Revealed: officers appear to hold Michael Kenyon, 30, to hot pavement in July, causing third-degree burns
On 6 July 2024, a day when temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona, reached 114F (45.5C), Michael Kenyon was walking to his local store to buy a soda when two officers of the city’s police department stopped him.
They hastily told him he was being detained, Kenyon recalls, without clearly stating why. Two more officers arrived.
Surveillance footage from across the parking lot, which was viewed by the Guardian, shows the 30-year-old on the pavement soon after, with several officers on top of him and holding him down. Once they lift Kenyon off the ground after roughly four minutes, he appears limp.
“I don’t really want to look at my body any more,” he said, noting it was too painful to see photos from the hospital. “Every time I see myself, I have flashbacks. And every time I see cops, I think, is he after me? And I know in my head it’s not true, but it just comes up.” He said he questions whether he could’ve done something differently. “I have to keep telling myself … I didn’t deserve this.”
He added: “I just want the Department of Justice to take care of them and fix what they say they’re going to fix … I’m not trying to get attention, I just want my story to be heard because I hurt.”
Oof.
Man I feel for this guy. This is straight up PTSD. This kind of treatment should be considered criminal regardless of what he’d done.
Kenyon has not been charged with a crime and a police spokesperson confirmed he was not the suspect that officers were seeking as part of a theft investigation.
Hadn’t done anything.
It really should be legal to fire upon police actively engaging in torture/attempted murder.
Sucks that “firing” is what we’re trying to get, when it should be “life changing legal consequences”.
Isn’t that like the reason you have such lax fun gun laws over there?
Damn autocorrect
There are people who fired on police breaking into their home and won on sale defense.
That’s a pipe dream. The first few people to try saving some innocent victim of police brutality will be dragged through the mud in the media and the whole ordeal would likely result in more legal protections for police and less rights for police the rest of us.
I didn’t say it would happen. Just that’s what it should be. These fucking pigs are out of control.
Get them under control then. I’m sick of the fucking “thoughts and prayers” generation.
This article was written just a few days prior to warn people in Phoenix about how hot the pavement is.
My Lemmy app didn’t link it, so here’s a URL: https://lemmy.world/c/thepoliceproblem
Oh my god, those pictures. That poor man.
I hope he gets millions from his lawsuit and those cops spend years in prison (the first might actually happen, and I can at least hope for the second).
