Rikers Officers Who Beat Inmate in 2012 Are Fired

[inanna]

Source: New York Times

JAN. 21, 2015

The New York City correction commissioner, Joseph Ponte, announced on Wednesday that he was firing a captain and five Rikers Island guards who hogtied an inmate and then, while his hands were still cuffed behind him and his ankles shackled, savagely beat him in April 2012.

The inmate, Robert Hinton, who was being housed on a cellblock for men with mental illnesses, emerged from the beating in a solitary confinement cell with a broken nose and a fractured vertebra; his eyes were swollen shut; he was bleeding from the mouth.

<snip>

A representative of the Bronx district attorney said the case was currently under investigation for possible criminal prosecution.

In a statement, Mr. Ponte said: “My decision makes clear that there is no room for this type of behavior on Rikers. We must have a higher expectation of performance in situations like this, and while acknowledging how difficult the officers’ job is, we must also accept the need to earn back the faith and trust of the community we serve.”


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/22/nyregion/rikers-officers-who-beat-an-inmate-in-2012-are-fired.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[SummerSnow]

1. Good

[marble falls]

2. I hope some prison term looms largely in front of each them.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Hoping they'll do the right thing, and not collapse under pressure to spare the cops on this one.

Two more vicious, inhuman episodes were mentioned in this article:

Eight months after the episode, the captain who oversaw the beating and was fired, Budnarine Behari, was involved in another vicious encounter that was highlighted in reports by The Times and by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. In that episode, witnesses said, Captain Behari and several other officers handcuffed two inmates to a gurney, wheeled them into a room without security cameras and beat them until blood spattered the walls.

This is the first time since becoming commissioner that Mr. Ponte has received a judge’s recommendation to dismiss an officer in a brutality case, correction officials said. The last guard to be dismissed for using excessive force was Kadar Stapleton in January 2014, by Dora B. Schriro, the previous commissioner. In that case, the judge wrote that the guard had repeatedly punched and kicked an inmate with mental illness while he was lying on the ground primarily because the man was making “loud and disruptive remarks.”

[sibelian]

6. God's breath.

Is there nothing in the hearts of these men but cruelty?

[brooklynite]

10. THey're not cops...

Department of Corrections is completely separate.

[Chakab]

4. For perspective, this is what these animals were fired for:

[inanna]

11. Yes. And he was mentally ill

according to the article.

I've been following the Rikers reports quite a bit lately. Still this came as a bit of a shock. That image really tells the story, doesn't it? This is the first time I've seen it.

[Mnemosyne]

5. No comments possible. nt

[mpcamb]

7. Somehow it took over 2 1/2 years to conclude this was wrong

and punishment needed to be meted out.

Can somebody help me with this?

[7962]

8. Good enough for firing, good enough to charge them. nt

[George II]

9. One has to wonder why it took 3 years to fire them.