“See my fists? They are getting ready to f— you up.”

– Officer Manuel Ramos

Since the Observer’s publication date is so close to what would have been Kelly Thomas’ 51st birthday – April 5th – it’s appropriate to remind local residents–old and new – of some of the salient details of his death at the hands of then-representatives of the Fullerton Police Department on May 5, 2011.

First, it must be noted that no one has spent even one minute in prison for killing Kelly Thomas. The officers who were judged most responsible – Officer Manuel Ramos (who uttered the words that begin this essay), Officer Joseph Wolfe and Corporal Joseph Cicinelli – were severed from the FPD, found not guilty of all charges at trial, and then Wolfe and Cicinelli had the unmitigated chutzpah to sue the department for back pay and reinstatement to duty. Thanks to Orange County Superior Court Judge David Hoffer, they were unsuccessful.

Second, the death last year of Alejandro Campos Rios, reported in the Observer, has raised anew the twined issues of police brutality and how officers are trained to deal with the mentally ill. Based on witness accounts and bodycam footage of Mr. Rios’ death, one has to wonder if that training has improved one iota since 2011. While it’s clear from the evidence that Mr. Rios was mentally distressed, it can be argued that, in such circumstances, even the use of certain non-lethal devices is inadvisable. Rubber bullets, for example, have been associated with a number of fatalities, most famously Brandon Lee, son of the legendary martial artist Bruce Lee.

At the risk of seeming overly solicitous towards the FPD, I am sympathetic. It is never easy to deal with the mentally ill, especially when substance use is involved. (Sadly, I can report that from personal experience of both and, no, I won’t be going into details.) That is why, in many US communities, police are accompanied on such calls by trained mental health professionals. Unfortunately, this is still the exception rather than the rule, driven in part by a lack of mental health providers countrywide.

The trickiest part is getting the mentally ill homeless–with or without substance issues–the help they need in order to re-enter society. It is a balancing act between the rights of the individual and the safety of the community and, as is often true with balancing acts, failure can be fatal. In a democratic (still!) society, it will likely never be possible–or at least not for many years to come–to find an easy, 99 percent effective solution. It will always be case by case, person to person, and will require all our resources in persuasion, reason and education.

This does not excuse law enforcement from responsibility when things go South and people die. Kelly Thomas and Alejandro Campos Rios had families, friends and people who cared about them. Money is a poor salve for avoidable deaths, as are apologies for officer misconduct, however sincere. Being removed from the FPD is the least of what should have happened to Officer Ramos, Officer Wolfe and Corporal Cicinelli. And those who witnessed the brutal beating of Kelly Thomas–Officer Hampton, Sergeant Craig and Corporal Blatley–should also have received the most severe punishment. When a man is in fear for his life–legitimately so!–and is saying “I’m sorry” and crying for his father to help him, only someone with a heart of stone would stand idly by with folded arms.

Until the Fullerton Police Department fully acknowledges the deaths of these two men and openly discloses and discusses their improved procedures for dealing with mentally ill citizens, the citizens of Fullerton would be well-advised to be skeptical of the transparency of their police department and scrutinize line by line their procedures and budget requests. This is also in light of numerous incidents just before and after Thomas’ death, in which FPD officers were involved in false arrests and roughing up suspects. These incidents are all documented on Wikipedia’s page for the FPD.

To those who say I’m rehashing old news and that the department has changed its ways since 2011, I would respond again that the case involving Mr. Rios casts doubt on that assertion and, in any event, it should be every citizen’s job to police the police. Orson Welles wrote in his classic film Touch of Evil that “A policeman’s job is only easy in a police state.” We aren’t there. Yet.

Addendum: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver did a fascinating, in-depth piece about law enforcement’s use of Tasers and incidents of excited delirium (a state of extreme agitation, aggression, and altered mental status that can lead to sudden death). You can see it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yd9nLQx3qQ