Death of Marc Cole, Falmouth

Thursday would have been my youngest brother's 33^rd birthday. A Pisces born in March under the sign of water. He would have, I should imagine, thrown some type of family dinner celebration with all his children, friends and family present. Marc loved nothing more than being surrounded by all the people who loved him. He would be stood in the kitchen with a huge grin on his face, laughing with his friends and asking for a second helping of whatever it was cooking on the stove. The kids would be running up and down the hallways high on birthday cake and Marc would be telling them to slow down and be careful, ‘my angels’.

Instead, it’s raining, the wind-driven type of rain that whips around your face like ice and makes your ears ache. My mum is standing at the head of her son's 8-foot grave, laying bright orange and yellow tulips. She doesn’t like to go. None of us do, but she can’t leave the grave untidy so she goes religiously and talks to her son. Her child who was killed three years ago during a mental health crisis by police officers.

It is not real. Not to any of us and that may sound odd after three years but only a family who had been through the hell of having a child and brother killed by an agent of the state and subsequently dragged through one of the most traumatic ‘systems’ on earth would ever be able to relate. It took 7 months for Marc’s badly decomposed body to be returned to our family in such an appalling state that the funeral director advised us that Marc would be best left in a sealed coffin. That furthermore, we wouldn’t be able to dress him for burial or view him. At all.

You need a funeral to make the death of your child real don’t you? But how can you accept that it is real when you have no body to bury? How can you function every day knowing your brother is lying in a morgue with his organs missing for nearly a year? How can you ever begin to comprehend a country in which it is ok for an officer of the law to take the life of your child, then take the body of your child, then take the organs of your child and to then take the burial of your child?

Three years later we attended an Inquest, just recently in January. These last three years have been agonizing and nearly driven us to lose our minds on several occasions. You cannot grieve with proceedings like these hanging over you. You cannot engage in any trauma-therapy at the same time as constantly and continuously having to read graphic evidence about your brother's last moments that is being slowly drip fed to you as the case progresses. You cannot heal whilst at the same time fighting a protracted legal case and justice campaign. Make no mistake, the system following a death after police restraint is deliberately designed to grind you down. It wants you to get sick and to suffer. It hopes that you will shrivel and retract and go away. It hopes that it can blame the victim for his or her own death.

Marc had been at his friends’ house when he suffered an episode of psychosis. Marc had mental health issues and was struggling and fighting against himself, knowing he needed medical help but at the same time feeling terrified of doing so. Instead Marc had used drugs to self-medicate on the night he died which had exacerbated his pre-existing mental health condition. It is hard for most people to understand what psychosis must feel like, but on a basic level it is a disorder of perception. The way you perceive the world becomes distorted. You may see or hear things that appear absolutely real to you but are not really there. You may hold beliefs about things happening that appear absolutely real to you but are not really happening. Most people who experience acute psychosis experience extreme terror and fear.

My brother died absolutely petrified. He was running away from people he believed were trying to kill him. His thoughts were racing and disordered and his palpable terror was clearly demonstrated to anyone who saw him that night. He wasn’t violent. He wasn’t aggressive. He wasn’t antagonistic. He wasn’t deranged. He was very urgently unwell and he was terrified. That part of the run-up to Marc’s last moments on earth culminated in him self-harming with a knife.

Four police officers who attended that night said that Marc needed to be stopped from self-harming and fired a Taser at him. Then they reactivated it and held the trigger down and kept electrocuting Marc for 42 seconds. A total of three times. While Marc was lying on his back, in the prone position, not resisting, not moving, just lying helpless on the floor. Then they used a metal baton to strike Marc’s wrist twice before applying double cuffs to his wrists.

Less than four minutes later Marc was still cuffed when he went into catastrophic cardiac arrest. 20 minutes later he was dead at the scene.

Before the Inquest started, Devon and Cornwall Police asserted that the Taser download log, which automatically records the times and durations of all Taser firings, was faulty. They also submitted an application to give evidence anonymously, which they later withdrew. During the Inquest it transpired in evidence, that the officer PC WILSON gave three different statements at three different times. He only admitted to tasering Marc twice. It soon became clear that he had actually tasered Marc three times, actively lied and then admitted under cross-examination that he had been given advice about what to say about his use of force against my brother by the Federation of Police.

PC Kevern embellished an account of Marc’s demeanour stating that he was walking around with his top off and that he was ‘growling’ and aggressive. Growling is a word officers like to use in an attempt to dehumanise the person they have killed. It is often used by officers to dehumanise victims who had been suffering mental health issues, which should go some way to explain the regard with which officers attend mental health patients who need urgent medical attention. When pressed under cross examination she still maintained that Marc was aggressive and resisting and had his top off.

All of this was directly and very quickly shown to be untrue and deliberately falsified when the attending Paramedic told the court that after Marc had been tasered he had to actually cut Marc’s top off to give him emergency CPR. Multiple eye witnesses who witnessed the entire scene said that Marc was only gesticulating as if to harm himself. He hadn’t actually harmed himself but that they were all concerned for his welfare. They all said that they did not feel threatened by Marc in any way because he was not violent or aggressive. He just seemed unwell.

A critical eye witness then said she saw police officers charging at Marc and screaming at him to put down the knife. She says she clearly heard and saw Marc say ‘why what have I done?’ A second eye witness saw and heard Marc say this. They both said he sounded scared and confused. Both eye witnesses said that the police did not give Marc a chance to reply or even respond. They just kept charging at him and it is my understanding that this mishandling of the situation and failure to deescalate an urgent medical emergency situation using their training is what then forced Marc in his terror and confusion to self- harm.

This was then they fired the Taser at him. The eye witness said Marc went down like a sack of spuds and didn’t ever get back up again. The Taser discharges for a period of 5 seconds on the X-26 model before having to be actively retriggered again. PC Wilson retriggered the Taser twice more with only one second between each firing. So Marc endured a near continuous 42 seconds of electrocution which is nearly ten times the length of what he actually should have been tasered for, as each cycle is only five seconds long.

That is the longest recorded case of Taser torture, actively and significantly being a causative factor in the death of a young UK citizen with mental health issues in the history of this country. Medical experts who specialise in Cardiology said that the timeline of events was particularly significant in Marc’s case. They agreed that yes, Marc had cocaine in his system, but that he was ok until he was tasered, after which he dropped immediately to the floor and went into cardiac arrest within 4 minutes. Put simply, he didn’t suffer a cardiac arrest after using cocaine over 30 minutes earlier. He suffered cardiac arrest after being tortured with a Taser for ten times longer than he should have been.

Marc’s self-harm wounds were proven in pathology to not have contributed to his death in any way. No traces of cocaine were found in Marc’s brain or heart chambers, suggesting that the drug metabolised very quickly and that there was no history of chronic or sustained drug abuse in his organs, so while the cocaine certainly pre-disposed Marc to the enhanced risk factors of Taser-torture, it wasn’t a case of drugs being the precipitating causal factor.

 After hearing all the expert evidence, the jury made the correct decision and found that the Taser actively made a significant contribution to the causative factors in my brother’s death. They directly linked the Taser to the death of Marc Cole and actively rejected the embellished version of events given by Devon and Cornwall Police. They found no evidence of violence or aggression on Marc’s part but instead concluded that Marc had been behaving erratically and self-harming due to mental illness and the use of cocaine.

Despite this conclusion being made on the grounds of expert medical evidence, no officers were charged with manslaughter or even misconduct. There has been no recourse to date for any of the officers who deliberately lied in statements, or under oath and sat laughing and joking throughout the whole traumatic proceeding as if it was a bunch of pals out on their jollies. PC Wilson and his barrister tried to submit that he had been suffering with PTSD. No clinical evidence was submitted to the court to support this claim. However, one has to ask, if an officer genuinely is suffering with PTSD as all members of my family are, it should follow that the officer should have a restriction placed on all his operational duties. Returning to work after 3 weeks and carrying a Taser again is not usually the course of action a traumatised individual would take. PTSD takes a lot longer than 3 weeks to be clinically diagnosed and in any case an individual suffering any type of flashback-related symptoms should not be left in charge of a Taser on the grounds of profound unsafety.

The attending paramedics offered sincere condolences to us at the Inquest. In contrast the police did not. I didn’t see one ounce of remorse on their faces as I watched them exposed in lie after lie. But that’s okay, because the truth keeps talking long after the conversation has finished. There may not be any man-made justice for my poor brother, but to be honest I don’t think it’s mans’ to give. When you are involved in the loss of a human life, when your actions take a father from his children, when you destroy multiple families, when you choose to make a deliberate decision to self-preserve instead of tell the truth, then that is no longer between you and a judge. That is between you and God. You cannot wash the blood of a man from your hands quite as easily as you can laugh in the face of a grieving family in a court-room.

If a different emergency-responder had attended first I believe sincerely that Marc would still be alive today. I truly feel that going forwards we need to urgently implement a new system in dealing with mental health in the community. The police should not be anywhere near a person who is experiencing a mental health crisis. Too many people die in the hands of the police, despite ‘mental health training’ they do not appear to use it and routinely dehumanise people who just need a bit of empathy and a calm person to make them feel safe. The best scenario would be for the government to invest in mental health first-response cars consisting of paramedics and mental health nurses.

This scheme was piloted in London but I definitely feel that Cornwall urgently needs a similar mental health emergency response given the prolific numbers of young people in crisis, particularly young men in the area. Specialist ambulance crews are what is needed and a suitable place of safety for patients to be taken to. Police cars and A & E departments are not desirable places for people in acute distress. Sending a group of police with an increasing militarised response to aggressively restrain a terrified person is barbaric and never ends well.

The government needs to put less police onto the streets and more funding into mental health and community-led services. If you address the issues in society that lead to mental ill-health in the first place, then the police wouldn’t need to be called and people would not end up dead in their incompetent hands.

There have been 1,732 deaths after police contact in this country since 1990. Zero prosecutions of police. The IOPC reported in their annual review of 2018-19 that a total of 10 people with mental health issues were found dead after police restraint and a further 13 people with co-morbid drug or alcohol issues were also found dead in police custody. You only have to look at the well-publicised cases of all the young men and women aggressively restrained or neglected in police custody who end up dead to see that police forces all over the country continue to dehumanise, deliberately misunderstand and fail to learn from people presenting with mental health difficulties.

Marc Cole, Adrian McDonald, Darren Cumberbatch, Andrew Pimlott - all tasered to death during a mental health crisis. Sean Rigg, Seni Lewis, James Herbert, Thomas Orchard, Kingsley Burrell, Mzee Mohammed (18) - all restrained to death during a mental health crisis. Devon and Cornwall Police alone have been involved in the deaths of Marc Cole, Thomas Orchard, Antony Kitts, Leslie Douthwaite, Andrew Pimlott and Logan Peters.

Theresa May actually called for a review into the use of force by police citing that physical restraint and Tasers were more often used against victims who had mental health issues. She found that 30% of people tasered by the Metropolitan Police had mental health difficulties and a staggering 50% of people tasered by police were from black or other BME backgrounds. In the year 2017, the year that Marc’s life was taken, 25 victims died following contact with the UK police. That was the highest and sharpest rise in deaths after police restraint since 2008.

Increasingly children up and down the country are being routinely tasered in playgrounds and pupil referral units. These children often have SEN Needs and mental illness. In 2018-19 for example in figures obtained from a freedom of information request, Cheshire Police had tasered children a whopping 25 times.  We need to urgently push back against this militarisation of the police. Police have absolutely no place in schools and especially not with Tasers. Of particular concern is the uncertainty and confusion that officers appear to present with when questioned on the safety of Tasers in relation to their use on vulnerable people.

In the Taser training manual that had been used to train Devon and Cornwall Police, only ONE power-point slide was included in the effects of tasering vulnerable people. People vulnerable to tasering are specifically referred to as having enhanced risk factors. They can be read about in other research and reports, however the training provided to rank and file police officers in this one power point slide was incredibly sparse. It seems that officers do not know much about the risk of death and serious injury when using Tasers against people with enhanced risk factors. Enhanced risk factors that make people vulnerable to death and serious injury following tasering are any person presenting with mental ill health, intoxication, pregnancy, epilepsy, the elderly or children. The Taser trainer stated that there was an incremental increase in risk the more times a Taser firing was repeated.

However, despite there being very clear and serious evidence regarding the very real risk of death when tasering vulnerable people, there does not appear to be ANY guidelines whatsoever on the safe upper limit of time that you can Taser a person for without causing cardiac arrest. The advice given to officers is to just keep on tasering at your own discretion.

This is highly disturbing given the scientific evidence presented by DOMILL in relation to enhanced risk factors, the increasing number of deaths in the UK following Taser restraint (see Cole, McDonald, Begley, Cumberbatch, Pimlott, Atkinson) and the very fact that a UN committee of ten experts declared that Tasers are a form of torture that CAN kill. Given that Marc’s Inquest found that the Taser played a pivotal role in his death due to electrocution, it follows that his death directly violates the UN’s Convention Against Torture.

As a result of Marc’s Inquest conclusion the Coroner has written a Prevention of Future Deaths Report to the Home Office and they have 56 days to respond. Our family are also waiting from a response from the Secretary of State with regards to a meeting and Louise Haigh MP has also raised the issues arising from Marc’s death in Parliament.

We sincerely hope that Marc’s death has not been in vain and that an urgent review of the safety of Tasers, particularly when used to restrain vulnerable people, will be conducted. We do not want any more people in mental health crisis to die in the hands of the very people who should be taking them to safety for medical treatment.

*

The preceding statement, written by the sister of the deceased man, is a harrowing testament to the reality of our nation’s way of dealing with a mental-health crisis. I am convinced that Marc Cole’s death was totally unnecessary. The facts, as detailed above, speak for themselves. Marc was in need of skilled intervention, of help that would not be perceived as threatening. Far too often, in situations like this, force is used by police to try to subjugate the person in crisis and typically, the suffering individual is terrified and further traumatized by the forceful approach of police and these already highly stressed situations are escalated when just the opposite approach is what is needed.  Such escalation frequently results in tragedy.

My own particular angle on all this is that I have been campaigning against police use of Taser stun-guns for ten years now and have seen the death-toll in Britain grow from just one in 2010 to over a dozen and, as I fearfully predicted back then, I have lived to see this dubious weapon of torture bring death into my local area.

My attempts to discuss the legality of Taser, particularly in view of the UN’s position on stun guns and Britain’s non-ratification of the UNCAT, have met with such a solid and unyielding brick-wall that I have become convinced that true democracy and the rule of law are flouted at will by those paid and entrusted with upholding them. Approaches to former MP Andrew George (Lib Dem) bore no fruit. Promises from current MP Derek Thomas (Tory) to raise the above matter in Parliament have proved false. Similarly, the promise of dialogue from Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Sean Sawyer has proven empty. All this correspondence has been documented exhaustively on this website over the last ten years, mainly categorized under the RESIST CARDIAC ARREST Campaign. In conclusion, having exhausted all the official channels of redress and debate and found the ‘authorities’ lacking any desire to live up to the transparency and accountability they like to boast of, I feel that we, the ordinary people, have to try to put forward our own positive solutions to these problems.

Police are fighters. As part of their job they have to tackle violence in public life so they naturally have a strategic mentality. Whilst this may be necessary in some areas of life, it renders them particularly inappropriate responders to mental-health crises. By studying many cases of fatality-by-police, certain patterns emerge and similarities crop up again and again. But lessons that could easily be learned are not being successfully integrated into police-training.

I strongly support the idea of a new emergency-service, tasked with responding to mental-health emergencies and treating them primarily as a health issue, rather than a matter of subduing a person who is seen as acting disturbed in public.

There are serious problems over justice in the case of Marc Cole, as in so many cases. For example, can you imagine being caught lying in a Court of Justice and facing no disciplinary action if the case concerned the death of a police-constable? And yet two of the constables involved in the death of Marc Cole were found to have been lying but faced no perjury-charge or reprimand whatsoever. Would the ordinary public get away with such falsification if the case involved a police-constable? I don’t think so.

While police in fatality-cases are provided the finest QC’s to plead their cases – at tax-payer’s expense, ordinary folk who lose their loved ones have to go through the Legal Aid minefield or somehow stump up money for a lawyer themselves. There is currently a campaign to equalize this process and provide automatic free legal aid to those bereaved by State-violence.

The so-called ‘Taser’ evolved from a simple cattle-prod into a hybrid electric harpoon that delivers 50,000 – yes, fifty thousand, volts to its victim. It has been associated with hundreds of cardiac arrest deaths around the world and is known to stop the heart if the prongs hit the cardiac-area during a certain point in the rhythm of the heartbeat. Combined with excessive levels of adrenalin (from stress) and also intoxicants and restraint, the Taser is all too often a bringer of death. The police have every right to defend themselves – but not with a weapon that violates the UNCAT – even though Britain secretly never ratified the Convention we had helped to draft! The UN informed me of Britain’s failure to ratify UNCAT when I complained to them about a previous case of Taser-torture by Falmouth police. Ironically I only went to the UN because the local police would not take on the complaint.

With the continuing Wall of Silence from police and MPs over these issues it seems unlikely that stun-guns will undergo the immanent legal-challenge they so badly need. And with the policy of ‘Austerity’ that has so withered public services and undermined the healthy fabric of society, it seems that more vulnerable people will be harmed or slaughtered by this sinister new weapon that has been imposed upon us without debate or consensus.

Which raises the question of what can people do to try to foster and protect mental health in our communities and what steps can we take to try to save people from the tragic fate of 30 year-old Marc Cole from Falmouth?

Even when we are dissatisfied with our political representatives, I think it is still worth trying to talk to them and trying to get them to commit to making mental-health a top-priority when forming policy. Why is suicide the number one cause of death of young men between 25 – 35 in Britain? This is an epidemic and it needs to be treated as such, not responded to with military-style force in our streets.

My own view is that if the government fails us, then we have to look out for each other more – to come out of our personal bubbles more and reach out to others and say ‘are you alright?’ or ‘would you like a chat’ or whatever, to merely break down the isolation between people and look with a loving eye on our neighbours, friends and families. There are also various groups and societies, holding meetings where people can share their feelings and help each other through difficulties. There is a lot of good in the community and this can always be built on and increased. However, ultimately matters of policing, mental-health etc are largely the business of government and until officialdom can treat people decently and fairly and enter into dialogue on these issues, and until those in power are willing to uphold the rule of law and truly represent the populace, the deadly threat of Taser will remain with us.

This needs to change.

The Limpet 187 Mini-Edition on State-Violence and Religious Abuse - An 8-Page Chapbook

The State kills "for you" but arrogantly refuses to discuss it with you -  MPs work "for you" but won-t talk to you - Llanelli cops think it fine to chop off a man-s fingers - they are confident they will get away with it as they think they are above the law - in effect they are  -  Meanwhile in Florida schizophrenics walk in chains - blood and puss dripping from their shackle-ulcers  - 21st century treatment of the mentally ill in the World-s richest country -  Even in the sleepy Shyre of Cornwall the police kill with impunity - ignoring international law - with collusion from ignorant MPs and a corrupt IPCC - In the religious sphere we find rampant abuse of the innocent - A simple request to a Christian Bishop and a Buddhist  Lama for a statement against this class-predation is not deemed worthy of response - hunger-strike or no hunger-strike - Such is the World today - Enjoy!

To make your Souvenir Chapbook edition of The Limpet 187 just copy it into a document and print it out - Then fold longwise - then crosswise through centre and again through quarters - Then cut out dotted area in centre and fold into your wonderful pocket-sized edition of The Limpet - Cornwall-s notorious home-made human rights paper - If you fold it right you-ll have the pages in numerical order!  Enjoy The Limpet - please print some out and share with your friends - 

WHAT DO THE REPORTS FROM THE FDC INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE ON THE DADE C.I. TCU IN 2011 AND 2012 SHOW?

"On 3/17/17 I was ghosted out of the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) and Involuntary Interstate Compacted to the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC) with none of my law work or property I had in FDC.  Since my 3/17/17 arrival to TDOC, I haven’t had any access to Florida law.  In this blog, I’m going to from memory attempt to address three Florida statutes that concern the FDC Inspector General’s Office, I believe the Florida Statute numbers I’m going to be addressing are Florida Statutes 944.31, 944.32 and 944.33.  I believe Florida Statute 944.31 explains the duties of FDC Inspector Generals and one of the things it says they’re obligated to do it so conduct a physical inspection of all the institutions in FDC once a year.  This Florida Statute shows us that in 2011 and 2012 the FDC Inspector General’s Office was obligated, and more than likely did conduct a physical inspection of the Dade C.I. Transitional Care Unit.  If they conducted this inspection this statute would’ve obligated them to look in the closet where the unlawful shower equipment was, next to the shower stall that Darren Rainey was killed in.  This means they would’ve seen the unlawfully rigged shower that killed Rainey, and they took no action to order the shower equipment be disconnected.  I believe Florida Statute 944.32 says the FDC Inspector General’s Office is obligated to complete a written report on their physical inspections of all the institutions they physically inspect.  Also, I believe Florida Statute 944.33 explains what type of trouble an FDC Inspector General can get in if they don’t complete written reports of the physical inspections of the institutions in FDC.  

Please google the Florida statutes and read them.  From my knowledge of these statutes, what they say hasn’t changed from 2011 till the present.  I’d really like to obtain a copy of the FDC Inspector General’s Reports of the Dade C.I. TCU from 2011 and 2012 and see if they mention the unlawful shower that killed Darren Rainey.  Also, to see, if they do mention said shower, what they say about said shower in their reports.  I know from seeing the illegal shower where Rainey was killed, in the Dade C.I. TCU in 2011 and 2012 that it was there when they conducted their physical inspections in these years.  These reports could possibly be evidence that shows us the FDC Inspector General’s Office knew that the unlawful shower/torturing device that killed Rainey was in the Dade C.I. TCU and they took no action to have it disconnected but instead allowed it to be used as a torturing device to punish and kill mentally disabled inmates.  

Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you think would like to join us in our fight for the value of life.  Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER."

Harold Hempstead, aka ‘The Caged Crusader’ - aka The Witness - aka Miami Harold -

From his cell in a Tennessee prison - 2017

Derek Thomas Unfit For Office - Scared to Debate Andrew George!

Derek is an anomaly - a deviant from expected standards and norms - seemingly either illiterate or willfully ignorant of his Contractual Obligations in Law as a Member of Parliament - perhaps he-s forgotten he-s not actually a God - that Westminster is not Olympos and that he once took an oath to the Queen - supposedly to act right and be a proper people-s representative - he took the oath and took the money and all the prestige and power that go with it -
Sadly what Derek failed to take on board were the Responsibilities that are the very core of the job - a representative who will not even talk to the local people is a woefully inadequate politician - an aspiring statesman who can not even respond to his own constituents is rather like a doctor who turns away patients on the basis of personal prejudice - in other words he is a fraudulent version of the real thing as he is refusing to perform his most fundamental duty - which - believe it or not Derek - is not to the precious Party - but to the People of West Cornwall!
As blog is my witness Derek is an abysmal public servant - from the day he got into power this website stands - or hangs in space - as an archive of and monument to his crimes - particularly that of ignoring the letters - emails - phone-calls and even personal promises he has made to his constituents -
Well as the bodies pile up Derek perhaps it-s time you learned to write to the People - after all - you have some explaining to do - and some mourning for your dead constituents - you know - the old - the ill - the homeless - the damaged - the young - the unstable - people suffering crises - no-one of any importance to you Derek but People none the less-

The tragic reality is that Derek was voted in in this area and his reactionary Party hold great power here by somehow fooling the people that they will benefit them - the Conservatives play on people-s greed and fear - they try to turn the poor against the even-poorer!  They want to divide and rule - How ironic that as the fate of the World hangs in the balance we have a Victorian-minded backward-looking Capitalist reactionary for our Member of the House!  Such is the political climate of Britain-s far South West - reactionary and paranoid - stuck in a bad dream that-s peddled as some kind of reality and at the heart of it all - there-s Derek Thomas the dishonourable and heartless liar posing as some kind of Man of the Spirit!  (One of my friends is a Christian and he is about as different from Derek as you could possibly get)

Me and Derek have met before



Economic Murder - brought to you by Derek Thomas and his pals:

And now for something completely different: My wonderful novel The Kramvil - aimed at the local Japanese community  

“IF ANYBODY ELSE ASK TELL THEM OFC. CLARKE FOUND RAINEY DEAD ” “YEA. TELL THEM I FOUND HIM” THE WORDS OF OFCS. THOMPSON AND CLARKE ON 6/27/12.

On Saturday 6/23/12 when Darren Rainey was murdered, I was housed in Wing J3-101.  On Tuesday 6/26/12 I was moved from Wing J3-101 to Wing J1-117.  On Wednesday 6/27/12 Dade C.I. Major McCarter called me out to speak in one of the offices in Wing J1.  Several security staff were present to watch the Major question me.  

How I deemed the foregoing was the major was trying to intimidate me to not say anything that could hurt staff.  This caused me to do my best to get out of the office with him as quick as possible.  The longer I was in the office with the Major, the more security staff would think the chance existed that I slipped and said something I wasn’t supposed to say about the Darren Rainey murder or something else in the Dade C.I. TCU.  I was in and out of the office in approximately four minutes.  

From approximately thirteen years of incarceration and legal studies, I knew the Major to some degree shared liability and my experience told me to not tell FDC (the Major) that FDC (the Major’s staff) killed an inmate and I was a witness that was going to talk and tell everything, until I first told people in society what happened.  That way, if I was killed or mysteriously found dead, my family and people in society would know why.  I thought I did good with my answers to the Major.  The last question the Major asked me was if I had anything I wanted to say on anything.  I told him “yes, isn’t the only important thing that they did their thirty-minute security checks?”  

The Major responded, “yes - did they do their security checks?”

I responded, “yes.  Officer Thompson found Rainey dead approximately twenty or twenty-five minutes after the last officers were in the wing.”

The Major said “ok Hempstead.”

When shift changed at 4:00pm, I knew it was in my best interest to tell Ofcs. Clarke and Thompson as quick as possible about the Major questioning me.  By doing such, they’d think I didn’t have anything to hide.  The 4:00 pm till 12:00 am shift started with officers Clarke and Thompson counting.  Ofc. Clarke went by my cell too quick.  I wasn’t able to stop him.  I was able to stop Ofc. Thompson.  When I told Ofc. Thompson the questions Major McCarter asked me and my answers etc. to the Major, he said “you told the Major I found Rainey dead?”  I responded “yes.  Why?”  

Ofc. Thompson then yelled over to Ofc. Clarke and asked him to come over to where we were.  When Ofc. Clarke got to where we were at, Ofc. Thompson asked me to tell Ofc. Clarke everything I just told him (Ofc. Thompson.)  When I got done repeating everything, Ofc. Thompson said “you shouldn’t have told the Major I found Rainey.  If anybody else ask, tell them Ofc. Clarke found Rainey dead.”  Ofc. Clarke then said “yea.  Tell them I found him.”  

I responded, “why would you want me to say that?  The cameras can prove that didn’t happen.  There wasn’t a thirty-minute period between the time Ofc. Thompson found him and the time you came to the shower after Ofc. Thompson, and Rainey was reported dead.  Security Checks are every thirty minutes.  You won’t be able to say your check on Rainey was a Security Check.”  

Ofc. Clarke then stated again, “if anybody else ask tell them I found Rainey dead.”  

I responded, “I understand.”

To me. it was clear I was being told to lie and that there was a strong possibility these Ofcs. put on their Incident Reports that Ofc. Clarke found Rainey dead and not the truth which was that Ofc. Thompson actually found Rainey dead.  In 2012 and 2013, I mailed the Dade County, Florida State Attorney’s Office, Miami-Dade Police Department and Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office several letters wherein I explained the foregoing to them.  From January 2013 till around the middle of 2015 I filed several Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) Inmate Grievances explaining how these Ofcs. were directing me to lie if anybody else questioned me on who found Darren Rainey dead in the shower.  

In my letters and grievances I explained how Ofc. Thompson actually found Rainey dead, that he left Rainey dead on the shower floor for approximately eight minutes to return to the officer station and tell his co-workers Rainey was dead, and then Ofc. Clarke came back and acted like he just found Rainey dead.  Despite me consistently stating in my letters and grievances this issue since 2012, the Dade County State Attorney in her 3/17/17 written decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers, decided to believe the lies of these two Ofcs. instead of the truth which the mounted security cameras in Wing J3 supported.  

In the Dade County Florida State Attorney’s 3/17/17 decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers, the State Attorney has her timeline of several things she alleged happened in Wing J3 on the night Rainey was killed.  This timeline contends that at 9:13:32  Ofc. Thompson left from checking on Rainey in the shower and walked downstairs past my cell, and at 9:25:41 Ofc. Clarke entered Wing J3 to check on Rainey in the shower.  By this timeline there was a time period of twelve minutes nine seconds between Ofc. Thompson’s visit to the shower when he found Rainey dead, and when Ofc. Clarke came back to the shower to act like he found Rainey dead.  Ofc. Clarke said he found Rainey dead while doing a security check.  Security checks are done in FDC every thirty minutes, not every twelve to fifteen minutes.  Ofc. Clarke by FDC Rules had no reason to allegedly do a security check twelve minutes, nine seconds after Ofc. Thompson.  The only reason he had to go back to the shower Rainey was in, twelve minutes after Ofc. Thompson checked on Rainey in the shower, was because Ofc. Thompson told Ofc. Clark and his other co-workers Rainey was dead in the shower.  

The Dade County State Attorney in her 3/17/17 decision to not prosecute Rainey’s killers chose to believe the lies of these Ofcs. and say that what I said was incorrect because these Ofcs. said something different from what I said.  She said this even though:

(1)  she knew since 2012 that these Ofcs. tried to get me to lie and say Ofc. Clarke found Rainey dead and not Ofc. Thompson;

(2)  She knew that security checks in FDC were done every thirty minutes;

(3)  The Wing J3 cameras showed Ofc. Clarke returning to the shower twelve minutes after Ofc. Thompson, which means it wasn’t a security check that caused him to return to the shower Rainey was already dead in.  

Just like I refused to lie for Ofcs. Clarke and Thompson in 2012 (and since), I will not switch from the truth and tell a lie now.  Those who killed Rainey will have to answer to God for killing Rainey, and their lies.  The Dade County State Attorney and Medical Examiner and MDPD detectives assigned to the Rainey case will have to answer to God for not prosecuting Rainey’s killers and trying to cover up Rainey’s murder.  Life is short.  We’re born, we live, we die.  As long as I’m living by the Grace of God, I’ll strive to manifest my love to the Lord by keeping his commandments (John 14:15).  

Please share this blog with your friends and anybody you believe would like to join us in our fight for the value of life. Please sign our petition on Change.org entitled THE LIFE OF BLACK, MENTALLY DISABLED MUSLIM PRISONER DARREN RAINEY DOES MATTER.

Harold Hempstead, a.k.a. The 'Caged Crusader', Tennessee D.C., May 2017
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More evidence from my good friend Harold Hempstead - the man who has been witnessing and speaking out about the state-slaughter of the mentally disabled, drug-smoking, black Muslim, prisoner Darren Rainey at Dade Correctional Institution's Transitional Care Unit on 23rd June, 2012. For five years now, this event has been at the centre of Harold's life - finding resolution and justice on it has become the work that has brought him a measure of fame and will one day bear fruit. Until that day, the 'Crusade,' the Fight For The Value Of Life will continue.
We believe that all human life has value and that no-one has the right to take life. If you share this view, please help Harold and me to spread this message far and wide, so the State of Florida never again descends to such a level of barbarity as steaming a man to death and trying to pretend it was all just an accident... Please join our Fight For The Value Of Life.

Jeremy Sch@nche, Newlyn, Kernow, 19th June, 2017







Here's my interview with Harold Hempstead from summer 2016

The case is on-going...

A Street Clash between Jeremy Schanche and Derek Thomas On General Election Day In Penzance - Gwerinieth Kernouac!

9.15 pm approx… Just walking past the Warfside Centre in Penzance to get my bike, when who should I see but Derek Thomas, coming out of his Conservative Party office – literally – I hope – as today is general election day in Britain, 8th June, 2017…..

“Derek!”  said I, taking off my glove and offering him my hand.  “I will shake your hand,” said the Great Democrat, with visible disdain and so he did.  He then immediately launched into a tirade about how he’d photographed all my posters (of himself as the snake in the garden of Eden) and reported me to the police.  I was tired and hungry, working on my Klan article all day, hurrying home to publish it, and was flabbergasted by Derek’s pathetic rant about my posters – that’d I’d resorted to as my only form of political representation, thanks to his negligence!

Furious, I reached for my wire-machine and started taping him… he made some utterance to which I replied… “you’re my MP and you’re scared to talk to me on the record…!”  “I’m NOT your MP, he said, backing off the pavement, where he stood in the middle of the road, like a typical politician, before beating a pathetic retreat whilst I called him a liar and a thief, saying he took our money to be our representative but did not reply to letters, simply ignored me!  We could have had a friendly talk – even at this point – but Derek tried to threaten me and ended up running from me, which he has been doing ever since taking office.  Let’s hope he keeps running…. away...

How many people get the opportunity to personally call their Tory MP a liar and a thief, to their face, on General Election day, or at least to the back of their departing head, as they scuttle away to the safety of their luxury car and an angst-ridden night of fear, having freaked out in the street and given way to a vulgar and childish temper-tantrum – the stress must be getting to him, poor baby!

I was hoping to transcribe and upload the recording of our little conversation but I can't find it in my machine and I'm not sure if, in the heat of the moment, I successfully recorded the exchange. Oh well, as they say in Japan, 'Nothing Matters!'

Perhaps Derek was agitated because today (General Election Day) the local paper, The Cornishman, published my letter about the police-taser killing of Marc Cole in Falmouth on 23rd May, 2017 and I mentioned that the illegality of taser was an issue I had touched on with Derek Thomas MP, who had kept me waiting eleven months so far, for a response. I was pleased that the letter was published today - it seemed just, showing, as it did, that a Conservative Party MP's failure to respond with a constituent who had a valid and legitimate matter under discussion with the government, was inter-connected with the police continuing to torture and kill with tasers, with impunity and in violation of the UNCAT. As Blog is my witness, I've tried to reach out to Derek many, many times, seemingly innumerable as the sands of the Ganges and again and again he has ignored my letters, phone-calls, emails etc., even after twice meeting me in person and twice promising to start responding to communications from me and giving me proper representation as my Member of Parliament. Shabby treatment indeed from a guy who's paid handsomely to represent the Great British Democracy. This evening's meeting of 'minds' did feel like fate. I don't believe in fate, or luck though - only action can make a difference in politics. If I am fortunate, Derek Thomas will not return as our MP, and if I am even luckier, Jeremy Corbyn will be Britain's Socialist Prime Minister in a few hours time.....

Surprises always take you unawares and I'm sure Derek was no more delighted to see me than I was to see himself.  But I'm glad we met, unpleasant though it was.  I was amazed that his opening gambit to me was to start rabbiting on about the 'posters' and that he threatened me with the law!  This is the man who's paid over £74,000 a year to represent us, who's lied to me on film, on youtube, about the UNCAT, who's failed to reply to my urgent requests for his help over Kris Maharaj, a 78 year old British Citizen who contracted flesh-eating bacterial disease after 30 years languishing in the Florida prison system on a wrongful murder conviction., etc. etc..  Derek is another of these people who are more concerned with the medium of a message than the message itself.  If I had an MP who actually bothered to reply to me, I wouldn't actually have to spend my time and money flying posters of him all over town - as I told him to his face on more than one occasion.  (Curious how the only three people who have ever attacked my free speech newspaper are paid by me to protect and uphold free speech - a cop in the street once when I was postering about the police-murder of Ian Tomlinson;  Chris Roynon, my kid's head-teacher, who tried to physically attack my newspaper when I was on hunger-strike over his Right-Wing sell-out of Mousehole School;  and now my Member of Parliament- good old British Democracy - all on first-name, hand-shake terms, and everyone tries to play you for a sucker - if you let them!)

Derek ran from me tonight.  He would not talk to me, he is terrified of my recording-machine, even though I'm not quite sharp enough to operate it properly and actually tape anything.....   I saw another side of Derek tonight.  Last time we'd met, for the youtube interview, he was all charm and reason, smiles and promises - tonight he was a snarling, seething, pullulating poodle, scurrying back to his eldritch kennel of Conservative, Right-Wing, Capitalist, Reactionary Doom - a Diamond Dog with his tail between his legs - howling for the glory days of 1984.

Well, I've ranted enough in the smoldering ruins of British Democracy, baying at the full moon like a wild fox of the night, waiting to see which way the pendulum will swing.  Either way, the fight for justice continues - Whoever is the next MP in West Cornwall can no longer evade the issue of ratifying Article 22 of the United Nations Convention Against Torture.
Power To The People!

Derek Thomas - Enemy of Democracy

Derek Thomas you broke your promise - 

You say you're into Jesus - 

But with Austerity you squeeze us -  

You give the rich still more - 

And say you're for the poor - 

Well, we met in the street - And we talked with some heat - 

You said you'd do an interview - But I ain't even into you - 

Then you lied to my camera - You're in my YouTube lens - 

But you can't lie to the People - So your Soul you must cleanse - You're meant to be The Right Honourable - 

But you talk sheer bull and it's horrible - 

You wasted so much of my valuable time - 

And I don't just charge by the nickle and dime - 

You owe me something - And you promised the Nation - 

For 68 Grand you'd give REPRESENTATION - 

But time has gone by and you get no better - 

You can't even answer a blinking letter! - 

You Tories are a bunch of sly little rats - 

I'm gonna VOTE FOR THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS!

Derek Thomas plots Britain's 'Snooper's Charter,' Europe's most invasive and draconian piece of communication-surveillance legislation



This open letter to The Cornishman newspaper about Derek Thomas's dereliction of duty was published in the paper, despite my doubts that it would be.

Derek Thomas MP promises to investigate Britain's failure to ratify the UNCAT - this was in July 2016 and I still have not heard a word back from Derek. So much for a Conservative promise.

Derek attacks the disabled.


Housing scam - is Derek a landlord or not? Does anyone know?


One of many times I challenged Derek Thomas to debate with me

Call this democracy? How things are done in Cornwall...


Derek drops 200,000 children into poverty



Things got a little ugly there for a while...  and we started getting crazy headlines about farm-yard goings-on amongst the Conservative Party, hence Derek's Pig-Gate Denial  in which he said he had no interest....


Then it got to the point where Tory Depression started to smother Britain....



The Limpet challenges Derek Thomas on Human Rights....
not for the last time...


Defend Human Rights  This is the poster that went up around all the country lanes of St. Buryan when Derek and Co. were still threatening to remove the Human Rights Act.



Derek Thomas MP challenged on Fox-Hunting - he says the issue should be decided on principle - it already was - I asked him which principles it should be decided on - I never found out... which principles, Derek?


Derek's little threat to liquidate the Human Rights Act



Derek Thomas - Exterminator!  Reynard the Fox is argued over by me and Derek, in an early encounter.  Right-wing politicos in Britain always threaten to 'bring back fox-hunting' - it's guaranteed to cause a storm of protest (which I endorse) but is also a great diversionary tactic.  While we're all off chasing the fox, the Tories are looting the town.

Version 2 - Tory Class-War


Introducing Derek.... this was in the early days of our romance, before we started taking each other for granted.  Even then, I had a hunch he wouldn't be right for me.


Derek on film:  We finally got to have our 'little chat'...


Derek lies to me about the United Nations Convention Against Torture:


Derek Thomas' disgraceful record on Human Rights  is reflected in this letter to the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall police about the tragic and unnecessary police-killing of Marc Cole, a 30 year old man in Falmouth on 23rd May, 2017.

This London cabbie has got a message for you young voters out there who would like some clarity on what it's all about....  believe me, this guy's got the knowledge.


Some Traditional Songs About Derek Thomas and The Conservatives....







No Future For You, Derek Thomas!

Marc Cole, Cornwall's First Taser Death

30-year old Marc Cole - a painter from Falmouth who  had a recent history of severe and enduring mental-illness - a severe condition of the brain called hydrocephalus and a family history of Bi-Polar Disorder died on 23rd May 2017 after being shot by Devon and Cornwall police with a Taser stun-gun when they were called out to attend a mental-health-crisis - Mr Cole is the first person in Cornwall to die after being stunned with a taser - 

Letter to:  The Cornishman newspaper  Cornwall, Britain and other press, 29:5:17

Dear Editor,

I was extremely distressed to hear that 30 year old Marc Cole, a painter from Falmouth died on Tuesday 23rd May, having cut himself in the street and been shot by police with a taser stun-gun.  

Over the last seven years I've had a lot of communication about tasers with the police, government, UN and human rights organisations.  The law around tasers is something I have touched on with Derek Thomas MP, who has kept me waiting eleven months for a response.  

As a citizen of a democracy, I expect my representatives to engage in discussion with me over the issue of arming our police.  I agree with the UN that the taser is not safe for street-use.  As I've watched the taser-fatalities accumulate in this country, I'd imagine the relatives of the deceased might agree with me. Safer weapons are available.  May we as a people discuss this?

Sincerely,

Jeremy Schanche

------------------------

NOTICE:

I am very keen to speak to the family of Marc Cole, the man who was killed in the above incident.  They can contact me at: save the holy headland at yahoo dot com - I'm a human-rights activist who has worked on taser-law issues for several years and would like to offer them any help I can give.  

Jeremy Schanche

-------------------------

note:  since writing the above notice, I have made contact with the family of the man apparently killed by police in the street in Falmouth.  If anyone else has been shot or threatened by police with a stun-gun, please contact me for free legal advice.

Please check out my in-depth investigation of everything related to taser RESIST CARDIAC ARREST  written in 2010, when I launched my campaign against these illegal and vicious weapons of torure, having seen what was happening in the USA, where people were dying on a very regular basis from being shot with these weapons.  The town of Falmouth, in West Cornwall, Great Britain, has played a very important part in the RCA campaign, as it was a previous incident of Falmouth police taser-torture that led to my communicating with the United Nations and learning about how Britain's politicians have lied to us since '85 on this issue. This is an interesting example of 'cause and effect,' or a 'chain of causality.'

Nutshell Version:  tasers arrive in UK, RCA Campaign starts after death of Brian Loan, 1st fatality;  UN Declaration says tasers are illegal instrument of torture; Brit Gov non-communication and evasion after many, many letters from me about legal basis of weapons;  UNCAT never ratified as politicians won't go there or talk about it;  police continue to stun-gun people;  man dies in Cornwall, as predicted in 2010.

Also:

They now have machine-guns.

Welcome to the Western Democracy.  Bullet-proof jackets are available for going shopping.

A brother speaks of a lost brother - dead after police taser attack.

Tributes to Marc Cole from the community.
Please remember Marc Cole, 'Colsey' of Falmouth, Britain and his family, in this most distressing situation.  Please respect the family's request to be left in peace.