Friday, February 14, 2014

SoCal police sued for excessive force

Jonathan Meister claims in a lawsuit that four policemen in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne assaulted him a year ago. The Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness filed the suit for Meister. While the police report says he resisted arrest, Meister says he was just packing his car, getting ready to go to a Bible study. When police called out to him, questioning why he was moving boxes from a friend's yard, Meister didn't respond because he could not hear them. When they did get his attention, Meister indicated he was deaf. But the confrontation quickly escalated into a struggle to get Meister into handcuffs.  Officers used a Taser on Meister multiple times. Charges against Meister that he assaulted the officers were dropped.