Death of black teen found in US juvenile center sparks outrage
A viral video showing a dark teen losing consciousness while getting choked by workers of a juvenile delinquency center sparked outrage on Wednesday, as anti-racism protests continue to rage across the USA.
Cornelius Fredericks, 16, died on May 1, two days just after appearing pinned to the bottom by staff in Lakeside Academy - a residential treatment for adults found in Kalamazoo, Michigan - for having thrown a sandwich in another boy found in the cafeteria.
In the video, captured by surveillance cameras, Fredericks throws the sandwich and then is thrown to the bottom by several men, who use their weight to subdue him.
After 10 minutes, Fredericks appears unconscious. Staff members attempted CPR before calling for medical help.
His death recalls that of George Floyd, an unarmed dark guy killed by a white Minneapolis officer on May 25 during an arrest that was filmed and spread on social media.
Floyd's death has unleashed a massive wave of anger and protests against systemic racism and law enforcement brutality.
The "horrific video recording" of Fredericks's death reveals a "tradition of fear and abuse" at Lakeside Academy, where "suffocation is a normal practice... as a kind of discipline," the attorney for Fredericks's family members, Geoffrey Fieger, explained on Tuesday while producing the video public.
Fredericks "was executed on April 29 for the crime of throwing a good sandwich," Fieger said. The seven workers who pinned him down "deprived him of oxygen and his human brain suffered irreversible damage."
Two of the instructors and one nurse were charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse.
In June, Fieger filed civil lawsuits against the involved workers and the individual company that runs the Lakeside facility, Sequel Youth and Family group Services, which has a contract with mich.
"Cornelius's scream of 'We can't breathe' had not been enough to get the staff members to avoid the excessive restraint," Fieger wrote in the lawsuit.
"The excessive use of restraints and having less concern for Cornelius's existence draw a great eerily similar comparison to that of George Floyd's death," he added in the file.
Fieger said on Tuesday that the operating business had proposed an out-of-court settlement of significantly less than US$1 million in compensation to Fredericks's family group.
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer found in June denounced Fredericks's "senseless" and "intolerable" death, and announced that she was stopping all agreements with Sequel Youth and Friends and family Services in the talk about. - AFP
