Motley News

A picture does say a thousand words.  This photo from the Lee Country Jail clearly shows an Ohio man restrained, mouth bound (to prevent spitting), and body covered with pepper spray.

Nick Christie, 62, was arrested near Tampa for public intoxication about two and a half years ago.  Concerned about Christie’s recent erratic behavior, his wife had asked police to take her drunk husband to the hospital — where he could take his medication — rather than haul him off to jail. But Lee County Sheriff’s Office police had another idea: They took Christie down to the station where they stripped him naked, covered his face with a spit mask, and paper sprayed him, until he died.

Tampa Bay FOX13 reports:

The District 21 Medical Examiner ruled his death was a homicide because he had been restrained and sprayed with pepper sprayed by law enforcement officers. But to this day, nobody has ever been charged with a crime, and the Lee County State Attorney cleared the sheriff’s office of any wrong doing.

It’s been more than two and a half years and his wife still can’t accept what happened.

“I was shocked. This was something out of a horror movie,” says Joyce Christie. She said her husband was depressed and was showing signs of erratic behavior a few days before leaving for Florida.

She called authorities and pleaded with them to take her husband to a hospital and be given his medications. Instead, he was taken to jail for disorderly intoxication.

Her lawsuit alleges he was pepper sprayed 10 times over a 48-hour period, at times while in a restraint chair.

This is completely inexcusable.  And for no officer to even be reprimanded is a horror we are now seeing time and time again within our law enforcement system.  This abuse due to the power of wearing a badge needs to stop.  Yes, there are many legitmate and caring officers in this world, but that does NOT excuse those who abuse their power of the law, especially with impunity to grotesque behavior such as this.

Our rights as citizens in this country are beginning to disappear at a near exponential rate.

Here is a YouTube upload of the FOX13 news coverage.

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Sources:  My FOX Tampa Bay and AlterNet