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Tuesday, February 17, 2015

#PatelAlabama: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. A tale of tale of two grandfathers. One black. One brown. One American. One Not.



A tale of two elderly men of who were both brutalized by police but treated differently.
 
William Frazier
William Frazier, 80, in an emergency room shows injuries he says were inflicted by Huntsville police

Remember William Frazier,  who filed a brutality claim against the Huntsville Police Department and was arrested after he failed to stop for a pursuing police car for more than three miles, ran a red light, hit a curb and swerved around a stop stick before five officers pulled him from the car and took him to the ground?  This comes to mind in light of the recent take down by a Madison police officer  of the Indian grandfather, Sureshbhai Patel, who was partially paralyzed, after someone called to report a skinny black man in the neighborhood.

Fraziers' crime was being black.
Patel's crime seems to be being mistaken for black.


William Frazier files $8 million claim against the city of Huntsville.
 Sureshbhai Patel files suit against the City of Madison and the Police.

Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle defends the actions of Huntsville Police officers and blames the victim.
Madison Mayor Troy Trulock continued discussions with local Indian residents, and Alabama Governor Robert Bentley met with India's general consul.

The Huntsville City Attorney said Fraziers' injuries after police encounter are from arrest, not excessive force.
Madison Police fire, arrest officer who badly injured Indian grandfather during sidewalk stop

North Huntsville residents press for changes after elderly driver's police brutality claim
suresh6.jpg
Sureshbhai Patel at Huntsville Hospital
Indian grandfather's injury by Madison Police officers prompts calls for cultural education.

Madison residents are embarrassedoffended, and defensive by police assault on elderly grandfather, and a member of the local Indian community, started a Go Fund Me account to help raise funds for the Patel family.  

William Frazier was found guilty of attempting to allude police in city court

#PatelAlabama: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. A tale of tale of two grandfathers. One black. One brown. One American. One Not.

Eye Report.
You Decide.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is no comparison!! Mr. Frazier put citizens in danger as well as officers. He broke MANY LAWS. The video shows him taken to the ground due to fleeing officers and I am sure his being drunk did not help his decision making.The recent event has the older male breaking no laws! He should have never even been stopped and checked!! Once again you compare apples to oranges and make something racist when it is not!!!! Why create racial problems when there is nothing to be created?!!!

Redeye said...

First of all fleeing police officers is not an excuse to take someone down to the ground. Secondly the police put citizens in danger by chasing Mr. Frazier. And the comparison is everyone is bending over backwards for Mr. Patel, including the Governor. Mr. Frazier, not so much. Maybe if Mr. Frazier had been a citizen of India the response from leadership would have been different.