Suit: Paralyzed Man Dragged From Car and Beaten by Chicago Cops

Posted by Joshua Holland, AlterNet at 7:31 AM on July 25, 2008.

A series of anecdotes aren't data, but these kinds of stories have been popping up every day for years ...

Chicago Sun-Times:

A quadriplegic man sued the Chicago Police Department in federal court Thursday, claiming officers yanked him out of the passenger seat of a car in 2006, dragged him to the ground and beat him up even though he kept yelling "I'm paralyzed."

"They were kicking me and punching me," Daniel Casares said. "I was scared for my life."

Casares, 28, can't use his legs and his right hand -- and his left arm and hand are "significantly paralyzed," said his attorney, Blake Horwitz.

On Oct. 9, 2006, Casares was a passenger in a car driven by his brother. They were parked in an alley in the 10300 block of Avenue M in the East Side neighborhood.

Casares said he was waiting for a man to bring him money for a car deal when officers approached. The cops suspected the men were smoking marijuana and told them to get out of the car, Horwitz said.

The cops were members of Chicago's Targeted Response Unit, "deployed across the city to fight crime in 'hot spots'," meaning poor, mostly minority neighborhoods, which is one reason why, in the country that locks up more of its citizens than any other on earth, criminal justice issues are often ignored by the majority.

Unfortunately, there's a lot we don't know from reading this article. Why did the cops suspect that these two brothers were smoking pot? Were clouds of smoke issuing forth from the car's windows a la Cheech and Chong flicks, or was it that they were a couple of Latinos sitting in a parked car? According to the Sun-Times, drug charges against the brother were later dropped, but that doesn't shed much light on the situation either way.

Casares told the officers at least four times that he was paralyzed, but they pulled him from the car and beat him anyway, Horwitz said.

Judge James Brown convicted Casares of resisting arrest, and he got a year of court supervision.

Officer Belinda Bernal, one of the seven officers Cesares is suing, said in an arrest report that Casares punched her in the left eye "causing redness and bruising." She changed her story at a bench trial, saying she was punched in the right side of the face, according to Horwitz.

The arrest report said the officers "used force reasonable to effect the arrest" of Casares and that he suffered "minor cuts to the head." Horwitz said his client suffered "12 to 15 cuts" on his face.

Before he was paralyzed, Casares was arrested at least six times but not convicted, records show.

Bernal isn't facing any other lawsuits, but three of her co-defendants have been sued in federal court for alleged police brutality, and the city has paid out settlements in some cases.

Another officer, William Cozzi, was recently charged with violating the civil rights of a man in a wheelchair. Cozzi was caught on a hospital security camera beating the drunk, unruly man.

Personally, I feel like a frog in a pot and it's getting warm in here.

Some of the comments over at the Sun-Times are telling:

"Stop rewarding people millions of dollars for putting themselves into bad situations..."

Parked in a car, paralyzed. He did ask for it.

"Here's a message to the police: Please stop making millionaires out of people at our expense. You cops might as well have a lottery machine set to 'win only mode' plugged into your squad cars. Quit lying about the facts and circumstances because all these people do is go out and buy a house in the suburbs, a fur coat, and a new caddilac."

Ah, there's the real problem: "these people" moving to the suburbs and buying fur coats and "caddilac." And, yes, I'll concede that getting beaten up by cops is much like winning the lottery.

"Looking at the accompanying photo, he has 'attitude' and before he was paralyzed, Casares was arrested at least six times but not convicted, records show. He has a track record, maybe a sleezy lawyer who wiggles him out of his jams and obviously the police knew this. He's a punk."

Obviously, the police used their super-duper-powers to determine that Casares had been arrested and then got off six times before they approached the car. And we all know that past arrests -- without convictions -- are exactly the same as probable cause. Being a "punk" with "attitude" is enough to justify police violence, never mind if the punk is paralyzed.

"Looking at the accompanying photo" pretty much tells you everything you need to know about where we are when it comes to race -- and class -- in America.

Tagged as: police brutality

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.