There is a bizarre and disturbing case out of Bakersfield California where Officer Aaron Stringer has been put on leave after he allegedly admitted that he liked to play with dead bodies and was seeing tickling the feet of a dead man (shot by police) and saying “tickle, tickle.”
The reported plaything of Stringer was Ramiro James Villegas, 22, who was shot on November 13, 2014 after a police pursuit and a crash into a light pole. Villegas’ family is suing and saying that Villegas had his hands up in the air and was unarmed when shot. Police say that he reached for his waistband, but no weapon was ever found. Villegas was tasered and shot nine times with bullets striking his head and genitals
Stringer reportedly grabbed Villegas’ head and was touching his feet as he lay dead on a gurney. He is quoted as telling another officer that he “loves playing with dead bodies.” A trainee reported the conduct to a supervisor.
This could add an interesting legal claim over the abuse of a corpse. The family could articulate additional emotional injury from the mistreatment of the body. Under California law, both intentional and negligent emotional distress claims are recognized.
For intentional infliction of emotional distress, you must show that the defendant intentionally causes harm by acting in an “extreme and outrageous” way, which can include the misuse of authority or heinous acts. Gross recklessness or reckless disregard is allowed in addition to traditional intent. You must also show that the conduct caused severe emotional distress, though the conduct can be just a “substantial factor” in causing the emotional trauma.
There is also negligent infliction of emotional distress where negligent acts, errors or omissions were a substantial factor. These cases can fell into two groups based on the “bystander” theory and the “direct victim” theory. California and other states follow a variation of the so called Dillon Rule. There is also a requirement that the plaintiff suffered very severe emotional distress, or that there be a particularly close familial relationship.
What is interesting here is that the family was not present at the abusive conduct. This tort is recognized for bystanders if a person happens to be in the presence of a negligent incident but, was not directly involved. In such cases, they have to show that they perceived the physical injury or death of the victim. They have to show that the person was injured or killed due to negligence and that they were present at the scene of the accident and were able to perceive what was taking place. This requirement often produces painful results in litigation. In Hathaway v. Superior Court, 112 Cal. App. 3d 728, 169 Cal. Rptr. 435 (Ct. App. 1980), a six-year-old boy was electrocuted when he touched a cooler that was recently installed outside the house. Since the boy’s parents did not witness the electrocution from inside the house, they were deemed barred. The court ruled:
[When the boy’s parents discovered their son, he] was no longer gripping the water cooler and receiving the electrical charge. The event which constituted the accident had ended. It is uncontradicted that [the boy’s parents] did not sensorially perceive the injury-causing event, that is, the actual contact between the electrically charged water cooler and [their son], but saw only the results of the contact (the injuries) after the accident was over.
Id. at 736 (parenthesis in original).
I have always found the rule to be too restrictive in such cases because the emotional distress claims seem to me to be both genuine and obvious.
In the end, the playing with the body may not be necessary to secure significant damages, but there is always an uncertainty given the police chase and jurors who may be unsympathetic to the deceased. The question is whether the later conduct by Stringer could make into the trial due to its high potentiality for prejudice if it is not separate count or at least part of the claim for damages.
It’s a fetish thing. Completely treatable with a few trips to the head shrink and some meds.
Beyond what I just said, I do “get it” when Obama thinks “negotiation” is the way to go…but when the opposition has a gun pointed at your head, and the head of others, maybe not. Ignoring something does not make it go away. Nothing like inexperience can make you believe that talk matters when lives are at stake….especially when yours is far removed from the fray. Reality is seldom fun. Just ask the deceased Christians in Kenya. Or the Egyptian Copts in Libya. Just how hard is it to just say “Christian victims” when the sole reason they’re dead is due to that faith? If Boko Haram were to come to your town, what would you say or do?
DBQ, I have a friend I went to high school w/ back in the 70’s. His family owned the local funeral home. He had the sickest humor you could imagine. But, he is a good man. When I was the person to plan both my parents funerals it was so nice to have someone you’ve known for years to help you through it. No up selling. He would not even accept payment until the estate was settled, months later. He insisted we pay him after all the other bills were paid.
Dude tickles the feet of the dead….and talks to them? Yeah, he’s okay. Not. Yee F’ing Gawd. Seen enough corpses and never once did I think it a venue for cynical humor. Must just be me. I’ll admit I did look though some corpses clothing only to find exactly the same things I’d find in mine. Gave me pause to wonder why we were at war on a man to man basis. Still does.
“Ducky” on NCIS talks to his corpses all the time. And, since that one came back to life on him he started poking them to make sure they were dead. 😉
People who work in difficult types of jobs such as police, military in combat and in the medical field like EMTs do become somewhat desensitized to the horrific aspects of their jobs. This is just a self protective mechanism to help keep their sanity when dealing with the things that most people would run away from in terror or disgust. You distance yourself from the events. Dark humor is another mechanism.
It sounds like this guy has gone a bit too far in the desensitizing and probably could use some counseling.
One might say that some folks are “obsessed” with JT’s blog, too. Gotta laugh.
Police, teachers, clergy, healthcare, TV news, major newspapers, Congress, Hillary, the President.
One can sense a general decay in the rule of law, and a loss of respect for authority as a result.
What is there to say about all this?
I have my theories whence the decay, but it hardly matters now.
Enjoy the decline; we’ve got video to document it all.
Professor Turley, hear that? Spinelli seems to think you are unbalanced and you need to rebalance “ASAP”. I’m sure you’ll take his advice under consideration.
http://youtu.be/q4L4IkYKcsU
Here is a case out of Virginia Beach in which teenagers are stopped because a marijauna smell was coming from their car. The kids seem bratty, but the pepper spray and tasing of a 17 year old seems like another case of police abuse. Then they, the police, tried deleting the cell phone video from the girls phone, but failed.
Isaac, I don’t see it as a right/wrong thing. I see it as a balance issue. When we obsess on something we lose our balance. I have long thought, Asian culture and it’s reverence of balance, to be far superior to ours. Let’s take a less controversial topic of food. The US culture is sickeningly out of balance vis a vis food. Being out of balance, this US food culture becomes obsessive about what to eat. It was carbs, no fat not long ago. Now, it’s protein/fat, no carbs. Well, the Italian culture, as well as others, understand it’s about balance, everything in moderation. All that said, when there is a significant problem, sometimes a strong focus, maybe obsession, is warranted. But, that balance, that equilibrium, must be regained ASAP.
Another cop unsuited to be on the police force.
And they say the internet is a waste of our time–this story makes my day. Humans are so damnably, utterly weird. Just when you think you’ve seen the weirdest, something else pops up–we’re like an Escher print of oddity, a neverending stairway to the moon.
I agree with wrxdave that it is very possible the suspect was simply reaching to pull his pants up. Could any of the police officers who follow the blog share the protocol for their district? Can they lawfully open fire if someone reaches for their waistband or inside their jacket, or must they wait to actually identify a weapon?
I also agree that this may be an extreme case of desensitization on the part of the officer. On the opposite extreme, my father tells the story of a cop friend of his who was training a rookie. They arrived at the scene of an accident, the rookie’s first. A woman crashed into a truck and trailer, and was decapitated. The bottom half of her car and body was on one side, and the upper half was on the other. The rookie seemed like he was handling the gruesome scene OK, until the trainer realized he had taken out his book and was writing the bottom half of her body a ticket for excessive speed. He guided him over to the curb and had him sit down with his head between his knees for a while to catch his breath.
Making jokes with a dead body is utterly and completely wrong. A family was destroyed and there is nothing funny about it. This may be a case where the office had distanced himself way too far from victims as a survival mechanism taken too far. Or he could have inappropriate tendencies and never should have been a cop. I think they need to investigate that, as well as what led to the shooting in the first place. No matter what, I feel very sorry for the victim’s family.
Sick humor, not abuse of a corpse.
I find it interesting how humans extend a presumed dignity even to the dead.
It lends credence to what Chesterton called tradition: “the democracy of the dead.”
I am not sure what you have to do to a corpse to “abuse it.” I would not think ‘Tickle, tickle’ would fall under that category.
I have searched every bit of my being and there is no part of me that would go “Tickle, tickle” to a corpse. For the life of me, I cannot understand why he would do it.
Tickle tickle, bo bickle
Fee fi mo mickle…
TICKLE!
If the first two letters are ever the same…
You drop them both and say the name…
Llama, amma sounds like Obama or
Red, Fred f ing just so dead..
Or Mary .. Larry … it is dead and hairy..
That’s the only rule that is contrary.
So, Tickle! Tickle with a T!
And bannan fanna and fo.
Well, there isn’t any name that I cant rhyme.
I have less of a problem with the humor after the fact than I do with the conduct of officers that produce the dead bodies to begin with.
Apparently this man may have been shot for having droopy drawers.
Now apparently “the talk” may have to include that you make sure that you let your pants fall down, and avoid the instinctive reaction most of us have to pull’em up (perhaps he misunderstood the command “put’em up”?). Of course, with the number of pants that are being worn at half staff anyway perhaps that natural instinct is dying out in certain subcultures anyway (regardless of race).
Tasteless humor has forever been a part of police work, both helping to cope and numb them to the more gruesome aspects of police work. Unfortunately perhaps too many officers have become a bit too numb and have lost a bit of essential humanity which may have made some of the tragedies that have recently gained fame easier to initiate and easier to tolerate by all involved.
“issac
Nick
You’re right, he’s obsessed with cops these days. But, is that so wrong?”
Oh, brother…
Nick
You’re right, he’s obsessed with cops these days. But, is that so wrong?