Feds Probe Teen Boy's Death at (Juvenile Offender) Boot Camp

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060216/ap_on_re_us/boot_camp_death

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The Justice Department is investigating the case of a 14-year-old boy who died a day after entering a boot camp for juvenile offenders, authorities announced Thursday.

The investigation, which will include the FBI and the Justice Department's civil rights division, will focus on whether camp guards violated Martin Lee Anderson's rights through use of excessive force or "indifference to serious medical need," said U.S. Attorney Gregory R. Miller.

Anderson entered the boot camp Jan. 5 because of an arrest for theft, and complained of breathing difficulties and collapsed during exercises that were part of the entry process.

The Bay County sheriff's office, which runs the camp, said Anderson became uncooperative and was restrained. The boy's mother, Gina Jones, contends that her son was murdered by guards who beat him to death.

Law enforcement authorities have resisted legal efforts by news organizations and others to obtain a videotape that two state lawmakers said showed the beating.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Does the DA have that videotape?

Or has it been conveniently "erased"? Also, what color were the guards? Was this a racist hate crime or a tragic misunderstanding of the medical condition of the young man?

[stop the bleeding]

2. Nope actually CNN and the Miami Herald are suing for it, but Jebby

will not let it be released while there is ongoing investigation - sound familiar??

on edit: I can not find an article depicting this, however I base my statement off of a report I heard on NPR on Monday morning of this week I think.

[flordehinojos]

7. I HEARD JEB BUTTINSKY BUSH IN HIS OWN WORDS ON A LOCAL NEWSCAST SAY JUST

THAT, THAT HE WOULD NOT RELEASE IT (MUST BE THE VIDEO) WHILE THERE IS AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION! AND, AS IS HIS CUSTOM, HIS HEAD WAS MOVING NON-STOP FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, RIGHT TO LEFT, IN A MOTION, IN WHICH, IN MY MIND, AT LEAST, HE ALWAYS SEEMS TO DENY WHAT HIS OWN WORDS ARE SAYING. AND THEN HIS LIPS HAD THAT FAKE HYPOCRITICAL SMILE SO PERSONALLY JEBBIE'S.

[Mithras61]

4. Based on what I've previously read about FL...

and detainee/prisoner handling and the secrecy associated with their prison system, I's guess it's a good bet that it was a combination of things...

primarily "we got pissed off at him" and "we beat the sh!t outta him" and "he had a medical condition that they didn't tell us could cause him to die" (lying their asses off here).

IANAL and I can't PROVE anything, but FL has had many prisoners charge abuse & neglect of medical needs over the last several years, and no one seems able (or more likely, willing) to do anything about it.

[littlebat]

5. florida

I don't know what's up with FL. I'm a florida native. I think our Dept of Children and Families has about the worst record nation-wide(When I was contemplating becoming a social worker, I put 'social work child abuse' in my search engine and...wow)
A few miles away and a few months ago, a 17-18 yr old (he turned 18 while in jail) was sentenced to LIFE IN PRISON for the accidental death of two people while driving his mother's car without a license. He wasn't on drugs or alchohol (though they found some cocaine in the victims' car)or intentionally driving wrecklessly.
I wish someone would have taken me up on my bet "I'd bet a million dollars the kid is black"...so I'd have something to donate to the kid's defense fund. (Thank the NAACP for taking it up)
...Oh and we elected Chimpy's brother to be governor.

[Mithras61]

6. Welcome to DU!

I saw a news program on the subject of FL prisons a few months ago. The news team was told they could come out to the prison to shoot, but when they did, the guard patrol in black SUVs ran 'em off & the warden wouldn't comment on it (on camera or off).

[littlebat]

9. welcome...and one more

Thanks for the welcome. It doesn't surprise me about the prisons. I just remembered reading a few months ago that Florida has more white supremacist groups than any other (?) state. The KKK recently went around (they crashed an outdoor concert in the town I just moved from)passing out fliers that apparently offered people a way to give to "white Katrina victims" (without it being misused to help black people). And so many rebel flags here!

[High Plains]

3. Can I kick the shit out of those guards until they die?

C'mon, it's therapeutic and builds character.

[Ignis]

10. Of course not. They'll just be reassigned.

It's ludicrously rare that guards are appropriately punished for abuses of prisoners in REAL prisons, so I'm not holding my breath that these guards will every face a criminal trial.

[Janice325]

8. Aw, crap!!

When I saw the title of your message, somehow I intuitively knew that it happened in Florida, and I don't even live there. :puke:

[saigon68]

11. MAYBE THESE TWO CAN HELP "BRING ORDER"

[Bassic]

15. That guy looks dead.

What are they happy about, wrapping him up in a body bag?

[saigon68]

20. They just got done killing him

Later parties unknown would take it outside (pakced in ice) and dump it along the road.

[soup]

12. Autopsy Report: Trauma didn't kill teen

A medical examiner says a sickle cell trait killed Martin Anderson, not a boot camp beating. Family members and lawmakers dispute the report.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE and ALEX LEARY
Published February 17, 2006

PANAMA CITY, Fla. - The teenager restrained by guards in a boot camp died not from physical trauma but from internal bleeding caused by sickle cell trait, a blood disorder he probably didn't know he had, a medical examiner said Thursday.

Exercise and stress in the boot camp yard could have triggered a "cascade of events" that led to the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, district medical examiner Charles F. Siebert Jr. said.

The teen's parents have said that their son was swollen and bleeding in the hospital and that his organs were too badly damaged to be donated. Robert Anderson said his son's nose looked broken.

Siebert said the organs were not damaged and the nose was not broken. If the body seemed swollen it was because fluids were inserted as a medical team tried to save his life, he said. Someone with sickle cell will suffer massive bleeding from openings in the body, he said. >snip<
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/02/17/State/Report__Trauma_didn_t.shtml

Also from the article:
>>After repeated requests and a lawsuit from two media outlets, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced it will release the tape this morning.<<

and

>>ON THE WEB

Video footage of what some have described as the brutal beating of Martin Lee Anderson was to be released by investigators this morning. Visit sptimes.com.
<Last modified February 17, 2006, 02:38:48>

[soup]

13. from the Miami Herald: 'Natural causes' cited in teen death

EXPERTS REFUTE REPORT

>Dr. Stuart Toledano, director of the University of Miami medical school's division of pediatric hematology and oncology, has been studying sickle cell for more than three decades. He said he is not aware of any teen dying from sickle cell trait unless they were oxygen-deprived, such as in ''high-mountain climbing'' or on an unpressurized airplane.<

>'I've been in the field since the early '70s, and I cannot remember a child with sickle cell anemia, let alone sickle cell trait,'' who bled to death from exercise, Toledano said.<

>'Lacerations and contusions, that is not a part of sickle cell anything,'' Toledano said. ``I don't see how I can say that any more bluntly.''<

Dr. Thomas Harrington, director of the Adult Sickle Cell Clinic at Jackson Memorial Hospital, said that for someone with the ''very common'' sickle cell trait to die abruptly of complications from the disease would mean that his body had to be under enormous stress, probably dehydrated and oxygen-deprived.

''I don't see where the natural causes come in,'' he said after having the report read to him. ``You have to be under pretty severe physical stress to die with sickle cell trait.''

Noting that Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen had asked coroners in Pensacola, where the teen died, to move Martin's autopsy to Panama City, Crump (attorney for Martin's parents) called the report ``a case of home cooking so the medical examiner could give <the Sheriff's Office> what they wanted.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13893108.htm

[bleedingheart]

18. I had a co-worker with sickle cell...

he would be hospitalized for a week or more when he had attacks...it was just awful and it caused him a great deal of pain.

I remember once he was doing a lot of consulting work and flying from one place to another... that stress appeared to trigger an attack...in fact we had no idea where he was until a hospital in Boston called to let us know that he had been admitted and he wanted us to know that he hadn't disappeared...

So if a lot of heavy duty travel could trigger an attack...boot camp probably wasn't a good idea. But I wonder why his parents didn't know he had it????

[soup]

19. Oh, that sounds just horrible.

Very scary. I hope he is doing ok, and has found a less stressful job.

The specialists in the article mention 'sickle cell anemia / sickle cell trait'. I wonder what the difference is between the two, or if there is a difference.

I swear, everyday something comes along that points out how little I know about anything.

[Orsino]

23. Are we following the money?

What private firm is running this boot camp? Owned by which Republican crony?

[soup]

14. more snips

Coroner: Boy at Boot Camp Died of Illness

>"It was a natural death," he (medical examiner Seibert) said.

Medical forms filed at the boot camp did not indicate that the youth or his family were aware of the disorder, which affects about one of every eight black people, Siebert said. The sickle cell disorder would not show up in routine blood tests, he said.

Siebert said there were some bruises and abrasions on the boy's body, but he attributed those to attempts to resuscitate the youth.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/02/17/ap/us/d8fqjkd83.txt

--

Teen's Boot Camp Death `Natural'

(state Rep. Gus) >Barreiro and Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, viewed the tape last week of the events leading to the youth's death.

"He was so limp and not about to go anywhere and you see a guard punching his arm, a knee to the back of the leg to knock him back down to the ground and choking him," Barreiro said.

There were also some minor cuts behind Anderson's ears, possibly as a result of efforts by PLEASE SEE CAMP, PAGE B2

guards to gain control of the 140-pound youth, Siebert said. No drugs were discovered by the autopsy.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060217/NEWS/602170393/1134

on edit: related articles at the Ledger link.

[undergroundpanther]

16. Parents can beat thier kids by proxy

with boot camp and tell themselves they are not child abusers.
Just like Bush has soldiers torture prisoners at abu Gharib and says he doesen't do torture.Remember what the torturers said at Abu Gharib ablot LOVING to make a grown man piss thier pants..well...

"If I can't make a kid puke or piss in his pants on his first day, I'm not doing my job."
A youth trainer at a juvenile facility
http://www.nospank.net/boot.htm

Fuck these bully parents.They whine too lare when guards murder thier child when they abandon thier child to a bunch of sadists to condition them to obey auth-or-a tee? They lost trust with thier child that is why they get no respect.Trust has to be EARNED and not betrayed in a world as sick as this.Parents who dominate kids just don't GET that.


How will kids who have had the ability to say “no” to authority psychologically (and physically) beaten out of them be able to resist pressure to join gangs (gang life is the closest thing there is to being in the military in the everyday lives of most “at risk” kids) once out of boot camp?

Of course, the real impetus behind the boot camp fad is simple vengeance. Our society wants to make “bad” kids suffer and, at the same time, be able to tell itself that the punishment the kids are receiving is “for their own good.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/boot-j10.shtml

[soup]

17. What was that guy's name?

Argh.

Hired awhile back by jeb to head up Florida's DCF.. from Oklahoma, I think.. Advocated beating a child as appropriate discipline, a woman's place was in the home, etc.. based on the Bible..

--

following up on your link:

"If I can't make a kid puke or piss in his pants on his first day, I'm not doing my job."
A youth trainer at a juvenile facility
http://www.nospank.net/boot.htm

A lot of reading to do. There has to be a better way.

[JVS]

21. This is all Maury Povich's fault!

[soup]

22. Video clips up at the Miami Herald.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ 7 1/2 minutes of the 1 hr. 30 min. tape.

If you can handle it. Even as blurred as it is, it's brutal.

--

PANAMA CITY - The Florida Department of Law Enforcement released a videotape today that shows guards at a North Florida bootcamp repeatedly striking and forcefully restraining a visibly weak 14-year-old boy who died hours later.

The tape, intentionally blurred by the FDLE to protect the identities of the other youths at the camp, shows between three and five drill-sergeant-garbed guards pressing, wrestling and splaying 140-pound Martin Lee Anderson, who has rubbery legs and at no times appears to offer resistance. Also, the nurse on scene appears to offer no help. >snip<
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13898115.htm

--

As horrible as this outrageous, seemingly endless beating is - the capper is the woman (the nurse?!), just standing there watching this go on - makes me want to scream/ throw up/ tear her limb from limb. Oddly enough, she evokes more rage in me that the thugs doing the beating. Maybe because she wears the tag 'nurse'.

[Divine Discontent]

24. WTF WTF WTF?????

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT OLDER LADY (NURSE) DOING JUST WALKING AROUND WITH HER ARMS ON HER HIPS DOING THROUGHOUT ALL THIS???!!! WAS IT NOT OBVIOUS HE WAS EXTREMELY ILL AFTER ABOUT A MINUTE?

sickening... one by one we all fall town like toy soldiers to the "police state"

[genieroze]

25. I hope the parents sue the crap out of them.

[MisterP]

26. we've declared war on everything, including our children