Boot camp beating

[Dr. Jack]

Boot camp beating

Have you seen this story? Have you seen the video? They have said this kid died from Natural causes (sickle cell) but everything I heard says this is absurd.

If you have seen this story what are your thoughts?

Fla. Officials Release Boot Camp Tape

By MELISSA NELSON, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

Guards at a juvenile detention boot camp struck and restrained a teenager for a half-hour on the day before he died, a videotape released Friday shows.

The boy's parents said the security tape raises questions about an autopsy that found that 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson died from internal bleeding caused by a genetic blood disorder, and not from any injuries suffered in the Jan. 5 altercation.

"Martin didn't deserve this right here — at all," the boy's mother, Gina Jones, said after viewing the tape Friday at her lawyer's office in Tallahassee. "I couldn't even watch the whole tape. Me as a mom, I knew my baby was in pain and I am in pain just watching his pain."

Anderson, who entered the camp because of a probation violation, complained of breathing difficulties and collapsed while doing push-ups, sit-ups and other exercises. He died the next day at a Pensacola hospital.

Officials for the county Sheriff's Office, which runs the camp, said guards restrained Anderson after he became uncooperative during the exercises.

On the 80-minute tape, which has no sound, as many as nine guards can be seen wrestling Anderson to the ground and restraining him. The boy appeared limp for most of the ordeal and never appeared to offer significant resistance. While he lay motionless on the ground, a guard struck him several times, either on his arm or torso.

At one point, a guard struck him from behind, lifting his feet off the ground. At the beginning, as the guards are pinning him against a pole, they struck him three times with their knees.

It's not clear from the tape how hard the blows were or where they landed. The physical confrontation lasted about 30 minutes.

A woman in a white coat was present while Anderson was restrained and at one point used a stethoscope to check him. Near the end of the confrontation, guards appear to become more concerned, and several run in and out of the scene. A few minutes later, emergency medical personnel take him away on a gurney.

The autopsy by county Medical Examiner Charles Siebert found bruises and scrapes on the boy's body but said they were linked to attempts to resuscitate him. It blamed his internal bleeding on sickle cell disorder, which is present in one in 12 African-Americans but doesn't show up in routine blood work.

State police investigating the case released the 80-minute tape after a lawsuit by news organizations.

"The viewing of this will result in many questions, concerns and accusations," County Sheriff Frank McKeithen said.

The Justice Department is also investigating possible civil rights violations in the case. Lawmakers and family lawyers on Friday called for the arrest of the guards who were seen on the videotape confronting Anderson and blasted the autopsy findings.

"It doesn't make sense and goes against all the logic of watching what happened to this young man," Republican state Rep. Gus Barreiro said.

Democratic Sen. Gary Siplin said any guard who touched Anderson should be immediately arrested.

"At the very least it's aggravated battery, at the top of the ladder it's murder," Siplin said.

Anderson was arrested in June for stealing his grandmother's Jeep Cherokee and sent to the boot camp for violating his probation by trespassing at a school.

The boot-camp concept for juveniles began in Florida in 1993, and five camps now house about 600 boys ages 14 to 18.

[skippy]

WOW.....brave security guards aren't they???
Risking their lives to secure the detention center.

Its take 9 of them to subdue a 14 yr old???
Subdue is even the right term here because they beat the life out of this kid.
They should reverse the tables here and let the "inmates" have their turn with these guards.....one guard at a time.

[Will]

these guards are phukin assholes

[skippy]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jack

Boot camp beating

.....A woman in a white coat was present while Anderson was restrained and at one point used a stethoscope to check him.....

I guess she was checking on the victim periodically, to ensure that he is still alive so that the guards can continue to beat him.

As they say.....No use flogging a dead horse.
In this case.....No use flogging a dead inmate.