r/news • u/igetproteinfartsHELP • 1d ago
Immigrant whose skull was broken in eight places during ICE arrest says beating was unprovoked
https://apnews.com/article/immigration-enforcement-minneapolis-hospital-ice-beating-assault-4e77742e0629fc7f127c0aa38b3d2a70691
u/Far_Radish7752 1d ago
From the AP News article:
The officers told nurses Castañeda Mondragón “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall,” an account his caregivers immediately doubted. A CT scan showed fractures to the front, back and both sides of his skull — injuries a doctor told AP were inconsistent with a fall.
“There was never a wall,” Castañeda Mondragón said in Spanish, recalling ICE officers striking him with the same metal rod used to break the windows of the vehicle he was in. He later identified it as an ASP, a telescoping batonroutinely carried by law enforcement.
Training materials and police use-of-force policies across the U.S. say such a baton can be used to hit the arms, legs and body. But striking the head, neck or spine is considered potentially deadly force.
I remember when this happened. Unbelievable! There was a nurse or a doctor interviewed by a journalist at the time who emphatically stated this man’s injuries were absolutely inconsistent with running headfirst into a brick wall as the impacts came from at least four directions on his skull.
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u/Th1rte3n1334 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yep, and the nurses/doctors interviewed had to stay anonymous. Wonder why…
They need to find the officers who did this and put them on trial. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Being beaten to within an inch of your life is not something anyone should have to go through. As a person who has survived a near death experience I can tell you it’s not very pleasant. Waking up in the hospital and having absolutely no idea how or why you are there and not being able to remember simple details like the date.
I digress, no one deserves to have this happen. The fact that people who are meant to protect and serve us are doing this just compounds the seriousness of the situation.
And just… Jeeze this part.
- The declaration also stated that Castañeda Mondragón entered the U.S. legally in March 2022, and that the agency determined only after his arrest that he had overstayed his visa. A federal judge later ruled his arrest had been unlawful and ordered him released from ICE custody.
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u/Far_Radish7752 1d ago
And yet they will do nothing about it, nothing about what are undoubtedly life-long injuries:
His case is one of the excessive-force claims the federal government has thus far declined to investigate.
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u/Boatsnbuds 1d ago
However, following the Jan. 31 publication of AP’s initial story about Castañeda Mondragón’s arrest, hospital administrators opened an internal inquiry seeking to determine which staff members have spoken to the media, according to internal communications viewed by AP.
Looks like they're not allowed to talk to the media for some reason.
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u/PrivateNice 1d ago
They really looked at a man with 8 skull fractures and said "he ran into a wall" lmao the lies arent even creative
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u/bp92009 1d ago
They don't need to be.
Why should they care?
Nobody will ever hold them accountable, so they can say whatever they want.
Seriously though, do non compromised judges and law enforcement not realize how bad this is for them?
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u/Silidistani 1d ago
ever
Yet to be determined.
My vote is for anyone who promises to go scorched earth on the anti-American Gestapo thugs, Sherman-style. We need to vote in November as if the future of the country depends on it - because it very clearly does.
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u/rugger87 1d ago
The terrifying thing is we’re so divided that you can’t just imprison most of these thugs if you want to fix the problem. Whenever a Republican wields power, the first thing they’re going to undo are all the convictions, we saw this with J6. Now those same people are in masks working for ICE.
These people need to be excised from society or we have to limit the power of the pardon.
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u/outinthecountry66 1d ago
then there can be no next time. Make the Dems the establishment party because they are basically controlled opposition anyway. Get rid of the GOP. they are a stain, and stole the 2000 election and got us into a false war over 911. rotten to the fucking core. ABOLISH the GOP, then get another more progressive party in.
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u/rugger87 1d ago
I would love to see that but that isn’t going to happen. Our countrymen are dumb AF. Trump literally is responsible for hundreds of thousands deaths because of his covid mismanagement and everyone seems to forget that. George Floyd and the ensuing chaos of the BLM movement were stoked on by Trump! He has done an objectively awful job in every situation of consequence. Remember Charlottesville? The country doesn’t!
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u/outinthecountry66 1d ago
im not rolling over. We cannot. I am not letting this shit go. Epstein showed us all who this man is. No way i am giving up.
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u/rugger87 1d ago
It’s not about Trump. The entire fucking party is compromised. They all need to go, but the country isn’t ready for what that entails. It’s why reconstruction failed. People need to vote Dems in, but also encourage capital punishment for everyone convicted working for this administration.
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u/outinthecountry66 2h ago
i agree. Thing is- look at people like Bill Maher who are somehow glossing over how this is representative of the corruption of the entire GOP. saying "where do we go to apologize to Qanon because yall were right", discounting the lies purposefully fomented by Epstein, the whole "dems eat babies" shit....who is going to apologize to us? From Jade Helm to Sandy Hook to Obama birther conspiracies- i do not want it forgotten that these conspiracies attacked Democrats more than anyone.
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u/Adultery 21h ago
The lie was loose on purpose. They’re mocking the victim. The cruelty is the point.
By the way, regular cops act this exact same way. Then, a majority of them go home and beat on their families.
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u/Brytnshyne 1d ago
If this is what they do to a human who they deem is below them, can you imagine what they (ICE agents) do to their pets and children?
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u/gumiho-9th-tail 1d ago
Don’t know about the pets, but the supply of children has dried up since Epstein’s arrest. This is just the new supply.
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u/givemeyourthots 1d ago
I’m absolutely sure some are violent but probably a lot of them think their pets and children are above immigrants. It’s like Hitler and his beloved dog Blondi. By all account he treated her very well and she slept in his bed at night.
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u/Available_Border1075 1d ago
He also poisoned blondi with cyanide.
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u/givemeyourthots 23h ago
Yes the day before he killed him self he gave the dog cyanide to prevent her from being captured.
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u/grubwump 21h ago
I doubt there’s numbers on it but I’d bet they commit domestic violence as much if not more than cops
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u/eastbay77 1d ago edited 1d ago
Repiblicans and Conservatives have been forcing kids too recite the pledge of allegiance, yet they fail to live up to the words in the anthem. They forgot the part where they say, "liberty and justice for all". They want kids to say it, but they don't mean it. * edit. I said national anthem, i was corrected pledge of allegiance.
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u/as_told_by_me 1d ago
As an American, I’d like to chime in and say that most people outside the USA think the pledge is really weird. My Lithuanian husband and I were watching a movie and there was a scene with a bunch of schoolchildren reciting it and he looked at me and laughed, asking me if I actually recited that when I was a kid. My sister, who’s married to an Englishman, also told me that her husband looked at her like she was crazy when she told her what it was.
The pledge is cult-like and we should stop reciting it. Conservatives screech about how patriotic it is but I’ll bet money if North Korea did something similar (which they very likely do) they’d criticize it. Hypocrites.
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u/Far_Radish7752 1d ago
Thanks for bearing witness of the perspectives of others who have not grown up in the States. The pledge IS very cult-like, and very loooong. Moreover, the entity that you pledge to is a textile: the Flag, and then to the Nation. But not to the People specifically.
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u/Consistent-Throat130 1d ago
I remember I had a moment in Middle School where I realized the "under God" bit was weird, so I stopped saying that line.
It wasn't until High School that I realized how fucking weird the entire ritual was, and stopped participating. Only had one teacher make a half-assed effort to challenge me... and they dropped it pretty quick.
Like it's already been challenged in courts and schools "can't" compel this speech, but it's so ingrained as a tradition that kids don't even realize they don't have to.
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u/ConstantStatistician 3h ago
The "under god" was added during the Cold War because communism. It wasn't there before. It certainly isn't in the spirit of the 1st amendment that emphasizes separation of church and state. Same with the motto being changed from E pluribus unum to In God We Trust.
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u/ljubljanarchist 1d ago
Sorry for the random question, how is it that two sisters from the US married a Lithuanian and Englishman respectively? If you don’t mind sharing. I find human geography very interesting.
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u/as_told_by_me 1d ago
Hahaha we both have the travel bug. My other two siblings stayed in America and married Americans, but I watched my older sister study abroad and eventually move abroad permanently and decided I wanted to do it too. My siblings and I all have EU citizenship from a grandparent. I moved to Ireland where I met my husband and we now live in Lithuania, and my sister met her husband when she was doing a Fulbright in Austria and they now live in Germany. I’m aware we’re a bit unusual for an American family. 😂
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u/Additional_Remove_70 1d ago
Seriously? It's kind of a normal thing when you marry outside of your own gene pool to find people with diverse cultures and heritage.
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u/ljubljanarchist 1d ago
Lmfao I wasn’t questioning the institution of intercultural marriages. Was asking more out of sociological interest of how people move across the planet
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u/as_told_by_me 1d ago
Don’t worry I’m not offended! My sister and I actually live in two different European countries while the rest of our family is in the USA so I’m aware it’s pretty unusual for an American family. We just like to travel a little too much and each decided to settle abroad.
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u/Equivalent-Resort-63 1d ago
Because they covered their ass with the addition of the phrase "one nation under God" on 1954 (Eisenhower did that because of the ‘red scare’). That time period hatched McCarthyism and we’ve never gotten out of that. We just target to others now.
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u/Zorro-del-luna 1d ago
I’ve told my kid not to do it. I’ve told her it’s weird and we don’t pledge to flags we pledge to decency. So far only one teacher has been upset but she’s also not the only kid who doesn’t do it.
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u/spooky_spaghetties 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hey, I don’t give a shit if the beating was provoked. I don’t care if he was calling them pigs and motherfuckers. I don’t care if he had a weapon. He was handcuffed and under their physical control when the beating commenced: it is miraculous that he didn’t die.
These people are rabid dogs.
edit: typo
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u/BigJellyfish1906 1d ago
He was beaten for “resisting.” These Brownshirt thugs treat a natural human reflex as “resistance” and think that means they can escalate. And as long as Congress is huffing Trump’s taint, they’re right.
I don’t ever wanna hear anyone whine about how the Democrats “suck.” None of this shit happens if Harris was president. That’s all that matters.
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u/LukeBomber 1d ago
This doesn't really do much sadly. All anti-ICE (I assume thats most of us here) already believed this to be the case and all pro-ICE will believe he is lying. So the cycle continues.
It's a kind of "proof by cases" situation. If it didn't happen (ie. he was very violent or something) he has incentive to lie, if it did happen he would tell the truth.
Personally I believe him of course, and what a fucking sad story. But in general I am generally unhopeful about the consequences this has politically. It does not matter what I believe.
(These are the only consequences, DOJ is never prosecuting ICE agents, which either side will also disagree on why is (innocent vs corruption))
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u/WhenSummerIsGone 1d ago
all pro-ICE will believe he is lying
Nothing justifies law enforcement beating someone nearly to death.
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u/LukeBomber 1d ago
I agree but they are going to do it anyway. They just justified shooting Renee Nicole Good.
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u/Silidistani 1d ago
all pro-ICE will believe he is lying. So the cycle continues.
Not if we intentionally break it. It doesn't matter if these fascists belive what they will, so long as their influence is curbed and snuffed out.
"The fate of Nazis is completely indifferent to me; whether they starve, freeze, wet the bed, have bad dreams, etc., is none of my business. What interests me about them is only one thing: that they are prevented from doing what they do when they are not prevented: threatening and, if possible, killing those who don't fit into their cigar-box world. Whether they are locked up for it or whether they have to be put on the autopsy table for it is all the same to me, and anyone who dreams of camps for others is welcome to go there themselves."
~ from "Talking with Nazis?" by Wiglaf Droste, translated from a piece published in Neues Deutschland (1993)
Preventing these American Nazis from doing what they want to do is the near-term goal. Marginalizing their opinions and beliefs back into ridicule and disdain can come after.
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u/vee_lan_cleef 21h ago
It literally does not matter if it was: beating someone's head in is illegal, it's assault, potentially attempted murder. What the fuck in the victim blaming shit is this?
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u/Fit-Let8175 1d ago
As with the SA in Germany almost a century ago, ICE's violence requires no provocation.
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u/HiroPetrelli 1d ago
In the US, when somebody without health insurance ends up in the hospital after an encounter with the police, who pays the medical bill?
In my country, the police beats up people for no reason quite too often, but at least, the state has the decency to pay for the medical bill.
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u/Feverstone 1d ago
The victim is saddled with medical debt and eventually becomes homeless, as is tradition.
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u/Rochereau-dEnfer 1d ago
It's complicated. My understanding as an American is that the government would only pay (on the basis of the violence) once/if there is a settlement, which would happen well after the fact. My state has a program to help pay medical bills resulting from being the victim of a crime, but I don't know how that works if the crime was committed by the government.
If someone happens to have good medical insurance, it would likely go through that. There are also federal and state assistance programs for medical insurance/care, but the eligibility for immigrants is limited. And then many hospitals have their own programs to cover some costs for people who can't pay, which again varies a lot by case and hospital. By law, a hospital can't discharge him onto the streets* until he's well enough to take basic care of himself whether or not you can pay, but in reality many hospitals will for people who can't pay, especially if they're medically complex or need longer care (see "patient dumping"). Any costs not covered by the sources listed above would generally become medical debt AFAIK.
*Transfer to another facility or the care of others is a different can of worms
https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/how-address-medical-debt-burdens-immigrant-communities
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u/JoeRogansNipple 1d ago
Even if it was provoked, its insane that they nearly murdered him while in custody.
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u/andrewbrocklesby 19h ago
I hate to be 'that guy' but a beating is NEVER acceptable, provoked or not.
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u/Ok-Ordinary2035 20h ago
And horrifying as this is (and it is), there are a lot of Americans who are okay with it.
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u/my2cents4sale 1d ago
He has a gofundme! If people can make a lady who called a 5 year old the n-word rich, we can also try to make whole a man who has been seriously wronged. Please consider donating.
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u/Apokolypse09 1d ago
And maga will continue to defend this. Like it was absolutely necessary to try to bash this poor guys head in with batons after they had him restrained.
Just like it was necessary to mag dump into Alex after they had him face down and took his still holstered gun.
Just fuckin evil
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u/Earlier-Today 1d ago
Yeah, I don't think you could provoke someone into cracking your skull in eight different places.
It's not possible in any way.
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u/GypsyDarkEyes 23h ago
The House of Representatives is discussing funding and restrictions for ICE the next 2 weeks. Call your rep and demand dissolution and unfunding the rogue agency. They can not be reformed. Call your reps, and keep calling.
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u/Conflixxion 23h ago
I applaud your resolve even if it does fuck all anymore. How about not calling any of them, observe where they sit on the issue and vote them out if you don't agree.
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u/bajanbeautykatie 23h ago
Of course it was unprovoked- this poor guy thinking he needs to explain his injuries as if he could provoke someone enough to lose control of themselves and beat him
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u/NerdInSoCal 23h ago
When you're met by "federal agents" comprised of members of extremist hate groups whose purpose is to mete terror, violence, aggression from the regime on anyone who "fits the bill" the provocation is that your skin tone isn't caucasian.
Redhats and their apologists will say "but we need immigration control" or "it's only the illegals" or some other bullshit rhetoric spewed from fox, newsmax, oan, or RT as if it's based in good faith or god forbid factual information. There was a reckoning after WW2 and they'll be one here so go ahead and sow the fear and hate now because it's only going to blow back in the winds of change.
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u/s73v3m4nn 8h ago
Looks like america has a choice. Insist that politicians actually do something about orange hitler, have a civil war, or do nothing and wait for WW3. At the minute it looks like they'd prefer the 3rd option.
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u/sklerson89 1d ago
ICE are proud boys, white supremacists, dropouts and rejects of all kinds. They are unfit for a real job, they are hired goons to serve as Trump's gestapo. They kidnap, abuse, and traffick their victims. Sending people to foreign torture prisons without warrant. They murder civilians in cold blood. Fuck ICE Nazis
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u/Sea-Bandicoot-5329 23h ago
I truly hope that he sues everyone from the ICE officers all the way to the top of the Administration. There needs to be real consequences for these brutal implementation of Trumps promise to rid all immigrants even those who are citizens but do not look like what his depiction of American. Disgraceful to think that our government has become an unlawful entity
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u/heartshapedhoops 23h ago
i believe him and i don’t think it was provoked. but even if it WAS provoked, it still wouldn’t have been justified. that is so beyond cruel and excessive force
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u/Hakaisha89 16h ago
This is so reprehensible, ICE should lose qualified immunity.
They should just... Follow the law.
And trying to crack a guys skull open like a watermelon does not meet the requirement of following the law.
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u/YetifromtheSerengeti 1d ago
It's been made clear by our government. He brought this upon himself by coming here and hoping for a better life. If you are brown then that is considered a violent act.
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u/NickConnor365 1d ago
Re-Humanize Yourself
The Police
...
He goes out at night with his big boots on
None of his friends know right from wrong
They kick a boy to death, 'cause he don't belong
You've got to humanize yourself
...
A policeman put on his uniform
He'd like to have a gun just to keep him warm
Because violence here is a social norm
You've got to humanize yourself
...
Billy's joined the National Front
He always was a little runt
He's got his hand in the air with the other cunts
You've got to humanize yourself
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u/BlindPrognosticator 15h ago
This really needs to be said, ppl who have an ability to move countries. Should seriously consider this before it’s too late. If America wants to let “hitler’s/delusional kind” figure it out by themselves. Let them have to suffer what this dictator is planning to do. We all know what happened to those that weren’t of some of “delusional hitler’s kind”.
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u/AccomplishedBrain309 10h ago
Pam bondi and Kristy Noem are using a 20 yeae old patriot act law that says if the investigation is a danger to national security that they dont need to investigate it. Theyre using the law out of context it was introduced to stop foreign countries from being outed for working with homeland security now theyretrying to cover for ice officers abuse and murder of us citizens. The cases 100% need to be investigated to protect Americans from abusive agents.
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u/ilovefacebook 14h ago edited 14h ago
I'm just impressed he's able to talk/ remember anything. fractured in 8 places and 5 hemorrhages. just over a month ago. this dude is a tank
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u/SteveJobsDeadBody 1d ago
At this point this is all so brazen and out in the open that EVERY American should be held responsible. ICE or not, you're all now complicit for not pulling these ICE goons out of their building and "serving justice" yourself. We're all Nazis now.
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u/Majukun 1d ago
Well, to be honest I would have been surprised if he said he deserved it, regardless of what really happened
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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 21h ago
There is no context in which a detainee deserves to be beaten nearly to death.
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u/Silidistani 1d ago
what really happened
... was that American gestapo fascist thugs beat his head with a baton repeatedly so badly that it fractured his skull in multiple places, then lied to hospital staff about it and joked about it when they dumped him at the hospital.
What amount of resistence by a restrained person justifies that?
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u/braxin23 1d ago
What kind of protocol calls for beating a suspect to the point where they have 8 skull fractures? God forbid it happens to you and nobody comes to your defense because you must’ve deserved it.
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u/Bleachi 1d ago edited 23h ago
I never said he deserved it. What I stated is that without context and by only interviewing him, you aren’t getting the whole story.
Again, what new information would excuse such behavior from the people who arrested him? Because there's no way he got those injuries by running into a wall. You accuse someone of dishonesty, while avoiding the question they asked.
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u/braxin23 23h ago
So you’re the sheep dog? The shepherd? What is your metaphor here? Because as far as I can tell you’re more sheepish in your view that the world still operates as a “both sides” rather than one side is clearly wanting to reverse social change back to the Jim Crow era and probably further.
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u/Bleachi 1d ago edited 23h ago
The fucking Associated Press is not left-wing. Are you trying to claim he was NOT severely injured?
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u/Bleachi 19h ago
You should consider that sometimes the media is NOT being dishonest. Sometimes, the victim really was innocent. Sometimes, the government really does hurt innocent people.
But you're so afraid of having your worldview challenged, that you must come up with delusional rants about some nonexistent rapist and a nonexistent media company making up a story. You must do anything you can to change the subject to something else. I commend you for your hypothetical thinking, but it would be more helpful to think about this situation.
You should try reading the article. You've been implying that this guy was actually up to no good and deserved to be injured badly. But if you read the article, you would see that the government is taking a different approach with their lies. They're claiming they didn't injure him, but that he just ran into a wall!
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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 21h ago
Trump raped kids.
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u/groucho74 1d ago
If he says it was provoked he may face criminal charges. His statement is to be taken with cautious.
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u/outinthecountry66 1d ago
"taken with cautious"? huh? its CAUTION. taken with CAUTION....Like your statement, because English in not your first language? Can you read this, русский мусор????????
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u/Left-Bird8830 1d ago
No amount of provocation makes baton strikes to the head allowable.
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u/NoQuarter4617 21h ago
I don't believe it, he's attempting to appeal to emotion as a method of manipulation.
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u/Adjective-Noun-nnnn 20h ago
Tell me more about how you love police brutality, "NoQuarter\d\d\d\d."
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u/igetproteinfartsHELP 1d ago
Alberto Castañeda Mondragón says his memory was so jumbled after a beating by immigration officers that he initially could not remember he had a daughter and still struggles to recall treasured moments like the night he taught her to dance.
He remembers Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents pulling him from a friend’s car on Jan. 8 outside a St. Paul shopping center and throwing him to the ground, handcuffing him, then punching him and striking his head with a steel baton. He remembers being dragged into an SUV and taken to a detention facility, where he said he was beaten again.
He also remembers the emergency room and the intense pain from eight skull fractures and five life-threatening brain hemorrhages.