Justice For Ethan: Governor Martin O’Malley, We need an independent investigation and training for police.

Map of Maryland highlighting Frederick County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Petition by

Emma Saylor

Mount Airy, MD

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My big brother, Ethan Saylor, was a 26 year old man with Down Syndrome who died in the custody of three off-duty Frederick County Deputy Sheriffs on January 12th, 2013 over the price of a movie ticket. Our family is hurt and left with many unanswered questions. We’re calling for an independent investigation into Ethan’s death.

Ethan’s crime? He wouldn’t leave a movie theater because he wanted to see Zero Dark Thirty one more time, but didn’t pay for the second showing. When he refused to get out of the seat for the next show police attempted to pull him out of his chair and he resisted. Ethan’s aide asked the police to wait and that Ethan would calm down shortly if they left him alone. She specifically told them that touching him would just escalate the situation. They didn’t listen.

One deputy pulled Ethan from his seat and began struggling with him. Then two more off-duty deputies joined in, wrestling Ethan and trying to handcuff him. Then they “took him down,” falling in a heap with Ethan at the bottom. Witnesses say they could hear him crying and calling for our mom. Then he stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest. In just a few moments he was dead – eventually ruled a homicide by asphyxiation.

To date, the only investigation conducted was written from the narrow perspective of the Frederick County Sheriffs Department. They investigated and cleared themselves of any wrongdoing. And for us, so many questions are left unanswered because of this.

Part of the problem is that police officers in Maryland aren’t trained enough in how to deal with developmentally disabled people like my brother. I think training is an important next step in making sure that what happens to my brother never happens to anyone else.

We need a comprehensive, independent investigation that will show all sides of the truth; unbiased and thorough. I want my governor and attorney general to get justice for my brother, and to implement training protocols so that no other family will ever have to experience the pain my family feels.

We miss Ethan every day. He didn’t deserve this. And no one else does, either.

To: Governor Martin O’Malley Attorney General Doug Gansler Cathy Raggio, Secretary of Disabilities Senator David Brinkley

I am writing regarding Ethan Saylor, a man with Down syndrome who died while at The Regal Westview Movie Theater in Frederick, Maryland in January. I am requesting that you appoint a Special Prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation into Ethan’s death, so the facts can come out and those responsible can be appropriately prosecuted.
While waiting for his support staff to retrieve their…

I am writing regarding Ethan Saylor, a man with Down syndrome who died while at The Regal Westview Movie Theater in Frederick, Maryland in January. I am requesting that you appoint a Special Prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation into Ethan’s death, so the facts can come out and those responsible can be appropriately prosecuted.
While waiting for his support staff to retrieve their car after the movie, Ethan refused to leave his seat. He was restrained face-down by three plain-clothes officers moonlighting as mall security. Ethan died from a crushed larynx while handcuffed. His senseless death was ruled a homicide, but the Frederick County Sheriff and Prosecutor neglected to conduct a thorough investigation of the facts and the grand jury refused to indict. Ethan’s death was senseless and entirely avoidable and we need an independent, completed, and thorough investigation as to what happened that night.
In addition to the investigation, we need to implement training protocols so that no other family will ever have to experience the pain that the Saylor’s have experienced.

Sincerely, [Your name]

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What America Is Leaving Behind in Afghanistan

Jennifer Norris | Foreign Policy in Focus | Reader Supported News | April 21, 2013

mericans who left Zero Dark Thirty thinking that the dark stain of torture is behind us should be cautioned by the U.S. exit strategy in Afghanistan.

As the 2014 deadline for ending the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan approaches, U.S. forces have been working with the Afghan National Army (ANA) and the Afghan National Police (ANP) to build their capacity to fight the Taliban and other insurgent elements on their own. Yet even as the ANA and ANP cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars a year, there are still swaths of the country that the national army and police cannot control.

Faced with an impending withdrawal deadline and tightening budgets, U.S. planners created another security entity, the Afghan Local Police (ALP), which they have pitched as an affordable short-term fix to fill this security vacuum. However, the name is a misnomer, since members do not have police powers and are essentially village militias armed with AK-47s. Highlighting its prominence as a key feature of the U.S. exit strategy, General David Petraus described the ALP program in 2011 as “arguably the most critical element in our effort to help Afghanistan develop the capacity to secure itself.”

Despite some success in achieving security gains, the ALP program has been plagued by such problems as Taliban infiltration and insider attacks. But most controversially, ALP units have been accused of committing serious human rights abuses against local populations with apparent impunity. Afghan President Ahmed Karzai recently expelled U.S. Special Forces from Wardak province due to allegations that American forces and the ALP members they trained had tortured and killed Afghan civilians. Many commentators in the United States attacked Karzai’s decision, but allegations of human rights abuses must be taken seriously.

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Zero Dark Thirty’s Torture Lie

Naomi Wolf | Guardian UK | Reader Supported News | January 3, 2013

By peddling the lie that CIA detentions led to Bin Laden’s killing, you have become a Leni Riefenstahl-like propagandist of torture

The Hurt Locker was a beautiful, brave film; many young women in film were inspired as they watched you become the first woman ever to win an Oscar for directing. But with Zero Dark Thirty, you have attained a different kind of distinction.

Your film Zero Dark Thirty is a huge hit here. But in falsely justifying, in scene after scene, the torture of detainees in “the global war on terror”, Zero Dark Thirty is a gorgeously-shot, two-hour ad for keeping intelligence agents who committed crimes against Guantánamo prisoners out of jail. It makes heroes and heroines out of people who committed violent crimes against other people based on their race – something that has historical precedent.

Your film claims, in many scenes, that CIA torture was redeemed by the “information” it “secured”, information that, according to your script, led to Bin Laden’s capture. This narrative is a form of manufacture of innocence to mask a great crime: what your script blithely calls “the detainee program”.

What led to this amoral compromising of your film-making?

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