If you are coming to this post from the Talk 910 listener area, here is a quick primer.
- The petition at change.org. Please sign it. All we want is for Governor O'Malley is to have an independent investigation. And remember, West Coast, O'Malley may run for president and has a darn good chance of being the Democratic VP candidate (I think. I claim no political expertise). He'll be a national figure, so why not start pushing him now!
- My writing on Saylor: From CNN (we are all temporarily able bodied) and from The Nation (Ethan's case is not an isolated event, but part of a bigger problem).
CNN) -- One day last January, Robert Ethan Saylor, a 26-year-old man with Down syndrome, went to see the movie "Zero Dark Thirty." When it was over, Saylor briefly left the theater, then decided to return and see it again. The manager called security because Saylor didn't pay, and three off-duty deputies, moonlighting at the mall, came in to confront him.You'll see in my other postings on the topic links to lots of great blog posts from other bloggers, some blog posts of mine, journalism from Washington Post, WUSA-9 (a DC station), and some pieces from ABC, Yahoo!, and CBS. All of these come from August, but the story obviously stretches back to January and a lot of journalism and activism - great journalism and activism - that failed to capture the attention of the public.
According to Frederick County, Maryland, police statements, he swore at them and refused to leave. The deputies tried to remove him, despite Saylor's caretaker's warnings and pleas for them to wait and let her take care of it. What happened next is a little unclear, but witnesses say the deputies put Saylor on the floor, held him down and handcuffed him. Saylor, called Ethan by his family, suffered a fracture in his throat cartilage. He died of asphyxiation.The death was ruled a homicide, but a grand jury failed to indict the deputies and they returned to work without charges.
Thanks for reading.
