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Starting off this bright foggy day in Key West is cheer from Friday’s edition of online Key West the Newspaper (thebluepaper.com).
Controversial Tasing of Elderly Man on 18-Mile Stretch
by Naja and Arnaud Girard
6 Responses to “Controversial Tasing of Elderly Man on 18-Mile Stretch”
More sensationalism from the Blue Paper. Let’s get everyone stirred up with some provoking video about which we know nothing. What was the back-story here? What had happened up to this point? No idea, because it was not provided…just the sensational video of the old man getting tased JUST as he decided to stop resisting arrest and start complying. It was a close call and the tie goes to the runner, but even that is a moot point if we don’t have any context.
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I learned of this incident a few days ago, when someone sent me the You Tube of it on Facebook. I didn’t like what I saw in the video, it’s hard to wrap my mind around two burly cops tasering this elderly man. Even so, I wondered what had happened before, and now I’m curious about why the fellow was Baker Act’d. Maybe there was a good reason, that needs to be investigated, if it can be investigated.
As I recall, Just Jim, you are a police officer, or a retired police officer. If so, you should disclose that in comments like this one you made, so other readers will know where you are coming from. As I recall, you were not particularly happy with blue paper articles in the past about alleged police brutality, particularly tasering, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything from you under blue paper articles.
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That video clearly shows police brutality and the old guy is a passenger. At least he did not crack his head form being tasered like Matthew Shaun Murphy or get killed like Charles Elmers. You would think the KW police would be more careful with the limelight on them from the above mentioned instances. They just keep reinforcing my belief that they are as arrogant and corrupt as ever. The KW police department is a mess and should be disbanded. You will never catch me spending a dollar in Key West again.
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The officers are Florida Highway Patrol officers. Can’t blame KWPD for this one…
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This is getting out of hand and I would sue the police. It seems they want to try their new toys in real life – on a daily base.
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One person’s “sensationalism” is another’s exposure of human rights violations. It is distressing to me that many people refuse to believe what their eyes see.
We saw video of a man being smothered to death by the police on a beach in Key West and we saw video of the police that did the smothering lie about it on video, yet they were not punished. Same with the video of Eric Garner, no punishment. Remember Rodney King getting the snot beat out of him by the LA police? No punishment.
As satirist, Andy Borowitz pointed out in a piece he wrote, “On the heels of an initiative to provide police departments with body cameras, there is growing support for a plan to supply grand-jury members with eyes, advocates for the plan said on Wednesday.”
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Just my it don’t smell right radar acting up, Just Jim always taking cops side under blue paper articles kinda causes me to think he is a just shill, just a plant, and he represents the view that cops just can do anything they want to do, and if they just don’t do it legally, if they just hurt, or just kill someone, it’s just okay, or just excusable, because they just are cops, their jobs are just dangerous, and they just don’t operate under the same laws as everyone else in America.
I keep finding myself thinking lately that America’s foreign wars and the support the troops mentality, no matter what, has bled into much of domestic law enforcement.
Instead of just police officers, we now have paramilitary. Instead of just police officers who enforce the laws, keep the peace, know their beats and the citizens they protect and represent; instead of police officers, who also are ambassadors and social workers, we have a breed of cops who are thugs and behave like they are on steroids, speed, or something even more stimulating. And who think they are gods, making up rules of engagement and trying, convicting, sentencing and punishing on the spot, knowing their fellow cops, their police chief, the police benevolent union, and their elected city/county officials will back them all the way, as we see happen in Key West.
And, it seems most citizens are okay with that, judging by how few of them, one as far as I know in Key West, me, takes the elected city officials to task at city commission meetings, for their cops’ wrongdoing and for them, the city officials, doing nothing about it. Rare is it in America that local officials do not side with their cops.
Will putting body cameras on cops change anything in such a climate. I’m not holding my breath. I’m not holding my breath cops will turn on their body cameras, or won’t turn them off, when they do wrong. I’m not convinced police chiefs and sheriffs will not destroy what’s on videos, which they do not like.
I’m not convinced we have gotten close to the bottom of the bystanders’ video that prompted this article and this reader conversation.
If the Florida State Troopers head honcho actually gave a shyte about his constituents, as opposed to his troopers, we would already know what led up to that incident. It just don’t pass my smell test that this elderly man, a passenger, was taser’d, then Baker Act’d, and then a lid was put on the entire thing to protect whom? The elderly man? Or the two brutes in state trooper uniforms? And the Florida State Troopers? And the State of Florida?
Protect and Serve means protecting and serving the public, or that’s what it used to mean. Today, it just means protecting and serving cops.
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Perhaps slightly related, a vicious van dweller criminal amigo dropped this into my Facebook account last night:
LOOK: A NON-PUNISHMENT for Officer Peter Delio of Orlando Police Department. Also, looks like he’s a repeat offender…..READ.
QUOTE: “An Orlando police officer used excessive force when he kneed a handcuffed man so hard in the abdomen that the man’s spleen was ruptured during an arrest last year, an internal investigation found.
Officer Peter Delio was orally reprimanded and suspended for 40 hours without pay for his actions during the August 12 arrest. Robert Liese, the suspect who was injured, has filed a $75,000 federal lawsuit against Delio. His spleen had to be surgically removed.”http://www.orlandosentinel.com/…/os-peter-delio-opd-officer…
VIDEO: http://www.wftv.com/…/video-shows-opd-office-knee-ha…/nkHQ5/
BUT WAIT — looks like Officer Delio has been in trouble in the past. Last year, the City of Orlando paid a man $15,000 to settle a case he brought against the city and Officer Delio. Officer Delio arrested and confiscated the cellphone of the man; he was filming Delio while he arrested another person.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/…/os-orlando-pays-man-for-vi…
Email cheer today from me to State Attorney Catherine Vogel and two of her prosecutors:
Catherine Vogel
From: sloanbashinsky@outlook.com
To: cvogel@keyssao.org; cpoist@keyssao.org; mmadruga@keyssao.org
CC: editor@thebluepaper.com; editor@keysnews.com; editor@keysnet.com
Subject: State vs. Mario Salavar and another defendant, Tom Miller victim
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2015 08:02:14 -0500
Good morning, State Attorney Catherine Vogel and Assistant Prosecutors Christine Poist and Manny Madruga:
I spoke with Manny about this case around noon yesterday, when he was leaving the State Attorney’s Office (SAO). Then I spoke with Christine’s legal assistant, who provided the name on one defendant, Mario Salavar, I only knew his first name, and the name of the victim, Tom Miller, I only knew his first name. I do not know the name of the other defendant.
I first heard of this case three days ago, from Tom Miller at the soup kitchen, after he learned I publish a daily blog: goodmorningkeywest.com. He said he had a case he wanted the newspapers to run. I said I would run it, but I was leaving to do something else and we’d have to talk the next day.
The next day at the soup kitchen, Tom told me what had happened, from his perspective: he was jumped at Bernstein Park on Stock Island, in the nighttime, and was beaten badly and robbed.
He told me other stuff about himself, including his gun collection, which contains five Sharpe .50 caliber rifles, which can kill someone from over a mile away.
Tom told me a bit about his brother, a Marine in Vietnam, who got into very bad stuff in combat, had a big collection of dead enemy soldiers’ teeth with gold fillings pulled out of their mouths, and ran heroin when he was over there, and now is the national president of The Outlaws motorcycle club.
Tom said he is very upset that he cannot get his stolen money, credit cars, ID and wallet back, which he says were found on Salavar when he was arrested the next day at KOTS. I told Tom all of that is evidence and he probably will not get his belongings back before the trial and conviction, or the defendants plead guilty and are sentenced.
None of that is why I came to the SAO yesterday. I came, because Tom said he has friends in the south Florida prison where Salavar and the other defendant will go if they are convicted or plead guilty, and his friends will kill those two men. Manny told me that facility is a holding station where all convicted felons are sent and held for two months before being sent to wherever they are finally going.
At the soup kitchen the day before yesterday, I told Tom, based on what he’d told me about his case, I was with him all the way on the prosecution of the two men who had done it, but I could not be part of the two men being killed in prison. I told Tom he had put me in a terrible position by telling me that was what was going to happen, and I had to report it to the SAO, specifically to you, Catherine, since it’s your elected office.
Tom said for me to leave that part of it alone. I said I could not leave it alone, after what he’d told me, and, if those two men are killed in prison, he will be prosecuted for murder and put into prison. Tom again told me to leave that part of it alone alone. I said I could not leave it alone. He said they are going to die, he is going to get his justice. He was really worked up by then, in a rage, as he walked away from me.
Do I think Tom is serious? Yes. Do I think he can get those two men killed in prison? I can’t say, but I have heard of stuff like that happening in prisons.
I feel you, Catherine, need to share this email with whatever local judge has this case, so the judge can be apprised and take whatever action he/she feels is needed. I am willing to testify under oath before that judge as to what Tom Miller told me, with Miller present, if he wishes to be present.
Please copy me with the prompt forward of this email to that judge. Otherwise, I will go to the clerk’s office and find out which judge has the cases and I will deliver a copy of this email to the judge myself.
Again, based of what Miller told me happened, I have no problem with the prosecution of the two defendants. My only interest is in seeing to their safety, if they are convicted and put into a Florida prison.
Given the potential gravity of this matter, and given I am not impressed, so far, by your performance as our State Attorney, I am copying Key West the Newspaper (thebluepaper.com), the Key West Citizen (keysnews.com) and the Keynoter (keysnet.com) with this email.
Yes, I think there is a chance I might be put on someone’s hit list for reporting this to you and publicizing it.
Sincerely yours,
Sloan Bashinsky, J.D., L.L.M (Taxation), not currently practicing law, at least not to make money at it
Last today,
a stab at comic relief in the form of my email this morning to Jerry Weinstock, M.D., Psychiatry:
Morning, Jerry -
Check out this article in today’s Key West Citizen about former city commissioner Harry Bethel’s son. Maybe you should call Harry and offer to help his son with his mental health problems, including not speaking up for himself and not taking responsibility for his own actions. I, too, need your good services, helping me grok why come Bethel’s son, who was acting a hell of a lot more dangerous and crazy than Charles Eimers acted, was not beaten up and killed by the cops?
Sloan
the blue paper’s view of Charles Eimers last moments, and the cop’s view
My interjected cheer in bold italics added after I sent the Citizen article to Jerry Weinstock, who receives my daily ravings.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
FKAA employee jailed after near crash
BY GWEN FILOSA Citizen Staff
gfilosa@keysnews.com
A Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority employee was arrested Wednesday after police said he nearly crashed into a squad car while drunk behind the wheel.
Robert Bethel, 33, drove his sports utility vehicle through a red light at Kennedy Drive and Flagler Avenue at about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, while at the same time a Key West police officer was making a left-hand turn from Flagler.
“I swerved to the right as the vehicle ran the light and entered the intersection, almost crashing into me,” wrote Officer Kathyann Wanciak in her incident report.
Bethel is accused of drunken driving and resisting arrest by refusing to get out of his silver 2008 Honda SUV, police reported.
But police erred, Bethel’s father said Friday.
Speaking on behalf of his son, former city commissioner Harry Bethel said his son was having a diabetic episode and had just left a counseling session that left him in tears.
There was no alcohol involved, he said, admitting his son ran the red light but only because of a medical condition.
“We’re fighting this,” Harry Bethel said, adding that police didn’t read his son his Miranda warning and that deputies at the jail ignored his request for an attorney.
Doesn’t Harry have another son doing time in prison for robbing hard- working local fishermen’s lobster and crab traps?
While police described Robert Bethel as having slurred speech, and being red-faced and glassy eyed, in two incident reports released Friday, there was no mention of the smell of alcohol or any alcoholic cans or bottles in the car.
Wanciak’s report is classified as an “alcohol/liquor related offense.”
Police said Bethel repeatedly said, “no,” when told about field sobriety tests, and when asked to get out of the vehicle.
Aw, give him a break; he was only exercising his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination.
He was “gripping the steering wheel” and would not let go, Wanciak wrote in her report. “I had to pry his finger off the wheel and I was finally able to get hold of his arm.”
Officers said they were forced to remove Bethel from the vehicle.
“Bethel continually locked his arms to the front of his body,” Officer Gary Celcer reported, adding it took three officers to get him to put his hands behind his back.
And they didn’t beat Bethel up, come down on him like a fucking bomb (as they did to Charles Eimers)? Tase him? Oh, Bethel’s a local, a Conch (born here). A white Conch. A Key West High grad.
Bethel refused to take a breath test or perform field sobriety tests, police said.
Wonder why?
Celcer said he had met Bethel before and knew he was diabetic, so he had a paramedic check his blood sugar.
Bethel said he had a doctor’s prescription for hydrocodone “but said he had not taken any today,” Celcer reported.
Were blood tests done at the hospital to confirm Bethel had not taken hydrocodone that day? And to find out if he had taken anything else, as in, booze or some other pleasant chemical?
Bethel had slurred speech, police said, and “fumbled” through his car’s interior but couldn’t find his registration or proof of insurance, police said.
At one point, Wanciak said, “Bethel fumbled through his [SUV’s] owners manual for quite a while” trying to find the documents.
Bethel faces misdemeanor charges and was also cited for a red-light violation.
How about charging Bethel with reckless and wanton endangerment of many people. How about Bethel pleading insanity, it runs in the family.
He was released on his own recognizance from the Stock Island jail at about 2:45 p.m. Thursday, sheriff’s office jail records showed.
Bethel also has been a member of the volunteer tree commission since 2011. He was absent at the panel’s January and February meetings but attended the December one, according to the minutes.
Bethel, a 2000 graduate of Key West High School, is a GIS (geographic information system) technical support specialist at the aqueduct, where he has worked since 1998 when he helped install computers, according to his resume filed at city hall.
Bethel remains an employee of the aqueduct but has been on unpaid leave since Jan. 13, the Executive Director Kirk Zuelch said Friday.
“I don’t know when he will be back,” Zuelch said.
Well lawyer Zeulch, what did Bethel do to cause him not to work at FKAA since Jan. 13, before he turned his car into a weapon? And, if you know, how many other times did Bethel turn his car into a weapon before he finally got caught? Is he still allowed to drive?
Bethel’s father worked at the aqueduct for 19 years, retiring in 2009 as director of the Customer Service Department.
It’s said the fish rots from the head down, the apple don’t fall far from the tree. Maybe Harry Bethel’s fanatical crusade to end nudity at Fantasy Fest is one of his ways of denying he has Category 5 troubles inside his own fine upstanding law-abiding Key West white Conch family.
gfilosa@keysnews.com
Harry Bethel, second from right below, between Mayor Craig Cates, far right, and five of the six city commissioners, receiving an award at a city commission meeting. Maybe the next good citizen awards should go to Harry’s sons.
sloanbashinsky@outlook.com
