BarcelonaThe images are brutal and have become a real scandal. The New York attorney general’s office has released a video showing several prison officials beating a handcuffed inmate to death. The events happened last December 9 in the infirmary of the Marcy prison, in upstate New York, and the victim is a 43-year-old African-American man incarcerated in the penitentiary named Robert Brooks . He was pronounced dead at a hospital the next day. The video was recorded by the officers’ body cameras and the state attorney general who released it is investigating the case.
The video does not include audio, because the body cameras had not been activated by the officers wearing them. The recording shows officers grabbing the inmate by the neck, punching him in the face and shaking him like a rag doll. One of the officials is also seen repeatedly stomping on his genitals with a foot, while another punches his chest and a third holds him in an attempt to keep him from moving as he lies on a stretcher. At the start of the video, Brooks appears dressed in what appears to be a prison uniform with blood on his face. But in the end he’s just wearing his underpants. While all this is happening, some officials watch the scene without doing anything. All the officials involved were white.
The video of the assault on Robert Brooks
New York Attorney General Letitia James described the images as “shocking and disturbing” and justified their release to ensure Brooks’ family, his loved ones and all New Yorkers “transparency and that be held accountable” for what has happened.
Brooks was pronounced dead in the early hours of December 10 at a hospital. The final results of the autopsy have not yet been released, but preliminary results indicate that the inmate died of “asphyxiation due to compression of the neck.”
Thirteen prison officials and a nurse are involved in the assault and will be fired, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she was “outraged and horrified” by the videos of a “senseless death.” The case, however, goes much further. Three of those allegedly involved are accused of participating in similar attacks in other penitentiary centers in the state, as reported this Saturday The New York Times.
“These videos are chilling and disturbing, and I advise everyone to be careful before watching them,” said the attorney general, who is investigating the case, but has not yet specified whether any of the officials will be accused of having committed a crime
“The public can see for themselves the horrific and extreme nature of the deadly attack against Robert Brooks,” said the lawyer for the inmate’s family, Elizabeth Mazur. “As you can see, Mr. Brooks was fatally and violently beaten by a group of officers whose job it was to keep him out of harm’s way,” he added. “He deserved to live, and everyone at the center Marcy penitentiary deserve to know that they do not have to live in fear of violence at the hands of prison staff.”
“It’s incomprehensible”
The New York State Prison Officers Union, which saw the footage of the assault before it was made public, also commented on the case: “What we have witnessed is, to say the least, incomprehensible , and of course it doesn’t reflect the great work that the vast majority of our members do every day.”
Marcy Prison is located about 323 kilometers northwest of New York City. The New York Correctional Association, a prison watchdog group, has said it has documented reports of widespread brutality and racism inside the prison that were picked up during an oversight visit it made there two years ago . Likewise, Tina Luongo, chief attorney for the Legal Aid Society of New York, has called for “full transparency” about the use of force by state prison staff and a “full explanation of this tragedy.”
Brooks was serving a 12-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2017 to first-degree assault for stabbing an ex-girlfriend.
Source: www.ara.cat
