"From the beginning I explained to the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) that Daniel Geiger was the first mentally disabled inmate placed in the shower (Rainey was killed in) as a torturing device, and easily the most mentally disabled inmate I witnessed get placed in the shower as punishment. Just prior to Geiger leaving the Dade C.I. TCU to go to Lake C.I. TCU I witnessed him eating his own faeces. I don’t believe Geiger was ever in touch with reality when I knew him in the Dade C.I. TCU.
In 2012 Geiger was transferred to Lake C.I. TCU. I was told that in the end of 2016 Geiger was found dead in the Lake C.I. TCU. I don’t know anything about Geiger’s death, I just know he died.
When I was reading the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 memorandum stating they aren’t going to prosecute Rainey’s killers, I noticed that it said that the MDPD attempted to interview Geiger. Page 36 of the State Attorney’s memorandum provides a synopsis of MDPD’s attempt to interview Geiger. The synopsis says Geiger appeared despondent, that Geiger didn’t appear to fully understand the questions and that he was adamant that he was never incarcerated at Dade C.I., but this synopsis contends that the interview was done at Dade C.I. In other words, Geiger didn’t know he was at Dade C.I. when the interview was being done. (I guess Geiger returned from Lake C.I. to Dade C.I. sometime prior to this interview and sometime after this interview he transferred to Lake C.I. again.)
By reading this synopsis on page 36 of the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s memorandum, you can see that Geiger was severely mentally disabled when the MDPD tried to talk with him. However this fact didn’t stop the Dade County State Attorney from citing Geiger like she was citing a mentally-stable man. To be specific, on page 69, first paragraph, last sentence of the State Attorney’s memorandum it states “Geiger said he was unaware of the shower being used for punishment or torture.”
Do you think it’s right that the Dade County Florida State Attorney cited Geiger like he was a stable inmate? Let’s think about this: when the MDPD interviewed Geiger at Dade C.I. they said he appeared despondent, did not appear to fully understand the questions and was adamant that he was never incarcerated at Dade C.I. To me it’s outrageous that the State Attorney cited Geiger like he was mentally stable. The mentally unstable shouldn’t have their words used against them, and they should be given more protection because they are mentally unstable.
Do you believe it’s right for the police to ask severely mentally disabled people if they were victimized and when they give some kind of answer that can be interpreted as ‘no,’ that the police and State Attorney use that answer against them and let the suspect get away that harmed them? Shouldn’t the police and State Attorney use witnesses and other types of evidence to prove the crime(s)?
Another thing that I find outrageous is not only that the State Attorney cited a mentally unstable man like he was stable, but she also cited a dead man. Yes, Daniel Geiger died several months prior to the State Attorney releasing their memorandum.
If you look at Martin Christianson’s statement on page 41 of the State Attorney’s memorandum you’ll read that the State Attorney told us what Christianson’s statement was, but also told us that Christianson was deceased. The State Attorney didn’t tell anybody that Geiger was deceased. Why do you think the State Attorney did this?
Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you think can help us with getting justice for Darren Rainey. Please sign our petition at Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER."
Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. Caged Crusader, a.k.a. Miami Harold - Tennessee D.C., April 2017
--------------------------------
A few thoughts on the above, by Jeremy Schanche. I strongly believe that those convicted of crimes should be treated in accordance with the law. I don't approve of every law, or every sentence handed down, but the principal of the rule of law is vital, and is central to democracy and free society. Convicts should be protected from arbitrary, cruel and unusual punishment, which obviously would include starvation and torture, by any means. This is in accordance with the law.
Those who feel that the law is either too lenient or too oppressive in any instance can seek redress through various channels including courts of law, lobbying political leaders, engaging in activism and outreach, protesting, exercising your free speech, attempting to influence people through media, writing, publications, etc.. if you're lucky enough to live in a so-called democracy, that is.
The reality does not live up to the ideal, or the legal entity and is failing countless inmates, who suffer extremely cruel but all-too-usual punishments that constitute torture. Again and again I ask myself when someone is going to call in the UN - I know they've already been involved at Pelican Bay prison in California where sleep-deprivation was policy.
Daniel Geiger was deeply disturbed and not only was he not getting the medical help that might have led towards his eventual rehabilitation, he was being tortured, and starved, systematically along with others, in a Florida prison of the twenty-first century.
The notorious 'Shower-Treatment' that has cast such an oppressive shadow over Dade Correctional Institution sine 2012, was actually devised for and tested on Daniel Geiger. He was tortured in the super-heated steam on at least two occasions, if not more. He was also known to be starved and lost a dramatic and dangerous amount of his body-weight in Dade, as did others. To my knowledge, so far, at least six witnesses to the shower-torture at Dade C.I. have already died, through various causes. How many are still left alive, I wonder?
Daniel Geiger was extremely noisy and shouted continuously, day and night. Rather than get him appropriate medical treatment, he was cynically used by guards as a weapon. They would place him in cells next to inmates they wished to sign out of the TCU. This was essentially using a deranged and tormented soul as a pawn, a mere tool to apply leverage to other inmate-patients who were seeking medical help in the Transitional Care Unit.
To me this represents an incredible degree of callousness, using an acutely suffering man to influence the behaviour of other intensely suffering inmate-patients.
Geiger was so deranged that he was known to eat his own shit and he would not accept the fact that he was even in Dade prison, yet, Katherine Fernandez Rundle and the MDPD got him to say he was not aware of any torture at Dade TCU - even though he himself was starved and tortured there.
So a deranged man who was starved and tortured was interviewed by police, presumably without a lawyer present, and supposedly gave reliable testimony that he knew of no torture being practiced. This was in an environment that the guards referred to as 'Auschwitz' as they greeted new arrivals and told them, "we kill guys here and get away with it..." and yet Geiger's 'statement' to the MDPD detectives who got him in that room, is considered reliable evidence by the police and the Miami-Dade State Attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle. Reliable enough to disprove any ridiculous stories of torture and abuse, that is.
And as Harold Hempstead points out, she was also using the words of a dead man to her own advantage, without bothering to inform people following the case that he even was dead.
An increasing number of witnesses to the torture at Dade C.I. have been dropping dead in dubious circumstances, inmate-witnesses to the torture and killing that she's gone on a long, circuitous and futile journey to try to deny, Katherine Fernandez Rundle would prefer to try and bury this fact along with so many others, after all, it's what she does best.
No comments:
Post a Comment