Native American given less than 2 gallons of water while jailed 13 days over bad check — and now he’

[WillyT]

Native American given less than 2 gallons of water while jailed 13 days over bad check — and now he’s dead
Travis Gettys - RawStory
30 Jun 2015 at 09:29 ET


Keaton Farris

<snip>

A Native American man starved to death while jailed 13 days over a bad check in Washington.

An autopsy showed that Keaton Farris died April 7 of dehydration and malnutrition after nearly two weeks in the Island County Jail, reported Natives in America.

Relatives hired a detective to investigate his death, and they learned two months later that jail employees refused to offer medical treatment to Farris or provide medication for his bipolar disorder.

They also found the 25-year-old Farris was denied even the minimum amount of water needed for human survival after guards shut it off to prevent him from flooding his cell.

The investigation revealed Farris had been given just 185 ounces of water, or about a gallon and a half, while incarcerated – far below the 1,563 ounces recommended under National Institute of Health guidelines.

That’s less than one quarter of the 791-ounce minimum needed for survival in emergency situations, according to guidelines set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Farris had been jailed in late March on identity theft charges after authorities said he cashed a stolen check for $350.

“I was projecting my thoughts at the people inside (the bank),” Farris told the arresting officer. “I’m off my meds right now and I’m pretty anxious right now but your badge is calming me down.”

<snip>

More: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/native-american-given-less-than-2-gallons-of-water-while-jailed-13-days-over-bad-check-and-now-hes-dead/

[Doremus]

1. No words.

RIP

[catbyte]

8. +1000

Amen. No words.

[Cassidy1]

24. I have two words. The only words I think of with something like this is

Just-Us. The people locking him up are not the Justice System. They are the Just Us System.

[dhill926]

2. goddamn it....

negligent homicide....at least....

[progressoid]

3. ...

[Rex]

4. What the fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck!

The cops that did this deserve...more than just going to prison. All I will say, anything else will get me in trouble.

[roguevalley]

20. some won't be happy until all first nation people are dead. then they don't have to consider

how this country got to be this country and who paid the greatest price for our manifest(ly) (evil) destiny.

[Rex]

32. True it is already happening here in Texas, they want to teach Real Christian (tm) history.

Were Moses is a founding father...I wish I was making this up. Abbott just assigned the head position over all school districts in Texas to a home schooler!

[brer cat]

5. How do we wind up with so many seriously evil

people in authority? Is there a box on the application form to check off if one is a psychopath so they all get hired?

[jtuck004]

6. Because the ones who aren't let it happen. n/t

[hifiguy]

33. The opportunity to exercise power over people who cannot fight back

and do so without any possibility of accountability has ever drawn the worst in humanity as the first volunteers.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

48. ^

[bonniebgood]

53. how do we wind up wity so many seriously evil people

in this authority? insert (D)evil. according to the christian bible, the devil was thrown to earth to cause these sickness, divisions and problems.

[Omaha Steve]

7. K&R!

WTF is right!

[Stuart G]

9. Freeland Washington, about 20 miles north of Seattle

K and r...what kind of people are there that ran that jail?...Fuck, who is responsible???

[JEB]

10. K&R for exposure.

Some lawyer should make a boat load of cash. Is this our country?

[denvine]

11. Unbelievable!

Charge the MF'ers that did this with murder.

[shraby]

12. A new capital crime, cashing a bad check.

[Ghost in the Machine]

42. NOT a "bad" check, it was a STOLEN check... but in NO WAY EXCUSES THE ACTIONS of the jailers

They should all be charged with negligent homicide and 1st degree murder...

Ghost

[avebury]

54. I would say 1st Degree Murder / depraved indifference because I would think that

premeditation could be proven. They intentionally deprived him of food and water necessary for survival. They didn't just deprive him for one day. They did it day after day after day after day and so on until he died on their watch. Then maybe look at charging their supervisors for negilgent homicide for allowing it to happen and not properly supervising their underlings.

And don't forget the civil suit that will probably be filed.

[Ghost in the Machine]

63. Yeah, the Civil Rights Violations lawsuit went without saying.. I figured that's a given....

EVERY PERSON in that jail who wore a uniform needs to be charged because this didn't happen overnight, it was an ongoing torture during each shift! I can't get over what happened to this poor man

Peace,

Ghost

[SunSeeker]

13. K & R for exposure. nt

[jwirr]

14. So very sorry. I hope the family sues the county. That is the only way they learn.

[Stonepounder]

18. Unfortunately, sueing doesn't do much except cost the taxpayers.

The only way that these POSs will ever learn is when DA's decide to start prosecuting this crap and start putting these bastards in jail themselves.

[jwirr]

19. I realize that the taxpayers end up with the bill but they are also to ones who allow the people

they vote in to establish a system like this. If they realize that they are on hook for the behavior of their government employees them they just might do something because they also hire the DA.

[cynzke]

50. Limited Liability!

Public employees are granted limited liability by state and local government in the performance of their jobs, but there are exemptions to this. Recklessness, negligence and criminal behaviour do not afford employees protection from prosecution and/or civil lawsuits. Public employees get personally sued all the time. Their attorneys will try to get the lawsuit dismissed based on their limited liability mantle, but the court/judge will decide whether the employee's conduct was reasonable or if he believes the public servant was negligent, the court can order the lawsuit to proceed and the employee can be held personally and financially responsible for his actions.

[AnnetteJacobs]

15. So? This wouldn't have happened if he didn't do anything wrong.

"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" and all..."
(That's the prevailing attitude of much of America, not mine.)

[Ilsa]

55. You're saying he deserved to die for his crime?

By starvation and dehydration? That form of execution is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

[ProfessorGAC]

58. I Think It's Clear The Poster Doesn't Think That

The post says "not what i think".

[JDPriestly]

16. This is criminal neglect in my humble opinion. There may be some explanation

but just offhand, this looks like a crime to me.

[d_legendary1]

27. I second that motion

The guards were tasked with taking care of the incarcerated. There is no excuse for someone to die in their care. I don't care how big of an asshole this guy was this is inexcusable.

[Calista241]

17. Pardon my ignorance, but why was he flooding his cell?

That's no reason to kill the man, but I guess I don't understand why someone would do that.

[jwirr]

21. He is bi-polar and off his meds. They also refused to get him medical treatment.

[yardwork]

61. It's a response to abuse.

I've read that prisoners do this in an effort to get needed medical attention.

There is something very wrong in our prisons.

[Sunlei]

22. Murder charges for all involved. Sadistic 'guardians' deny food and water to their charges in

all levels of our society. That is murder. Even animal abusers are charged with a crime!

[blackspade]

23. Cold blooded murder.

[lark]

25. Fucking killer prison guards,

same as killer cops. WTF is wrong with this world? If there were any justice, the prison would be shut down, stripped of it's present ownership and the guards responsible would be held criminally liable for his death and go to jail. If they let the people go that were incarcerated for drugs, the prison population would decrease dramatically and we'd save billions in taxpayer dollars. We also need to end privatized prisons, they're a big part of the problem.

[Man from Pickens]

26. He was Native American

as the Confederate flag flap shows, nobody gives a damn about Native Americans. Or they'd be demanding the US flag be taken down too, given what the Native Americans suffered under that banner was an order of magnitude worse even than Confederate-era slavery.

[KansDem]

28. Mayo Clinic says eight 8-oz glasses a day as a rule of thumb

Mayo Clinic

That's half a gallon.

So he was given sufficient water for 4 days. And they kept him imprisoned for 13 days.

One need only do the math...

[Kalidurga]

29. He was flooding his cell fine

That sounds like a reason to send him to the infirmary to figure out what his issues are. Or shut of the water fine, but then you better be prepared to bring bottled water and if he pours it on the floor rather than drink it o i dunno take him to the infirmary to figure out what his issues are.

[Uncle Joe]

30. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.

[WillyT]

34. :)

[Uncle Joe]

35. I don't understand it either.

Peace to you, WillyT.

[WillyT]

36. And To You... And To Us All...

[raouldukelives]

31. How sick is that. Scumbags.

[BrotherIvan]

37. That is torture plain and simple

torture and murder.

[niyad]

38. something like the opposite of waterboarding.

I hope these murderous bastards get charged and convicted, but will not be holding my breath.

[niyad]

39. there are words, but would probably get me banned.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

40. Horrible. Sorry to say...

... if you had published this story leaving out the details of where (what country) it took place,
I would have guessed the US and felt rather confident about being right. Sad.

[Solly Mack]

41. K&R

[Liberty Belle]

43. He wasn't Native American. RawStory printed a correction.

But it's still a terrible crime and I hope the guards are charged with murder.

[sabrina 1]

44. We hire thugs as prison guards. I know they will let someone die and refuse to get them

medication if they feel like it. I learned all about our gulags when a friend ended up in one of them on a traffic charge. A minor issue that should not have ended up with jail time.

I visited him frequently along with other friends and family members, we wrote cards, sent letters etc because if they think the person has no people to support them, it will be even worse.

He needed meds but missed the 'cart' that came around due to a prison change of his schedule. It was Friday. He called to say they would not provide meds until Monday. Frantic we called the prison, to no avail. They are nasty, rude and could not care less about human life.

His dad was a lawyer, but told us they would not respond to him either. I called another lawyer asking if we could sue them. His response? 'Come back if he dies'.

This is the NORM now in our disgraceful, human rights violating prison system.

May he RIP. And I hope these nazi thugs find themselves where he was, behind bars. But I know that is very unlikely.

[SheilaT]

45. Not to excuse this, but my guess is that prison guards

have zero training in how to handle mentally ill inmates. And very little realistic training in how to handle inmates in general.

Worse yet, in recent decades there has evolved a more and more "us against them" mentality. We see it at all levels, but it's especially noticeable in law enforcement, and secondarily in prisons.

[annm4peace]

46. More info and pictures of protest and actions

http://coupevillesports.com/tag/keaton-farris/

[chknltl]

47. UPDATE: Farris NOT Native American.

Just got done reading the story at the provided link. At the bottom of the story: "Update: An earlier version of this report inaccurately described Farris as a Native American."

Also, I am Bi-Polar, life is tough enough with meds. It'd be tough surviving jail without them.

[graegoyle]

49. There is this new invention called a "cup"...

They were worried about having to use a mop?

[barbtries]

51. they murdered him

[Enthusiast]

52. This is horrible. No one ever seems to answer for this kind of abuse.

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[fredamae]

56. I'm so sick of

this shit....it just adds insult to injury to know we pay for criminal and tortuous behavior from the people we hire and entrust.....and we pay, not just with our tax dollars but worst of all.....our loved ones pay with their lives, for tortuous, hideous, willful, imo-incompetence and virtual non-remedial/corrective action post discovery. I don't call "leave and resignations" any sort of "remedy".
Who are "we"?

Disabled, mentally ill, people of color, LGBTQ, women, kids, elderly, veterans, impoverished.....all are targets.
It's kind of hard to find anyone who doesn't meet criteria for at least one of these groups. Congress has done nothing except to open up the avenues that allow this to occur. DOJ has done little to remedy this. That's scary as hell.

[Enthusiast]

57. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

[ms liberty]

59. K&R...this is sick, criminal, awful. n/t

[R. P. McMurphy]

60. I hope that there is life beyond the one we know;

that this young man is there and that he never again feels sickness, pain, hunger, thirst, fear, loneliness or anguish.

My thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. My prayers continue for an end to this hatred, cruelty and injustice.

I obviously know nothing about this man but I have to wonder why he stole the check and was off his meds. Was there ever regular work for him? Could he afford his meds? Did he spend his entire life being oppressed and discriminated against? Maybe I'm way off base but this is the America I've come to know.

[Bluenorthwest]

62. Facts and possible helpful actions can be found at the website his family has made

"I see your hate, and raise you One Love." - Keaton Farris (April 12, 2012)

http://www.keatonh2o.com/