Despite constitutional guarantees, Americans’ civil rights and liberties are constantly in danger of violation, whether by individuals, corporations or government institutions.
Regardless of whether personal prejudices or national security concerns lie at the root of these violations. Challenging them – and holding wrongdoers accountable – is imperative for the sake of constitutional integrity and the preservation of The American Way.
Trial Lawyers advocate for awareness, the truth, and a person’s right to know.
They believe that in the absence of the truth, all of us stand helpless to defend ourselves, our families, our health, and our way of life.
Often times we don’t think about or worry about or understand what is happening to another…. until it happens to us. Deceits have no boundaries.
Disease doesn’t recognize the color of our skin or our political party’s affiliation.
When it comes to cover-ups and false allegations by Agencies of the State and the Federal Government, there is not a soul amongst us who does not have a cringing fear of their Overwhelming Awesome power .
It is at these times that we need experienced and dedicated Trial Lawyers….the Warriors in the Courtroom … who are willing to battle for us “tooth and nail” in the Halls of Justice…. To protect our cherished way of life”
When a person with disabilities, or anyone else for that matter, calls the police seeking assistance they expect to receive help. Sadly, people with disabilities and their family members or friends do not always receive the help they expect. In fact, they may receive something that is quite the opposite.
People who experience forms of developmental or mental disabilities are often times doubly targeted by police violence due to high rates of poverty and homelessness.
The brutal murder of a homeless man with schizophrenia in Fullerton, California presents what happens…. when homelessness, mental illness, and police brutality meet. Kelly Thomas was sleeping on the streets when he was murdered; he was approached by six police officers in July of 2011.
When Kelly allegedly refused to comply with his arrest two police officers held him down… while four more police officers took turns beating him with their batons and stunning him with Tasers for eight minutes. The beating left Kelly comatose and disfigured – he died less than a week afterward.
To be plain, very little information is collected on a national level concerning police injuring and killing of people with disabilities. The problem comes from a larger failure to gather information on a national basis about police injuring and killing civilians as a whole.
Police departments either do not collect, or are reluctant to collect, this kind of information. Reports of police injuring and killing civilians are scattered and imprecise. All across this great nation of ours, we see horrific examples of some cops beating and mistreating persons with developmental or mental disabilities because the cops are not properly trained.
More training and better awareness of the complexities of interacting with people with disabilities will help decrease and maybe eliminate these unspeakable crimes against society’s less fortunate.
In Maryland, Ethan Saylor died because police responded with rapid and unnecessary force to his disability. In San Diego, 21-year-old Antonio Martinez, who has downs syndrome, was walking to his parents’ bakery around 8 p.m. when he was stopped, pepper-sprayed and beaten by a San Diego sheriff’s deputy.
In Los Angeles, a LA County sheriff’s deputy was caught on a cell phone camera throwing a punch in a girl’s face. What makes it more outrageous is that it is obvious he hit a person with special needs that was struggling to break loose from the grip of the cop and a female deputy as they were trying to make her get off the bus. In Dayton Ohio a mentally disabled teen was harassed and abused by police officer.
In Washington D.C. Police Assaulted a Homeless Man in a Wheelchair. In Idaho Police Arrested and Handcuffed an 8-year-old Autistic Girl. In Hillsborough County, Florida, police were caught, by their own surveillance cameras, dumping a quadriplegic man from his wheelchair onto the ground. Apparently, they were trying to determine whether or not he actually needed the chair.
These are just a few of the hundreds of daily examples improperly trained police officers perpetrate on those less fortunate than us.
Americans want to feel safe. Should we continue to accept the argument that cops only occasionally overstep their boundaries… And only when handling guilty criminals and never with us?
Can we really expect them to investigate and prosecute themselves when faced with allegations of misconduct? Can we believe that they are acting for our own good?
Too many innocent people are convicted…too many are wrongly executed. The cost has become too high for free people to bear. The Department of Justice has reported how deeply embedded police brutality is, and why recent political rhetoric promising solutions barely scratches the surface.
In this Insider Exclusive “Justice in America” Network TV Special, our news team visits with Brian Dunn, Managing Partner, and Megan Gyongyos, Senior Trial Attorney, at the Cochran Firm in Los Angeles, Calif, to examine how Brian & Megan successfully represented the family of Nicholas Robertson to get justice.
At approximately 11:00 a.m. on December 12, 2015, 27-year-old Nicholas Robertson was shot and killed by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Deputies Richard Ochoa-Garcia and Jasen Tapia at an Arco gas station in Lynwood, CA.
Over his 23-year career, Brian has resolved over 200 cases in state and federal court, and the majority of these cases involved police shootings that all too often lead to the death of the victim.
No other attorney has better expertise in handling matters of police shootings, and no other attorney is better equipped to help a jury understand the responsibilities of police officers, departments, and the law, as it relates to a police officer’s use of deadly force.
Having spent his entire career with The Cochran Firm, he has handled many of the Firm’s highest profile police misconduct cases, including those involving Geronimo Pratt, Reginald Denny, Devin Brown, Tyisha Miller. Brian is driven to fight for people who had been harmed by the willful or negligent actions of others.
Brian Dunn and Megan Gyongyos, can be reached at the Cochran Law Firm, http://cochranfirmlaw.com/ or 323-435-8205.