By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We previously wrote HERE of the plight of Sureshbhai Patel who was left partially paralyzed after being thrown to the ground by Madison, Alabama police during an investigative detention. The officer accused in this matter has been charged with Third Degree Assault.
Thanks to a crowd sourced donation campaign seeking to help alleviate the financial costs of his injuries, in just over three days $130,000 dollars so far has been raised. The amounts continue to grow.
Madison Police Officer Eric Parker and others were dispatched to a report of a suspicious person reportedly trespassing on private property. During the contact, Patel, who does not speak English, attempted to leave the officers and was frisked and later thrown to the ground as he began walking away. He suffered a spinal injury that caused him partial paralysis. The family has initiated a separate legal action against the city.
The family provided the following update of Patel’s condition:
Hank Sherrod, the family lawyer, has stated that Sureshbhai [Patel] is improving faster than expected. “His grip strength is improving, though he can’t yet handle small objects (like a spoon). His legs are improving, too, particularly his right leg. The doctors attribute the improvement to Mr. Patel’s hard work and motivation.” Sureshbhai is in the process of being transferred to a rehabilitation center.
Sureshbhai’s family is currently trying to determine the medical or medical related expenses they will incur due to this tragic incident. The family has yet to receive bills related to the hospitalization.
The link to the GoFundMe page is:
http://www.gofundme.com/m757pw
By Darren Smith
Source: gofundme.com
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
doesn’t obamacre cover things like this? No doubt we can pitch in for a legal fund….but obamacare was meant to do away with spaghetti dinners to raise money for care. It was suppose to make a great big community and replace smaller communities who actually care.
Jest I keep forgetting it’s Affordable you know???
Obamacare is charging so much money for it’s programs to small businesses that in order to cover their employees it is upward of 600 dollars a family. Anyway – this man is a foreigner – wait – that’s right Obamacare covers Illegal Aliens.
HappyPappies….I doubt I am an authority, but I am fortunate to have a superb police department in our community. A similar instance to this one, first the car would have just driven by and observed, then gone round the block and if necessary, if they observed some odd behavior, would have pulled ahead of the man walking and approached with questions like “do you need help?” Having observed no misconduct themselves, they’d not be inclined to tangle with the walker, barring no in their face aggression…which I did not see in the video. There further is no excuse by dint of the language barrier, as I’ve cited elsewhere on another thread I think, I’ve managed to communicate with people who did ‘t speak my language, or any other that I spoke awkwardly, by other means, hand gestures to scrawling pictorials in the dirt….and I am certain that in some of those cases they saved my life by the information they provided.
HappiePappies…as he should be. Let’s see how this case pays out. Sometimes egregious behavior is just that. In any case, the officers had no cause to even stop and talk to the guy on the sidewalk….even in the most benign of conversations, they had no observed misconduct so what were they doing? The dash camera tells the story. These guys were out of line, period.
Aridog – what do you mean lets see how it plays out – he can lie about it can’t he? And then learn he can do it again. That guy is little. I don’t mean to argue with you because you are the authority and I respect you but this pisses me off.
happypappies,
Field Training Officer Parker… arrested.
Maybe the trainee got a first hand lesson of how to abuse…
… Has anyone brought up the item of Officer Parker out on a training assignment with a trainee, yet?
Maybe he was showing the trainee how to use excessive force…
SMH
Max-1
Do you think Bubba is still running loose to abuse more of the weak and disenfranchised? It would seem so since you made this observation and I missed it. 😉
http://cbs12.com/news/top-stories/stories/alabama-cop-arrested-takedown-left-indian-grandfather-partially-paralyzed-23383.shtml
Miscommunication. I feel sorry for anyone who has to pull on a uniform and go in to conflict somewhere that the language is not English. You won’t know if someone is trying to help you or harm you if you just incidentally meet up…intelligence is often gathered by hand gestures, even sketching on a small bit of paper, or just in the dirt. I learned one language relatively fluently and pig-din for another, but I never managed to “miscommunicate” with anyone because we spoke different tongues. In fact, I am pretty certain that a few saved my life by “telling” me things with their hands. I’m not special…it is just common sense to find alternative means communicate if needed.
I guess no one heard me. The officer is in custody now. see above link
@Kathleen3……nice to offer get well wishes on one hand but yr statement smacks of bigotry otherwise. This Indian gentleman’s injuries were not the result of HIS language limits but of violent overreaction by these Alabama police who have serious issues for using force over reason. Their job was to merely investigate a “suspicious black man” in this white suburban Bama neighborhood. They had to be blind not to notice his advanced age or condition and failed to utilize adult judgement before tripping him onto the concrete face down. I don’t want to live in a world where foreign tourists are treated like criminals because you live in an isolated world where only white English speaking people have rights. This older man visiting relatives was taking a stroll thru the neighborhood…should he have ‘cleared it with his neighborhood watch group, First?’.
“A 57-year-old grandfather from India visiting Alabama to help care for his prematurely born grandson, Sureshbhai Patel was taking a morning walk in his grandson’s neighborhood. A white resident called 911, thinking Patel was African American, and reporting that he was afraid for his wife’s safety.
According to the Washington Post:
In a non-emergency call to police, a neighbor described Patel as a “skinny black guy” and said that he’d “never seen him before” in the neighborhood. Patel, he said, was “just wandering around” and “walking close to the garage.” The caller added that he was following Patel at a distance. When asked to estimate his age, the caller guessed Patel was in his 30′s.” ???!!
The video here demonstrates at 32 Seconds that these cops KNEW he did not speak English yet they persisted in giving him orders before and after they flipped him face down onto the concrete. Thugs IMO.
Alzheimers/dementia is another situation, unrelated to this case of course, that officers need to be properly trained on how to react.
Karen – here is Arizona we have a significant number of Alzhiemer’s patients who wander off. The cops are very good at finding them. We even have a Silver Alert to alert the citizens to look for them. Most of the time we find them in time, however, occasionally they end up dead, which is very sad.
Poor, poor man. Praying for his recovery, and that he’s home soon playing with his grandchild.
Nancy – that is very true. Miscommunications happen with those who do not speak English, the deaf, as well as the handicapped and those with special needs.
I hope the police department learns from this tragic mistake and updates its training.
He’s fired so sad too bad
Professional Misconduct and assault and battery
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/national-international/57-Year-Old-Man-Partially-Paralyzed-By-Cop-Is-Improving-Attorney-291896201.html
Kathleen3, the problem is not someone being unable to speak English. Problems in communication occur for a large variety of reasons. Until we expect law enforcement to respond appropriately to the individual they are dealing with rather than go immediately to force in the face of any failure to obey immediately, these problems will continue. I do agree that front line officers are paying the price of government failures, but it is the failure of governments to hold every level of law enforcement responsible for the failure to train officers to de-escalate and utilize alternatives and discipline those who fail to do so.
Nancy, I never thought about that. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. My prayers for all parents in that situation.
How kind of you. We’ll take all the prayers we can get. Someday, all of the children with autism will be adults with autism. Thank you and warm regards.
Parents in the autism community worry about first-responder reactions all the time, especially when our sons and daughters have reached adulthood. There have been some disastrous incidents, entirely due to misunderstandings.
Hopefully he has a good attorney. There are a lotta ham n’ egger and crooked ones out there.
Hopefully the generosity and good wishes of strangers will help give this man a better impression of America and Americans than those boneheaded police officers did.
I’m usually very supportive of and sympathetic to the police who are working in dangerous situations. Not in this case. There was no reason to use force and such a level of force on this guy. He is an older person and a small person. He obviously didn’t understand or speak English. He wasn’t posing a threat. He was walking on a public sidewalk in broad daylight. There were many other ways that the police could have handled this situation. Throwing him onto the concrete was not one of those ways.
Agreed. The officer should be fired… at the very least…. and the victim should be well compensated for his injuries.
Best wishes and prayers for Mr. Patel’s recorvery.
This report, unfortunately, is yet one of many noting injuries that have occurred as the result of people failing to speak English. As a result it is often the police officers and fire fighters who suffer the consequences for a government that fails to uphold laws, making victims of both the immigrant and the police/fire fighters.
The officer involved should be fired and hopefully this victim will be properly compensated for his pain and suffering.
The guy certainly looks like he posed a real threat. He could have really hurt those two cops. Now, if his lawyer can get him at least five million above and beyond all medical and rehabilitation costs, including care for whatever he may need in the future, then perhaps administrations will focus on finding people with at least half a brain and training them better than the idiot that threw this old man to the ground.
This is very nice. Hopefully he will have enough to tide him over until the lawsuit is settled.