White Man Receives Compensation After Violent Police Beating

A Michigan white man was awarded $36m after a surveillance video showed he was brutally beaten by cops.

A white man, who was arrested for driving drunk in 2010, was awarded $36 million after a jury found the police officers involved in his arrest guilty of using brutal force. But, just $6million and $5.9million were given to the families of Tamir Rice and Eric Garner, who both died at the hands of police officers. We have got more information on this piece below.

The Free Thought Project

Genesee County, MI — (RT) The victim of a brutal police beating has been awarded $36.6 million in mostly punitive damages after a jury found five Genesee County Sheriff’s officers used excessive force.

Man Awarded $36 Million After Video Showed 5 Cops Beat Him, Strap Him Down and Torture Him: https://t.co/6oEQBzUBTx via @YouTube

— cc copwatch (@copwatchccfl) November 9, 2016

William Jennings, 42, was arrested in Michigan for driving drunk in September 2010. When he was going through intake at Genesee County Jail, things quickly went from standard procedure to a takedown by police. Thrown to the floor, Jennings was then beaten by the officers.

The entire incident captured by a jailhouse camera was shown to the jury, which decided to award the white man $36.6 million, more than double the $16 million requested by his attorney.

“I asked them for $16 million. I think they thought the conduct was extremely outrageous and returned a verdict that exceeded what we asked for,” Kevin Ernst, attorney for Jennings, told WJBK.

An award of this sum is unusual in these kinds of cases. The family of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer in 2014, received $6 million in a settlement with the city of Cleveland. The family of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man killed by an NYPD officer in 2014, received a $5.9 million settlement.

Defense lawyers justified the five officers’ actions by claiming that the white man was “admittedly drunk” and “non-compliant, resistant and combative during the booking process” after he was arrested for drunk driving and was believed to have been in a fight at a bar in Flint, the Detroit Free Press reported.

“The force and maneuvers utilized were appropriate to control the situation,” the defense claimed.

However, the tape shows him being dogpiled by multiple police officers that began after Jennings removed his hand from the wall during a pat down.

be nice if karma could catch up with all these jerks in our lifetime . . .ijs 😉 https://t.co/JTjyYdRXRD

— inner child (@1innerchild) November 8, 2016

“They attacked him in the jail. Then they handcuffed him and continued to assault him, smashing his face into the wall,” Jennings’ other attorney, Dean Elliott, told the Free Press. “They took him into a safety cell … covered his mouth, Tasered him and put a bag over his head and tied him down.”

“I ended up busting my tooth chewing a hole in the mask so I could breathe,” Jennings told WJBK, adding, “I thought I was going to die.”

The award is believed to be a symbolic gesture that speaks to the nature of Jennings’ attack, “I think that the jurors were sending a message to the sheriff that these kinds of actions cannot go on,” Elliott said. See more

The  sum awarded to the white man, who was beaten by the police is overwhelming, compared to the sum given to the families of Black men, who were killed. It only proves that the system doesn’t value Black people at all. The prices for traumas, injuries and even lives are set basing on the color of skin. It sometimes happens that there is no price at all and the killer cops continue to do what they want. For whites the situation has always been completely different.