Michael Sellers is the guy, left, who is not visibly damaged. He used to be police chief in Fullerton CA, and we’ll get back to him. The other guy (below) is Kelly Thomas, whose hospital photo was taken by his father, and first published by bloggers (with permission of the elder Thomas.)Kelly Thomas

The blog is Friends for Fullerton’s Future, run by Tony Bushala. Chris Thompson is part of the team, along with Travis Kiger. FFFF has been all over this thing like white on rice, right from the start, soliciting information and interviewing witnesses.

ReasonTV made a video segment about FFFF. Some of the website’s posts about the case have stimulated more than 500 comments.

Kiger has said, “The picture was so horrific, the local TV channels wouldn’t even show it.” And besides, the local newspapers can’t print anything critical of the police force, because they’re dependent on the cops for the – you know, like, the news.

On July 5, 2011, Kelly Thomas was hanging around the bus depot, and supposedly the cops got a phoned-in citizen complaint that somebody was breaking into cars. The whole thing stinks from the word “go,” because, funnily enough, no record of that call seems to exist. Kelly was 37, schizophrenic, the son of a man who is himself in law enforcement. Various family members say he could have stayed with them, but like many people with that condition he preferred to live outside. According to those who knew Kelly, he wasn’t the combative type.

One press report said he had a long history of police encounters. There was a felony assault with a deadly weapon, and a bunch of misdemeanors and infractions. Daily Kos said this about that:

What the writer fails to mention is that the felony assault was about many years old and was related to when Kelly first showed signs of mental illness when he was first diagnosed.  The rest of his crimes were harmless and he had been deemed as harmless for years.

And a whole lot of people say, even if someone has a record, it’s still illegal for cops to be so violent. For supposedly committing an unofficial but de facto crime known as contempt of cop, Kelly Thomas got beaten to a pulp by six contempible cops. Here is how KruizinKareem tells the story:

They sat him on the curb and started questioning and searching him, matters quickly escalated when officer Manuel Ramos decided to threaten Kelly. Officer Ramos put latex gloves on and put his fists up in Thomas’ face, he then said “You see these fists? They’re getting ready to fuck you up” Kelly ran in fear for his life, he was chased down by Ramos, punched repeatedly in the ribs, then officer Kenton Hampton jumped in to aid Ramos, they both subdued him and continued the beating.
Officer Jay Cicinelli arrived on the scene a few minutes later, he kneed Kelly in the face multiple times, tased him repeatedly and smashed his face in with the butt of the taser. Eventually there were 6 cops on top of Kelly as he laid helpless in a pool of his own blood while witnesses stand on the sides watching helplessly.

A lot of people were around, one report says as many as 150. A woman was made to expose the film in her camera, and it sounds like at least one camera was confiscated.

By the time they got Kelly to the hospital, asphyxiating from blood-filled lungs, he was brain-dead, and on July 10 he was taken off life support. Chief Sellers went on vacation around this time. He didn’t do any press conference or even a written statement.

In late July, Sellers was still on vacation, but exercised his influence to get a guy named Stan Berry hired as the DA investigator. FFFF received an anonymous tip:

Sellers hired Berry when he was the Chief at Seal Beach PD. Sellers and his wife… are close personal friends with Berry and his wife… They socialize together, vacation together and entertain each other in their respective homes.

Dang! Conflict of interest much? Sellers had only been in office since early 2009, and has taught law enforcement classes for more than 30 years. He even teaches ethics at Fullerton College. Ethics. When he got the job of chief in Fullerton, he advertised himself as an advocate of community-oriented policing. Check out this quote:

Our first step is to save lives. When lives are not at stake, our next job is to protect life. When that’s not an issue, our job is to help improve the quality of life for our citizens…

The FBI, incidentally, also opened an investigation. And then… the lawyer for the authorities offered Kelly’s father Ron Thomas a $900,000 settlement and said he might as well take it because his son wasn’t exactly a rocket scientist.

Citizens started bitching that the still-vacationing Sellers should resign, so he … wait for it… went on medical leave. The title of this piece asks, “Chicken-Shit Pansy-Ass of the Year?” and at this point, the answer is yes. This is the guy who was supposed to be keeping these monsters in line. His job was to make sure the troops didn’t go out slaughtering citizens at random. People want to know why he didn’t do his job.

Unless his job happened to be playing the system, which was nicely accomplished according to a Facebook commentator because taking medical leave

—Prevents him from being fired
—Prevents (or delays) him from being hauled in to court

In September, 2 out of the 6 involved cops were charged. Murder and involuntary manslaughter. A few days later, the family’s lawyer went on TV with horrific pictures of the injuries. By October, Kelly’s Army was an un-ignorable reality. FFFF reported that crowds had been shouting, honking and marching in front of police headquarters every Saturday morning since Kelly died. The activism was branching out in other directions, too, with talk of city council recalls and other dire consequences to the body politic. Coming up on Christmas, Sellers was still on medical leave, the police department was in turmoil, and the city appointed an acting police chief.

Fast-forward to 2012, when it is announced that Michael Sellers, still on medical leave, formerly on vacation, will as of February 19th be a RETIRED police chief. This chicken-shit pansy-ass is NEVER gonna be held accountable for his part in this. Plus, he filed a work comp claim which will give him $127,000 and that’s only the tip of the money iceberg, but anybody who cares that much can find it all online.

For the murdering cops, the pretrial stuff starts March 28. Policing has hit a new low, no doubt about it. A website called Cop Block has quite a lot to say about the case too, including posts from a pseudonymous person who is said to be a law enforcement officer with 17 year experience. This professional writes,

YOU ASSHOLES KILLED A HUMAN BEING AND FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON AND I HOPE WHEN YOU GO TO PRISON YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE. I SINCERELY HOPE THEY FEAST ON YOU FROM THE ROOTER TO THE TOOTER.

Here’s a brochure that describes the whole case

THE GOOD NEWS IS

The protest song is alive and well.

“For Kelly” by Devil’s BeatDown – Written and dedicated to Kelly Thomas. The words quoted by KruizinKareem were taken from this page, which also has the lyrics, and the credits:

This song was written for Kelly Thomas by “Devil’s BeatDown” produced by Greg Hetson (Bad Religion, Circle Jerks) and Josh Ackziger. The video directed and produced by Kareem Girgis.

That’s Enough / Kelly Thomas Song – Jon Durham
The Ballad of Kelly Thomas   Julian Porte