Penal system
Outrage in USA: Prison guards beat inmate to death
Updated 12/28/2024 – 5:02 amReading time: 2 minutes
A brutal excess of violence in a New York prison costs one convict his life – and 13 correctional officers their jobs. Video recordings of the disturbing scenes trigger horror.
The brutal mistreatment of a black prisoner by prison guards in the US state of New York is fueling the debate about excesses of violence and racism in the American penal system. Robert Brooks was brutally beaten by correctional officers almost three weeks ago and was declared dead the next day. Video footage of the incident has only now been released by New York Attorney General Letitia James and sparked widespread outrage.
Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement that she was “horrified and shocked” by the inmate’s “senseless killing” – and had ordered the firing of 13 correctional officers and a medical nurse.
The disturbing scenes of violence were captured on December 9th by the body cameras of the correctional officers involved. That evening, Brooks – who, according to media reports, was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2017 for assaulting his ex-partner – was transferred from another prison to the nearby Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County. According to the investigating authorities, the body cameras were in standby mode at the time of the incident and therefore recorded the event without sound.
The video footage, which lasts a total of about two hours, shows Brooks being carried into an examination room at the detention center, where several officers push him onto a gurney. At this point he is handcuffed, his hands secured behind his back, and is effectively at the mercy of his tormentors.
You can see, among other things, how the 43-year-old is punched and kicked and put in a stranglehold – although the uniformed men who beat him all appear to be white. None of the bystanders intervene. What is said cannot be heard, but Brooks is obviously at least not offering any resistance, and there are no signs of provocation either.
Brooks was pronounced dead at a local hospital the next morning. According to the investigating authorities, the official autopsy results are still pending. However, initial investigations showed that Brooks probably died as a result of neck and neck injuries as well as “external violence,” it said. Presumed cause of death: He probably suffocated.
A lawyer for the survivors denounced that Brooks was “violently beaten to death by officers whose job it was to ensure his safety.” The prison workers’ union said it was “stunned”, and civil rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called for strong action against the “culture of violence” and irresponsibility in New York prisons.
