Mary O’Callaghan, an 18-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, will stand trial in mid February of this year for the July 2012 death of 33-year old Aleasia Thomas. Charged with Abuse Under Color of Authority, O’Callaghan possibly faces a maximum of one year in county jail and/or a fine of $10,000 if convicted.
Thomas left her two small children at the 77th Street Division of the Los Angeles Police Department around 2 a.m. the morning of July 22, 2012. The children reportedly had a note with them that said their grandmother should be called.
Police officers eventually ended up at the door of Thomas’ apartment a few hours later to question her about the abandonment of her children. A report of the incident from the LAPD’s Board of Commissioners says that at some point during their questioning of her, Thomas told police that she “wanted to leave.” Police made the decision at that point to take Thomas into custody, where a struggle ensued. Officers struggled to get Thomas out of her 2nd floor apartment building and then struggled to get her into a police car.
The report goes on to state that Thomas was eventually put into the back of the police car but her legs were reportedly hanging outside of the door. O’Callaghan and her fellow officers were having difficulty getting Thomas all the way into the back seat, and at one point O’Callaghan was overheard by one fellow officer to threaten to kick Thomas “if she kept it up.” O’Callaghan eventually “utilized her feet seven times on three separate occasions to push or kick the Subject, in the upper thigh, groin and abdomen area” into the police car according to the report.
The report also notes that once Thomas was secured in the back seat an officer turned on the vehicle’s dash cam and rear seat video recorders. Neither the audio or video from the car has been released to the public yet however, the report also notes that Thomas appears to try to sit up and asks for an ambulance and can be heard saying “I Can’t Breathe” on the tape. Thomas’s eyes eventually roll back in her head, and an officer checks on her approximately 30 seconds later and determines that she is in need of an ambulance.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck says he made the decision to recommend the charges against O’Callaghan after reviewing the tape of the incident along with the report of the Board of Commissioners.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.