He killed the suit.

These thugs deserve to be tossed behind bars and throw away the key. If California has a death penalty, then these thugs deserve Death Row. But what does the Orange County judicial system have to say?

“Improvement is always a necessary goal,” the judge said in a 14-page ruling. “The county and the sheriff show every indication they will perform that high duty.”

But Sheriff Mike Carona—who called Taylor’s ruling a “great victory”—has little incentive to clean up the county’s jail. He first won election in 1998 by telling voters that his leadership would produce a department that was a model of professionalism. Today, he thinks he’s succeeded. Through one of his spokesmen, the sheriff said he runs “one of the safest jails in America” and that “inmate welfare” is “very high on our list.”

“At most, all these incidents show are that various employees committed misconduct, (there is) “no evidence of widespread abuses.”

If you're wondering whether it's a case of the courts knowing better than the public or if it's a case of corruption all the way up into the courts, this should help you see more clearly:

But the most troubling ruling from the court came on June 8, when Justices Moore and Fybel joined William Bedsworth. The case was simple: Santa Ana police took Hong Cuc Truong, who’d been arrested for shoplifting in 2002, to the Orange County Jail. There, Truong—a Vietnamese immigrant diagnosed with schizophrenia—initially refused a deputy’s command to undress and take a shower before she was to be issued a jail jump suit. Truong began undressing about 10 minutes later, after another inmate convinced her it was safe to disrobe. As she pulled her sweater over her head, however, four deputies pounced, beating and kicking her and painfully twisting her arms behind her back. In the process, Truong suffered a severe arm fracture, according to records reviewed by the Weekly. Tossed in a cell, she said she was denied medical attention for hours.

The appeals court ruled there had been no excessive force. Never mind that the woman was in the process of complying when the attack occurred, wrote Justice Moore: “Truong’s refusal to obey the lawful order and the events that led to her injuries are part of an unbreakable chain of events.” It was “temporal hair-splitting” to consider that the woman had “changed her mind and started to remove her sweater.”

But lost in Moore’s justification was a missing explanation: Why did it take four trained deputies—using considerable violence—to handle Truong, who, at the time of the incident, was 54 years old, an inch over 5 feet tall and barely 100 pounds?

One has to wonder if this isn't the fate of America in a microcosm. According to Wikipedia, Orange County has long boasted one of the largest Republican Party organizations in the state, the Republican voter registration outnumbers the Democratic 3-2, Five of the County's six U.S. Representatives, four of its five State Senators, and seven of its nine State Assembly members are Republicans, as are four of the five members of the County Board of Supervisors.

The county features prominently in the book Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right by Lisa McGirr. She argues that the County's rightward orientation in the 20th century owed much to its settlement by Midwestern transplants, who reacted strongly to communist sympathies and the turmoil of the 1960s in nearby Los Angeles—across the "Orange Curtain."

Is this what awaits America at the hands of the GOP?

I think it's time for Kossacks to start making some noise! NOT IN OUR COUNTRY! Contact members of the California state and federal government and let them know that the torture stops NOW!

Email Senator John Campbell: campbell@sen.ca.gov
Senator Joseph Dunn
Assemblyman Tom Harmon
Assemblyman Rudy Bermudez
Sen. Dick Ackerman: Senator.Ackerman@sen.ca.gov
Sen. Alan Lowenthal: senator.lowenthal@sen.ca.gov
Assemblywoman Lynn Daucher
Assemblyman Bob Huff
Assemblyman Todd Spitzer
And while you're at it, give Arny a call: Phone: 916-445-2841 or email: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
And don't forget the State Attorney Generals Office