The movement demanding justice for Kelly Thomas scored some initial, but major victories this week. On Sept. 21 Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas filed felony criminal charges against Fullerton Police Officer Manuel Ramos and Corporal Jay Cicinelli. Both were directly involved in the murder of Thomas, a homeless man with schizophrenia, who died in July.
Ramos is charged with one count of second degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter, facing a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison, if convicted. Cicinelli is charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of excessive force, facing a maximum sentence of four years. The killers’ bail amounts were set at $1 million and $25,000, respectively.
While justice demands that all six cops who killed Kelly Thomas be charged with his murder, the fact that Ramos and Cicenelli, both FPD veterans, were charged is a major event. This is especially true in politically conservative, police-friendly Orange County, where, according to the Orange County Register, no on-duty cop has ever been charged with murder.
The only reason these officers are now behind bars is the people’s movement that erupted in Fullerton demanding justice for Thomas and the arrest of the killer cops for murder. Rackauckas, a conservative, pro-cop Republican, who led the racist charge against the Irvine 11, did not want to charge these cops with any crime, but he had to. Rackauckas admitted that the public’s demands for “justice for Kelly” were a key factor in his decision.
These demands were loud and clear. Hundreds gathered and protested for hours each Saturday since the murder happened, occupying the FPD lawn; City Hall meetings were packed and overwhelmed by comments denouncing the police as killers and blaming the council members and mayor for inaction; and there was even a mass, unpermitted protest of over 500 people, led by the ANSWER Coalition, that took over the main streets of Fullerton and shut down traffic for hours.
These actions severely disrupted business as usual in the sleepy Orange County town, exposing the repressive character of the police and causing a political crisis for the Fullerton city leaders and the FPD brass.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation, along with its allies in the ANSWER Coalition, the Campaign to Stop Police Violence, and other local Fullerton groups played a major role in this step toward justice.
Investigation reveals police terror tactics
The evidence examined by the D.A. included a 30-minute surveillance video, two cell phone videos, six videos from nearby Orange County Transportation Authority buses, video and photographs of the scene taken by FPD, 151 witness interviews, police reports, audio recording from Digital Audio Recording (DAR) devices of officers involved, police batons used in the incident, downloaded information from the taser used at the scene, medical records, forensic testing, toxicology reports and other assorted evidence.
In short, there is very little question about what took place when Kelly Thomas encountered the “FPD 6,” but it was the intervention of the movement, first spontaneous and then organized, that forced the D.A. to reveal the truth.
Here is a recounting of events that led to Thomas’s death:
On July 5, 2011, FPD officers were called to a bus and train depot, supposedly because someone was trying to steal a car. Officers Ramos and Joseph Wolfe were first on the scene. There, Ramos encountered Thomas and ordered him to sit on the ground with his hands on his knees. Ramos later admitted that he knew Thomas and believed that he posed no threat, prior to the incident.
Before he killed Thomas, Officer Ramos repeatedly yelled instructions to Kelly that were unintelligible to him due to his severe mental illness, which was obvious to Ramos. Yet Ramos threatened Thomas with grave injury. Ramos put on latex gloves, leered over Kelly, and said, “You see my fists? They are getting ready to f*** you up.”
Officer Wolfe, who somehow escaped murder charges, was searching Kelly’s belongings at the time Ramos said this and found no weapons, drugs or other contraband items. Toxicology reports revealed that Thomas was not under the influence of any substance.
After Ramos declared his intention to brutalize Thomas, he grabbed Thomas by the arm. Thomas stood up and attempted to back away with his hands up. Both officers then charged at Thomas with batons swinging and Thomas attempted to run away, without getting far as the officers tackled him to the ground. Four other officers came to the scene after Ramos called for back up. All six cops proceeded to join in the beating and tasing, until Thomas was unconscious and unresponsive.
Corporal Cicinelli tased Thomas five times as the other officers continued to beat him, while he called out “I can’t breathe,” “I’m sorry, dude,” “Please,” “Okay, okay,” “Dad, dad,” and “Dad, help me.” Despite losing consciousness during the repeated tasings Cicinelli proceeded to use the butt of the taser gun to smash in the front of Thomas’s face with eight successive blows. These final blows were delivered while Thomas was silent and unresponsive, lying in a pool of his own blood. Witnesses saw the beating and part of it was captured on cell phone cameras.
The Coroner’s report listed cause of death as asphyxiation due to “blunt cranial-facial injuries,” which deprived Thomas of oxygen to the brain and drowned his lungs in blood.
This unspeakable crime can be described as nothing but police terrorism and murder.
FPD 6 and the character of police
The act of terrorism employed by the FPD 6 during their encounter with Kelly was business as usual for the police. Police are thugs for the rich deployed against the poor in every city throughout the country. Their task is to harass working and poor people on a daily basis and prevent any vestige of protest against or threat to the status quo.
The epidemic of police brutality cannot be pinned on individual bad cops, lack of training, “rookie” inexperience or other assorted excuses given to try to uphold some sense of trust in the police. This is an important point for people involved in the movement against police brutality. There are not simply “bad apples”—the whole tree is rotten.
Facts about the FPD 6 conveniently smash the excuses given by the ruling class and politicians for police crimes.
The names and titles of the FPD 6 are Officer Manuel Ramos, Corporal Jay Cicinelli, Officer Joseph Wolfe, Officer Kenton Hampton, Corporal James Blatney, and Sergeant Kevin Craig. They have 10, 12, 12, 5, 18, and 15 years of experience, respectively. In other words, cops with 72 collective years of experience were the culprits,not rookies or inexperienced, “fresh” cops. What happened to Kelly Thomas was what these cops were trained to do.
In fact, most of what the cops did, the D.A. considers “legal.” The two indicted cops either threatened or beat Thomas so brutally that it could not be ignored. The other four, who also beat Thomas, are not facing charges because the D.A. claims they did not know about Ramos’s vicious threat to “f***” Thomas up when they joined in with the beating.
Therefore, the D.A. reasoned that the law allows cops to beat a man to death as long as they did not threaten him verbally or did not know he was threatened by another cop. This, even though by the time the last three officers arrived and joined in the beating, Thomas was already drowning in his blood, had been tased multiple times, was crying for help and writhing on the ground, pinned down by fellow cops.
But how much police experience is needed to know that Thomas was near death? Why is it that the cops’ training pushed them to join the beating rather than assess the situation?
It’s simple—when an officer sees one of his own beating someone up, he joins in or stands idly by. Cops are ready and willing to attack anyone in their path. And the last thing cops can do is question the authority of another officer and enter into open conflict in front of the alleged “criminal” they are brutalizing. When an officer puts on the uniform, they become nothing more than a representative of that department and will act as a cog in the state machinery in any social encounter.
For cops, beating someone to death is not always “excessive force”—most of the time it is just part of the job.
Keep the pressure on
The people of Fullerton and the growing movement against police violence have proven once again that the only path toward justice is in the streets. Before this, no on-duty cop in Orange County has ever faced murder or manslaughter charges.
In fact, even one month after Thomas was murdered the Orange County D.A. told the press that he “has not yet seen any evidence” that police intended to kill Thomas. (Orange County Register, Aug. 8)
What changed for D.A. Rackauckas over the month? Was it simply a balanced look at the facts of the case, or was it more? The answer should be clear.
In early August, the D.A. was preparing to do what his office always does: launch a perfunctory investigation into the incident and then resolve that no charges against the cops are merited. After all, the D.A. works with the cops every day to put other people, mostly working and poor people, behind bars.
This phenomenon is not exclusive to Orange County. Charging cops when they kill people almost never happens anywhere. But when it does, there is always a movement that fought hard to make it happen.
The last high profile officer to get charged was Johannes Mehserle, the Bay Area Rapid Transit cop who murdered Oscar Grant in Oakland. Mehserle was only charged after a mass movement of people rose up to demand justice. And although Mehserle was convicted only of manslaughter and not murder, the fact that he was found guilty of killing Grant can be attributed to the continued struggle demanding justice.
As we justly celebrate this victory in the Kelly Thomas case, it is important to continue on the offensive in order to keep these cops in prison and secure additional, necessary victories.
The community should continue to demand the firing of the FPD brass, especially chief Sellers, who was the public face defending the FPD 6 after the brutal murder.
Also, only two of the six officers have been charged, although all of them participated and permitted the killing to take place. The movement should continue to demand that all the FPD 6 be charged and arrested.
The movement has opened up new opportunities for the community of Fullerton. The political establishment is on the defensive for the time being. City Councilwoman Sharon Quirk-Silva announced her intention to develop a police oversight commission in the city. This, like any police reform, was unthinkable even weeks ago. But now, it is part of the mainstream discourse. Similar commissions have been set up in many cities. Mostly, these act as a pressure valve for an enraged public that is constantly mistreated by the police. Such a pressure valve is, no doubt, what Quirk-Silva envisions. She wants to save the political status quo at this heated time.
But Fullerton residents have an opportunity to make sure this does not happen. The only way to do this is to continue to build the movement and force the city leaders to propose and implement real reforms—to force community control of the police with an elected, all-civilian control board, not some toothless body of bureaucrats and “yes men.” Some in the justice for Kelly Thomas movement would like to divert the struggle away from the streets and strictly toward the ballot box. But a recall campaign to replace one right-wing politician with another is not what is needed.
Struggling for an all-civilian control board is a pressing task at hand. Such a board would have the power to fire officers, impose sanctions, or even file criminal charges in cases where police act out of line. If the cops have reason to fear the community during their day-to-day interactions on the street, they will be forced to at least think twice before carrying out such heinous assaults on working and poor people.
The PSL will continue to stand on the front lines until full justice is achieved in Fullerton.
Justice for Kelly Thomas! Jail all the FPD 6! Community control of the police now!
