Did I ever tell you that the El Paso Police Department is taser happy?
Here’s more of the latest evidence, from ElPasoTimes.com:
The city of El Paso will pay a $600,000 settlement to the parents of a man who died after he was shocked with a Taser by a police officer while he had a noose around his neck as he tried to hang himself during a mental health crisis.
The lawsuit filed in 2017 by Maria and Pedro Ramirez was set to go to trial next month in U.S District Court. The lawsuit claimed the death of their 30-year-old son, Daniel Antonio Ramirez, was part of a larger pattern in the El Paso Police Department, including a lack of training, failure to discipline officers for excessive force and abuses against people in a mental health crisis.
Daniel Ramirez, who had a history of mental health issues, was shocked with a Taser while attempting to hang himself from a basketball net in the backyard when his mother called 911 for help on June 23, 2015.
. . .
“We called the police to help my son, instead the officer killed him. I still don’t understand why. I also don’t understand why the department covered for this officer rather than hold him accountable,” [the victim’s father Pedro] Ramirez said.
. . .
El Paso City Attorney Karla Nieman said in a statement that it was in “everyone’s best interest to settle the case to allow those involved the opportunity to move forward and begin to heal.”
“The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by the City, its Police Department, nor Officer (Ruben) Escajeda (Jr.) – who was dismissed from the lawsuit by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found no wrongdoing by the officer,” Nieman said. “While we believe the City could prevail at trial, the settlement represented a financial consideration made in the best interests of the taxpayers and community.”
. . .
Responding to the suicide in progress call with other officers, Escajeda went into the backyard alone and fired his Taser electric-stun weapon as Daniel Ramirez was grabbing the rope around his neck and touching the ground with his tiptoes trying to stay alive, the lawsuit stated.
. . .
The shock of 50,000 volts caused Ramirez to go limp, adding tension to the rope. Escajeda removed Daniel Ramirez from the noose and officers at the scene unsuccessfully performed CPR. Daniel Ramirez was then transported to Del Sol Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit claimed that Daniel Ramirez was not armed and did not threaten Escajeda. Dispatcher radio records mentioned a rope – not a weapon – at least three times, the family’s lawyers added.
The Ramirez family’s lawyers said that then-police Chief Greg Allen found Escajeda acted according to department policy and Escajeda was not disciplined for the incident. Allen died earlier this year.
The El Paso Times strikes again.
That’s a pretty big story, right? But you can’t find it on the landing page at ElPasoTimes.com. It’s on the front page of the dead tree edition, but to find it on the web, I had to search “taser” on ElPasoTimes.com. If I hadn’t know it was there, I never would have found it.
It’s almost as though the El Paso Times doesn’t want to widely report on any news that makes the City look bad.
Even though the media’s job is to be critical of those in power. “To comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.”
But that’s not what the El Paso Times does. The El Paso Times has been championing the pet projects of the powers that be in El Paso for a long time.
I try to teach my kids that if they want to improve themselves they need to tell the truth and take responsibility.
They haven’t learned that lesson at the El Paso Times.
Speaking of which.
Here’s City Attorney Karla Nieman’s take on the settlement:
“The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing by the City, its Police Department, nor Officer (Ruben) Escajeda (Jr.) – who was dismissed from the lawsuit by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found no wrongdoing by the officer,” Nieman said. “While we believe the City could prevail at trial, the settlement represented a financial consideration made in the best interests of the taxpayers and community.”
Right. Tasering and causing the death of a guy who apparently had second thoughts about suicide is perfectly fine.
I wonder if Ms. Nieman could cite the relevant text in the EPPD’s policy manual.