Dad Who Died During Arrest ‘Begged for His Life’; Witness Videos Seized
May 11th, 2013Via: The Bakersfield Californian:
Blood stains are still visible on the sidewalk at the corner of Flower Street and Palm Drive, where a Bakersfield man struggled with as many as nine officers and later died this week.
David Sal Silva, 33 and the father of four young children, died early Wednesday morning after deputies say he fought with them and CHP officers who’d responded to a report of a possibly intoxicated man outside Kern Medical Center.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office says Silva resisted, a canine was deployed, more law enforcement arrived, batons were used and the man later had trouble breathing. He was taken to KMC, where he died. An autopsy was slated for Thursday, but no results have been released.
Some witnesses apparently took cellphone video of the incident but deputies moved quickly to seize the phones. The Sheriff’s Office, after releasing a statement Wednesday and naming its officers Thursday, declined all further comment.
People who say they witnessed the incident as well as Silva’s family members described a scene in which deputies essentially were beating a helpless man to death. They were indignant that cellphone video had been taken away by deputies.
Research Credit: pookie
I’d have my hopes up for a smartphone app that would record video straight to the Intertoobz, but I have a feeling that all the smartphone manufacturers would be happy to pre-emptively outlaw it on behalf of law enforcement.
There’s an opportunity: come up with a constantly running mini video camera, containing extra long life battery, that can hide as a button on a shirt, or something like that. If this video camera actually became real I suppose cops would have to confiscate everyone’s buttons.