They got video this time

[Kathy]

A 14-year-old boy was ''brutally'' beaten by guards and ''flung around like a rag doll'' at a boot camp for juvenile delinquents in Panama City hours before he died at a Panhandle hospital, according to two lawmakers who on Wednesday saw a videotape of the incident.

read the rest at http://www.kathymoya.com/FICA/index.html

[Anonymous]

Previous articles related to this killing:
http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... forum=51&8

[Anonymous]

This happens everyday, at any of the thousands of boot-camp, tough-love and other bullshit facilities -- and now that they have a video, they are outraged?! What about all the kids who were saying this all along? Oh yeah... they are troubled teens, you can't go believing them now, can ya!  :roll:

[cherish wisdom]

A picture is worth a thousand words.

They used to burn witches. Today we laugh at them. Today we jail people for marijuana. Tomorrow they'll laugh at us.

--Robert "Rosie" Rowbotham

[cherish wisdom]

It seems that this video should be public record. It really needs to be televised so that the public is aware of what really goes on. Hopefully the press is trying to get this under the public right to know act. They should be able to since the facilty is public - and since the tape has been shown to elected officials.

Men had better be without education than be educated by their rulers.
--Thomas Hodgskin, 1823

[Nihilanthic]

Martin was arrested after he and four cousins took their grandmother's car from a church parking lot during Sunday services, and then crashed it. Though the grandmother did not wish to press charges, the youths all were arrested on grand-theft charges, Crump said.

The teen was in the admissions area of the boot camp Jan. 5 when he was ordered by drill instructors, along with several other youths, to perform exercises. While the youths were being initiated into the program, an officer held a video camera and zoomed in to film moments when youths were being restrained, Barreiro said he was told.

As the video begins, several other youths are seen being held up against a wooden fence as drill instructors yell at them. Martin, in what has been described by juvenile justice officials as a ''restraint,'' is first seen being held down on the ground by two officers, with his arms spread out, Barreiro said.

One officer is seen with his knee pushing into his back. Though the tape contains no sound, the officers appear to be yelling at the teen, Barreiro said.

After a minute or two, Martin stands up and attempts to run around the camp's track, Barreiro said. Officers ''rush'' to hold him up against the wooden fence, ''with his arms spread out like a crucifix,'' Barreiro said. Then four guards are seen holding Martin to the ground, with one officer pushing his knee into the youth's back.

As Martin gets up to run again, he is clearly ''stumbling,'' unable to run or walk, Barreiro said.

REWIND REQUEST

What happened next, Barreiro said, was so disturbing he asked the FDLE agent showing the tape to rewind several times. On screen, a guard is seen apparently choking Martin by pushing his forearm against his throat, Barreiro and Gelber said.

The youth is once again encouraged to begin running, but again he stumbles and falls down, Barreiro said: ``He is like a rag doll . . . They are holding him up.''

Said Gelber: ``They are moving his body around like a sack of potatoes.''

Then, both lawmakers said, an officer either kicks or knees Martin in the back of his knees so that he falls down. ''When he's on the ground,'' Barreiro said, ``they start punching him in the arms. He's like comatose, and they are punching and punching.''

Moments later, the lawmakers say, officers yank Martin by the head and jerk it back. Once again, Barreiro said, they place Martin in what appears to be a type of choke hold.

''That was pretty violent,'' Gelber said of what he called the ''jolting'' of the teen's head. ``You could see from the very beginning [Martin] had a problem. His legs were rubbery. The kid was fainting and losing consciousness repeatedly.''

At some point, officers appeared to be pushing an object -- the lawmakers said they were told it was ammonia to help Martin regain consciousness -- forcefully into his nose. Juvenile justice officials have previously said Martin bled profusely from some injury to his nose.

Gelber said he was particularly struck by the apparent lack of any urgency or concern on the part of the boot-camp officers -- and a nurse who appeared to stand by doing little -- while Martin was clearly in grave distress for about 20 minutes.

''This was too long a period of time to not have sought medical attention,'' Gelber said. ``Giving the officers the benefit of all doubt, it's hard to divine what the possible justification was for their treatment of the juvenile.''

Crump, the family's attorney, described Martin on Wednesday as ''a good kid'' who made honor roll on his last report card, and played basketball for his school team.

''It is not the policy of our country to kill a kid for going joyriding in his grandmother's car,'' Crump said.

Miami Herald staff writers Marc Caputo and Mary Ellen Klas contributed to this report.

  :flame:  :flame:  :flame:

THIS IS FUCKING BULL SHIT. ITS BLATANTLY OBVIOUS THE ONLY POINT OF A BOOTCAMP IS TO HUMILIATE AND DESTROY PEOPLE ON THE INSIDE BY BEATING THEM UP AND BREAKING THEM DOWN TO FILL THEIR HEAD FULL OF BULLSHIT AND TRAIN OBEDIENCE.

BUT OH NO, THATS NOT ENOUGH, WE GOT TO BEAT THEM TO A PULP!

THIS IS NOT JUSTIFIED PUNISHMENT FOR FUCKING MURDERERS BUT IF A KID STEALS A CAR ITS TIME TO BEAT HIM UP AND BREAK HIS WILL...  :roll:

GOD IM ANGRY. UGH.

Someone has to get this video. I know media connections, but then again Im sure there are plenty of people here who have them to.

Looks like we better get to work to hold these assholes responsible isntead of a slap on the wrist so they can go beat up kids in another state  :roll:

There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy.
--George Washington

[Anonymous]

I felt a range of emotions while reading this article - feelings of anger, disgust, resentment, bitterness, repulsion - what makes me the most angry about this whole thing is that after experiencing all of those feelings, and more, there is a feeling of hopelessness and helplessness, fearing that somehow this murderer will get away with less than life in prison.

I have about had it with society and how they support the incarceration of teens. They have fallen hook, line, and sinker for the belief that punk teenagers need to be off the streets and locked up.

What so many people fail to see is that many of the teens who are incarcerated and who lose their basic human rights are not punks, are not violent, are not killers, are not the horrible people they are portrayed to be. (Yes, some teens kill their parents, some teens kill strangers, but they are small in numbers. Adults, they are the murderers in our society. They do not get locked up without a fair trial.)

In fact, most of the kids who are locked up in these hell-holes suffer from ADHD, oppositional defiance, gay issues, depression, bulimia, and more. Some have been abused by the parents who pay $40-100,000 per year to send them away.

Some, like this child, did something so many of us did as teens, he took his grandma?s car out for a ride.

I recall an incident when my friend?s teenage son took her car in the middle of the night and was caught by the police, he was taken to juvenile hall, spent a few hours there, and was picked up by his mom (and me.) He was scared after spending a few hours there. His mom punished him by taking away privileges for a month, and he never did it again.

Kids, teens do things, they explore, they misbehave ? we were all teens once and we did the very same thing. Now, many adults today panic when their child does something that they felt was acceptable when they were teens.

And many are hiring teen escort services, some that are not even licensed and regulated, to abduct their children in the middle of the night, against their will, and taken to remote facilities hundreds and thousands of miles from home. They lose contact with the outside world and lose all their rights. How can anyone think this is right? It is not. It is wrong, plain and simple. WRONG!

Something needs to be done. How many more kids are going to have to die in these places before someone takes notice?

[Anonymous]

http://www.kathymoya.com/FICA/index.html




http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/10/State ... show.shtml

Lawmakers: Video shows beating
They say the actions of the boot camp's guards were brutal. Now, the dead youth's family may sue.
By Associated Press
Published February 10, 2006

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


TALLAHASSEE - A videotape shows guards brutally beating a 14-year-old boy at a military-style boot camp for juvenile offenders not long before he died, two lawmakers said Thursday.

The state is refusing to make the tape public.

Martin Lee Anderson of Panama City died Jan. 6 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. He collapsed after complaining of breathing problems while doing exercises that were part of intake procedures at the camp. The Bay County Sheriff's Office has said officers restrained him after he became uncooperative.

State Rep. Gus Barreiro called the videotape horrific, saying he had "never seen any kid being brutalized . . . the way I saw this young man being brutalized."

"Even towards the end of the videotape, where you could just see there was pretty much nothing left of Martin, they came out with a couple cups of water and splashed him in the face," Barreiro, a Miami Beach Republican, said. "When you see stuff like that, you want to go through the TV and say, "Enough is enough. Please stop hitting this kid.' "

An attorney for the family, Ben Crump, said the guards forced ammonia tablets up Anderson's nose, trying to keep the youth conscious.

"We can never ever let anything like this happen again and if we don't get this videotape out, people will never know the truth," said Crump, who demanded the tape's release on behalf of the family at a Panama City news conference Thursday. "I don't think there's any question there was excessive force," said Rep. Dan Gelber, a Democrat from Miami Beach and former federal prosecutor familiar with custody cases, who also saw the videotape.

"I think (the public is) going to be shocked at the treatment of this kid and the lack of attention that was paid to his core health needs," Gelber said. "This is a relatively small kid with a half a dozen of pretty strong men and he seemed to be phasing in and out of consciousness."

Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen issued a prepared statement accusing Barreiro and Gelber of overreacting with "irresponsible, premature and incorrect statements" that "add fuel to an already volatile situation."

Bay County authorities and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have refused to make the tape of the incident public, but Barreiro and Gelber said it would be released soon. FDLE spokeswoman Karen Mason said the tape remains a part of the investigation and doesn't fall under the state's open records requirements. "It's absurd," said Barbara Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation. "Technically they may be able to claim the exemption ... (but) this is an issue of critical public concern.."

Gov. Jeb Bush said he had not seen the tape but was aware of the contents. Several of his aides had seen it.

"When you have someone in the custody of the state, irrespective (of) their reasons of being there, who dies, it's a concern," Bush said. "Absolutely we're concerned."

Anderson's family said they plan to sue Bay County and the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which oversees boot camp programs

[Anonymous]

If these Reps are as upset as they say they are in the press it might be worth it to drop them an email explaining that this kind of shit goes on every day in these places. Maybe give them a little history lesson on exactly what kind of a culture they're dealing with, how far back it goes and the political ties. It may not help, but it couldn't hurt either.

Dan Gelber http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/ ... ssionId=41

Gus Barreiro [email protected]

[nite owl]

I'd like to suggest that people outraged by this write letters to the local papers and authorities in Florida to demand the public release of the video detailing the beating of the boy who died after being admitted to a Florida Boot Camp. If this place is paid for by the taxpayers then we have a right to know what our money is being used for.

Here is some information about the public right to know act in Florida:
http://freeforallcandidates.com/RTKsunshine.htm

Following is the email for letters to the editor of the Miami Hearald:
[email protected]

Fax: 305-376-8950

Slow Mail

The Readers Forum
The Miami Herald
One Herald Plaza
Miami, Florida 33132-1693

If a flood of letters comes in more will be done.
Be sure to include your name, address, phone number and limit letters to about 200 words.

If there's a worse idea going than locking people up for drug use, it's probably locking them up in close proximity to some tyranical altruist who wants to 'help' them with a problem that probably doesn't exist
-- Ginger Warbis
having had about all the help I can stand!

[Anonymous]

and the reps offices  

Dan Gelber http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/ ... ssionId=41

Gus Barreiro [email protected]

FDLE
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/contacts/

Bay county SO
http://www.bayso.org/bootcamp.htm
[email protected]

[Anonymous]

http://www.kathymoya.com/FICA/2006%20Fe ... 0abuse.htm

Two Others Complained of Being Choked at Camp Where Boy Collapsed

PANAMA CITY, Fla. Two boys previously complained of being choked by guards at the Panama City boot camp where 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson died after collapsing with breathing problems last month, records show.

The complaints, from October 2004 and February 2005, detail incidents in which guards applied to pressure to juveniles' necks to force them into compliance. In both cases, investigators with the Bay County Sheriff's Office, which operates the boot camp, found excessive force was not used.

The complaints were never investigated by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice because state regulations allow the sheriff's office to rule on abuse allegations at its own camp.

The records, obtained by The Miami Herald on Monday, have renewed calls among some legislators for changes in the state's juvenile justice system.

The Bay County boot camp's problems "go to the heart of what I believe is wrong with our juvenile justice system ... We want the punitive aspects of the adult corrections system, but we want to be able to do things to kids that we would never do to adults," said Rep. J.C. Planas, R-Miami and a former juvenile prosecutor.

The records also show that since 2003, the sheriff's office verified complaints that an officer forced several juveniles to strip and perform exercises at night and a complaint that a boy's face was smashed into the floor while he was doing push-ups.

Anderson, 14, of Panama City, died Jan. 6 at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. He collapsed after he complained of breathing problems while doing exercises that were part of intake procedures at the camp. The sheriff's office has said officers restrained Anderson after he became uncooperative.

A final autopsy report has not been released, but a preliminary report has ruled out trauma or injury as the cause of death. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is leading an investigation of Anderson's death.

Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen released a statement Jan. 17 that said a videotape of Martin's intake to the camp would raise "many questions, concerns and accusations."

"We must not leave you with the impression that this is going to have a good ending," the statement said. The tape has not been released because the investigation is ongoing.

Cynthia Lorenzo, a spokeswoman for DJJ, said juveniles in the agency's camps are allowed to call a hot line to report abuse and that posters with the hot line number are placed prominently at each of the state's boot camps.

The release of the new abuse allegations involving the camps prompted Rep. Gus Barreiro, R-Miami Beach and chairman of the House juvenile justice oversight committee, to renew his call for the DJJ to close down the camps.

"First and foremost, we have to ensure that the safety standards the department feels it must put in place apply to every kid in every program," Barreiro said.

House Speaker Allan Bense, R-Panama City, said Tuesday he was closely following the investigation.

"I want them to be deliberate and accurate. We have asked the Criminal Justice Appropriation's Committee to look into it," he said.

Bense said he was concerned that recidivism rates among juveniles sent to the camps were too high.



Information from: The Miami Herald,

[Deborah]

***Cynthia Lorenzo, a spokeswoman for DJJ, said juveniles in the agency's camps are allowed to call a hot line to report abuse and that posters with the hot line number are placed prominently at each of the state's boot camps.

And the 'consequence' for attempting to make that call? I wonder how many calls are actually made.

[Anonymous]

The article also states that the sherrifs are given the opportunity to conduct their own biased investigation when reports of abuse surface. That video really needs to be released.

[Anonymous]

http://fornits.com/wwf/viewtopic.php?to ... =10#172472
Looks like the pressure is working. The tape is likely to be released soon...
In a statement on Friday, Tunnell said he is considering releasing the video with the images of other juveniles digitally obscured because of comments made by the legislators who viewed it. "The premature disclosure as reported in the press has skewed this normal process," he said. "We now fear that public perception will be based on hearsay rather than reality." He called the legislators' comments "premature at best" and "irresponsible at worst."

http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/ ... 849637.htm