WHAT would you do if your own young son was forced by police officers to fight another inmate more than twice his size, gladiator style, just so they have a source of cheap entertainment in their place of work? What would you do if this son was threatened not only to be deprived of food, but to be subjected to torture if he would not obey their commands?
This happened to Ricardo Palakiko-Garcia, a kababayan in his twenties, who is accusing four San Francisco sheriff’s deputies of forcing him to fight a 350-pound inmate, gladiator style. Why would these officers want him to do this? They wanted to place bets on the fight.
“I have bruises on my back, on my elbows, and also my ribs still feel like I may be fractured, ” said Garcia’s voice in a report on Balitang America. Garcia weighs only 150 pounds, and his body was badly beaten by this sadistic act.
He and the other inmates did not want to fight and hurt each other but were forced to under duress.
“Um, I’ve been like basically witnessing and going through like, uh, deputies betting against me and forcing me to fight, and if I don’t fight, then he’s basically telling me that he was gonna beat me, up, cuff me, and taser me all at once,” Garcia intimated in the interview.
Garcia disclosed that he was forced to fight twice, and that these same deputies were even planning another fight.
San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi says there will now be a full investigation to find out what really occurred in jail. He is hoping that the sheriff deputies responsible will be prosecuted.
As Balitang America reported, Garcia and other inmates have been transferred to another facility in neighboring San Bruno. The four officers have been reassigned pending an internal investigation.
He also said that race may have played a role because the inmates who were forced to fight were all men of color. The officers were reported to be white.
What was also disturbing was the finding that there were two bailiffs who allegedly witnessed this abuse but did nothing. Balitang America confirmed that one of these men is Filipino.
“There needs to be a new rule that any law enforcement officer who witnesses another law enforcement officer committing misconduct – should be required to report it or be held liable for the same consequences if they don’t,” Adachi said on Balitang America.
Imprisonment of those who commit crime has been instituted for a number of reasons. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
“One approach is to deter those who would otherwise commit crimes (general deterrence) and to make it less likely that those who serve a prison sentence will commit crimes after their release (individual deterrence). A second approach on issuing punishment to, or obtaining retribution from, those who have committed serious crimes. A third approach encourages the personal reform of those who are sent to prison. Finally, in some cases it is necessary to protect the public from those who commit crimes – particularly from those who do so persistently. In individual cases, all or some of these justifications may apply. The increasing importance of the notion of reform has led some prison systems to be called correctional institutions.”
Ricardo Palakiko-Garcia is in jail for armed robbery, burglary, and prescription fraud. I wonder how abuses such as the ones he had to go through in the hands of law enforcers could harden these young criminals and quash the very goal of reforming them to become law abiding and conscientious citizens. Reforms need to be done to make sure the system does not betray the mission it is supposed to serve in this country.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
