Unfortunately, for many people attending the Coachella Music Festival in California this year, the most memorable event of the weekend did not come from a performance on stage. It came from a disturbing act of police brutality that most likely left the victim nursing serious injuries.
To be fair, the victim was guilty of inappropriate behavior at the festival. He was clearly inebriated and in his intoxicated state, decided to remove his wizard costume and prance around naked. However, the action taken by police was undeniably excessive and inappropriate. The victim’s nakedness did not warrant the events that would ultimately transpire at the event.
At first, the three police officers on the scene were actually quite polite. Several times, they begged the man to put his clothes back on. They even handed him his wizard robe to make things easier for him. However, the naked wizard repeatedly made it clear that he did not intend to get dressed anytime soon. He kept throwing his wizard garb to the grass, shouting exuberantly that he would not get dressed to a rather large crowd cheering him on.
At some point, the police officers began to lose their cool. Once they put on their rubber gloves, the entire interaction took a turn for the worse. The police officers threw the naked wizard to the ground and proceeded to rough him up a bit. The naked man was not resisting, and he was naked. He was clearly not a threat to these officers. However, roughing him up, placing him in hand cuffs, and removing him from the festival wasn’t enough for these officers, whose egos seemed to suffer serious damage from the incident.
One officer took out his night stick, but to his credit, he refrained from using it. Unfortunately, his partner failed to exercise the same restraint with his taser and proceeded to use it on the naked man upwards of about 10 times. Throughout the tasering incident, the naked man lay motionless on the ground. The entire incident was witnessed by hundreds of festival onlookers and was caught on video.
The three police officers involved in the incident will most likely face a massive personal injury lawsuit to compensate the naked man for any injuries he sustained due to the police brutality. Hopefully, these officers will be fired and face criminal discipline for their behavior as well.
There has been growing evidence that tasers should not be used by police officers at all. Taser International, Inc. has already faced several product liability and wrongful death lawsuits over their stun gun technology. On several occasions, individuals have suffered severe injuries and even death from excessive taser use.
If you have a personal injury claim in the Denver, Colorado area, please contact the Law Offices of Burg, Simpson, Eldredge, Hersh, & Jardine, P.C. today to schedule a consultation.
