“I Thought He Was Safe, That Was a Mistake”(April 15, 2014) ~~ When Bill O’Quin called the police to warn them that his 41-year-old paranoid schizophrenic son, David, was wandering the streets one night in February 2013, he had no idea the arrest would ultimately lead to David’s death in a Louisiana prison.
Yet “thirteen days later David Jackson O’Quin lay lifeless on a jail cell floor after being shackled to a restraint chair for nearly 170 hours during 10 days of often violent behavior,” reports the Advocate (“Dad hopes suit over mentally ill son’s death in jail will spur change,” April 14).An artist, David O’Quin was fluent in Spanish and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in studio art. Shortly thereafter, he moved to Los Angeles to study at UCLA.
What originally appeared to be the quirky behavior of an artist became more alarming when David moved to the west coast. “Helicopters and birds followed David around Los Angeles,” Bill O’Quin tells the Advocate. “Intelligence officials implanted listening devices in his brain . . . He often stripped naked in public.”
When he landed in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on that February night . . .
Read the entire article at http://theadvocate.com/news/8475687-123/i-thought-he-was-safe
Condolences from ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL to Mr. O'Quin on the tragic and needless death of his beloved son. The good news is your lawsuit will likely be paid, because your son was white. If you were black, you would likely get no due process of law and might even be persecuted for asking for justice. No, your lawsuit will NOT change anything. The payout will come from taxpayers. David's incarceration was financed by taxpayers. Prison investors are not personally inconvenienced by wrongful death lawsuits, but changing the system and incarcerating fewer mental patients would most certainly negatively impact them. Change is up to the people. We must remove prison investors from public office.
Do your elected representatives or their spouses invest in private prison companies?
Join the ASSISTANCE TO THE INCARCERATED MENTALLY ILL Blogtalkradio broadcast for 4/16/14. Call (818)572.2947 at 9pm Pacific to speak on air, or join us by computer
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nnia1/2014/04/17/assistance-to-the-incarcerated-mentally-illListen to the tapes for our shows anytime, and join us every Wednesday night for the live broadcasts.
It would be illegal to keep a dog in a tight space 23 hours a day and gas or Taser him for barking. It would be illegal to put a dog into a deadly restraint chair for control. But this happens to mentally ill Americans routinely in the nation's jails and prisons. What happened to Larry Neal?
Mentally Ill Americans Need Dog Justice. Treat mental illness medically, not legally.
Advocate for U.S. Congress to pass H.R.3717 - Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act
No comments:
Post a Comment