The flag of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.
‘Don’t taser me bro’ appropriate response at Pine Ridge
By JEFFREY WHALEN On the morning of August 18th, 2014 I woke up early around 6:00 a.m., and checked my Facebook page. My daughter had sent a message where she wanted me to look at a video that was apparently recorded the day before. I found the video, watched it and what I saw was horrifying. The following is a graphical description of what was on the video. The scene appears to be on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation somewhere in the Wounded Knee District where a dark blue tribal police SUV is parked in the driveway of a HUD home in a housing project. There is a police officer who appears to be a white woman with bleached white hair who is standing on the sidewalk at the end of the driveway near the home. Her name is Officer Sutherland. She is dressed in her blue police uniform and is holding a Stun Taser gun and has just shot a male Native American with it. The male Native American is lying on his side and on the ground between the sidewalk and the Police SUV. He is unable to move and is still hooked up to the Taser’s wiring. The woman officer is standing upright, looking down on her victim and repeatedly pulls the Taser trigger again and again and again and doesn’t stop pulling the Taser trigger until around the 20th time. There is a crowd of older teen agers yelling at the officer begging her to stop using the Taser on her victim. A by-stander is holding the video camera and providing commentary. The woman officer can be heard in the background screaming at her victim; “I’m going to hit you again! There it is! Hurry up…get into the car before I hit you again, hurry up…I’m going to hit you again if you don’t get into the car…Get up! Get into the car!” The buzzing sound of the Taser goes off again and again. The victim can be heard moaning but is completely immobilized and is unable to move. The cop keeps screaming…”Get up! Get into the car! Someone in the crowd says; “This is about the 13th time they used the Taser on him. We’ve been watching for about a half an hour.” The person with the camera scream’s at the officer; “Stop Tasing him! Help him up! One of you boys go over there and help him up! His is just slobbering, they Tased him like 20 times now!” It seems like every time I write about the Pine Ridge Police Department some officer comes to arrest me for some dumb reason. This time, it doesn’t matter. I’m going to continue to report it the way I see it because what has happened with the Taser is flat out wrong and is a life threatening situation for the victim. This woman officer needs to be arrested for attempted murder. The President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe Bryan Brewer weighed in on Facebook as well. His message reads; “Good morning, this message is to our people who live in the Wounded Knee district and the Pine Ridge reservation. Officer Sutherland has been placed on suspension until further investigation. This investigation will happen very soon. The video camera she carries has yet to be reviewed. I will notify the people when further action is taken. Wopila.” Another post is from Mary H. Young Bear, “Good morning Mr. President. Thank you for the news of Officer Sutherland. That was absolutely police brutality. She abused her power and authority. No one should be above the law. She is very dangerous to the citizens of the reservation. She shouldn’t be allowed to go to another district. Wopila tankan!” The entire reservation Public Safety system is in shambles and is in dire need of repair. The officers drive through town at neck breaking speeds, totally ignoring the safety of the general public. They harass anyone who they have personal issues with and they disregard the rights of the citizens. Officer Sutherland represents every one of the reservation police departments and their lack of concern, professionalism and sympathy for the very Oyate that they serve is atrocious. The victim has every right to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against the Oglala Sioux Tribal Public Safety department and should immediately take this into federal court. Public Safety is a contracted program and it is being contracted from the federal system. Other officers, their supervisors and everyone in between should be reprimanded and even terminated from their positions. The Tribal Law & Order committee should immediately revoke Public Safety’s charter. A full investigation by the Inspector General, not by the tribe itself or by Public Safety, should be done and it should be done immediately. We have been living under the violent rule of the tribal IRA government for too long and its time for the Oyate to rise up and be heard. Long time ago, we used to have law and order done in the right way. Sunshine Janis was about the only officer that we would see on the streets. He would keep us in line and do it in a good way. If we were caught drinking or doing something wrong, Sunshine would chew us out on the spot and tell us to go home or he will throw us in jail if he saw us on the streets. We knew better than to argue with him. Sunshine respected us and treated us good. Most of the time he would escort us home to make sure we arrived safely. He was like the cop on Mayberry RFD which is a TV show featuring Andy, Barney, Opie and Aunt Bee. Sunshine was a Bureau of Indian Affairs Police Officer. Today we don’t have folks like Sunshine to rely on. Instead we have tyrants who represent themselves as tribal police officers and who take law and order into their own hands and as witnessed in the video, execute brutal acts upon our tribal members. One of these days, these untrained, unqualified officers are going to kill someone. The Tribal President has a right to call up the federal authorities and take this tribe right into receivership. The President had good intentions of building the economy, putting the Oyate to work, establishing businesses, providing products and services, working on social services, getting a better Public Safety department with the establishment of fully trained officers. Craig Dillon of La Creek District immediately took to tearing down a “think tank” that the President had formed. This think tank consisted of some highly qualified and educated individuals. Craig threatened to impeach President Brewer even before the President was seated into office. Irving Provost who is the Chair of the Finance committee refused to fund the think tank members, this left the President without good, qualified advisors and he had to go into the office blind. Elect a new council and help prevent Taser attacks by the Public Safety officers who are unqualified rejects. (Jeffrey Whalen can be reached at Jeffrey.whalen2@gmail.com) Copyright permission Native Sun News
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