Systematic TORTURE in our own community jail -Legal Lockdown

Latest suit against Sonoma County raises spectre of federal takeover of local lockup By Tom Gogola

JAIL FAIL Inmates claim they were systematically tortured for hours at the Sonoma County jail.

The deputies dragged Lopez to the mental health unit and stripped him naked. Covered in his own feces, Lopez pleaded for toilet paper. The deputies ignored his pleas, laughed at him and locked him naked in isolation covered in his own feces for two days . . .

No wonder Sonoma County went into legal-lockdown mode after news broke last week of a federal lawsuit. The above testimony is drawn from documents that are part of a suit that charges systematic torture by guards during an hours-long orgy of intimidation and violence that took place May 28.

Santa Rosa attorney Izaak Schwaiger brought the suit Oct. 5 on behalf of two plaintiffs who were at Sonoma County's Main Adult Detention Facility jail that day, Marqus Martinez and Daniel Banks. Both say they were beaten or threatened by masked guards on the Special Emergency Response Team (SERT)...

Read more on link. https://www.bohemian.com/northbay/le...nt?oid=2752614

Thank you, Shandi ...

I've been trying to sound a warning about unconstitutional torture in our country for quite some time now ... if this story is proven, then it will go far to dispel the naive assumption that "it can never happen here" ... we are experiencing a systematic denial of human rights in our country, and if you are not alarmed, then you are not paying attention ...

This is very close to home, in our own Sonoma County. And yes, it's very alarming. Our best protection is to be informed and aware of our rights, while we have some freedom, compared to those who are incarcerated and suffering brutality at the hands of those who have sanctioned power over them.

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Posted in reply to the post by arthunter:

... if this story is proven, then it will go far to dispel the naive assumption that "it can never happen here" ...

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Posted in reply to the post by Shandi:

Latest suit against Sonoma County raises spectre of federal takeover of local lockup...

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there is not enough room in this thread to write about all the offenses of Sheriff Freitas and his department personnel. suffice to say, he is a thug...and runs his department like one.

The County now is facing its fourth "major" lawsuit in as much in two years, ALL of them derived from Sheriff Freitas' Department....Lopez Family, Swindell Family, Wroth Family and now these inmates marked by serious brutality.

The Andy Lopez Free Speech Picket Line has been down at the Hall of InJustice in SR for over 1.5 years every Tuesday morning. Every week, one or more people will come by and tell us a story of police brutality at the hands of LE the majority of it at the hands of Deputies from SO. Many citizens have come to the Board of Supervisors demanding they call in outside source to investigate the systemic problems in his Department. After Andy Lopez was killed that was a place to start. He was killed by a Deputy of questionable character who had racist rants on his website before he purged his site. he himself, spoke about "turning on the mean gene" and that police work was a "contact sport"...he was the trainer in SO...how many more people have to be killed or abused for people to stand up and demand accountability!?

Go to the BOS, write to the Sheriff, come to the picket table, sign petitions...demand that the DOJ come here and do something because there is such a sick symbiotic relationship between Freitas, the BOS, and DA Ravitch, it is deeply corrupted. But, the gig is up and the County will pay for their inability to reign in this man.

And on one more note, the Sheriff in the county has run unopposed for a quarter of a century...the Chiefs Association chooses who will run and no one has run against their choice in 25 years...this, simply, is NOT Democracy!

Make a stink, kick and scream, next time it might be Your loved one!!

When I was arrested on bogus charges, several years ago, I was manhandled and took pictures of the many bruises I sustained. When I called to file a grievance, I was told that I had to talk to the sergeant in charge of "deciding" which complaints were worthy of being formally filed. The sergeant was one of the officers who arrested me! He laughed at me when he heard my name and told me that the 7 officers I allegedly battered would all deny my side of the story. So what do I do? No civilian review board. Go to Freitas - I don't think so. And Ravitch was the one who kept laying charges on me as long as I kept demanding a jury trial, so there would certainly be no justice with her. And I'm a white, middle aged, middle class woman, articulate and not afraid of authority figures. My son was abused in the mental health unit of the jail so this does not surprise me at all. I've lost all faith in justice as it is represented by the legal system. When I ended the conversation with the demeaning officer, I said sarcastically, "Well, thank you so much for your help and I'm sure Andy Lopez's
mother thanks you too." Unfortunately, I was left feeling powerless, something that I had never before felt in a moral fight. So glad there are many more to take up the battle.

There are good and bad cops and I've experienced both ... I had a brilliant cop come out to follow up on a video that I had of a strange man in my home ... he went as far as searching his computer database to search for the guy ... he also gave me verification of the whole incident ... unfortunately, the next cop that came out pulled my ex husband aside and slandered and threatened me if I kept reporting these incidents ... this was a week after the video incidence ... I also found that police records of these incidents were missing or tampered with ...

A lot of our cops are between a rock and a hard place ... our country is very corrupt right now and our cops are threatened ... I could post many stories of good cops who blew the whistle on corrupt practices only to lose their jobs ... they were also harassed ... this is coming from the top down ...