Thursday, February 03, 2011

Martin Lee Anderson Bootcamp Beating Death Video

On January 5, 2006, a 14 year old Black boy, Martin Lee Anderson, was beaten to death by guards at a Bay County boot camp in Panama City, Florida. He was running track on his first day at boot camp when he complained of illness or fatigue and said he could not do any more laps.

Seven guards, some Black and some White, then applied various force measures in an effort to get him to keep running. These included holding him by the arms, pressure point applications, take downs, and forcing him to inhale ammonia. At some point, he became unresponsive. A nurse was called out, and soon he was declared dead. Doctors ruled that the guards had somehow suffocated him while they were manhandling him.

A trial of the seven guards and the nurse involved occurred afterward, and all eight guards were acquitted. There was a lot of racial turmoil surrounding the case, much of it stirred up the NAACP, but at least some of the guards who killed him were Black, so a race element did not seem to be at play here.

The family sued for violation of the Anderson's civil rights, and they settled for $2.3 million.

After, numerous changes were instituted at boot camps. These changes included no more beating and kicking of inmates by guards.

Unfortunately for thrill seekers, though this 8 minute video does show this boy being beaten to death by guards, there is nevertheless not much action in the video.

Sad story all around.

1 comment:

JooPe said...

"Unfortunately for thrill seekers"

I thought I detected a sadistic streak/undertone here.