Fresno Criminal Lawyer
Fresno Criminal Lawyer – Criminal Defense Lawyer Rick Horowitz
The Phoenix Police Department is well-known for use of excessive force. But despite the Department of Justice finding that police brutality is just another day at the office for the Phoenix PD, they’ve taken it a step further.
Perfect Punching Bag: Disabled, Deaf, with Cerebral Palsy
ABC News reports:
A disabled Black man in Arizona faces multiple charges after a pair of Phoenix police officers punched him and shocked him with a stun gun. Tyron McAlpin, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, faces charges of felony assault and resisting arrest.
— Alex Stone and Sean Keane, “Phoenix police officers punch, shock deaf Black man with cerebral palsy” (October 15, 2024)
Yep. You read that right. Tyron McAlpin, minding his own business, walked right into a hornet’s nest. Two cops — responding to a report of a white man who created a disturbance in a store — decided that McAlpin “fit the description.”
Nevermind that McAlpin was not white. He wasn’t even “light-skinned.” Nope. McAlpin was black. Couldn’t have “passed” if he tried.
But as the Department of Justice notes, Phoenix Police discriminate against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people when enforcing the law. They also like to go after people with health disabilities when dispatched to calls for assistance.
So, as you can see, McAlpin might not have been their suspect, but he was the perfect punching bag for a couple of cops from Phoenix to get in a little “excessive use of force” practice.
Deafness Not a Defense to Contempt of Cop
But wait. Why is McAlpin being charged with a crime? Why was McAlpin attacked in the first place? Why did cops engage in the use of excessive force?
A union for the department’s officers argues that people should know what to do if a police car comes up and uniformed officers approach and that the officers had to force McAlpin to comply not knowing he was deaf at the time.
— Alex Stone and Sean Keane, “Phoenix police officers punch, shock deaf Black man with cerebral palsy” (October 15, 2024)
That’s right, folks! “People should know” that they’re supposed to get down on the ground when “a police car comes up and uniformed officers approach.”
Any good bootlicker knows not to do so is contempt of cop, punished by use of excessive force. Being deaf doesn’t give you the right to ignore this rule. Ask the judge!
A Maricopa County judge has ruled there was probable cause for the arrest and is cause for the charges.
— Alex Stone and Sean Keane, “Phoenix police officers punch, shock deaf Black man with cerebral palsy” (October 15, 2024)
Phoenix Police Are Not Unusual: #CopsGottaCop
We haven’t heard a lot about police brutality lately. #BlackLivesMatter seems — at least on all the news channels I watch, which is quite a few — to have disappeared from the radar. I guess people got bored hearing night after night about yet another murder by the police.
If you follow me on my Facebook Page, though, you’ll see that I continue post about such attacks. I used to do it on Twitter, also, until Elon Musk destroyed the platform, making it uninhabitable for anyone but Russian bots and raging lunatics.
Of course, you can also do your own sleuthing. You’ll find most such stories buried back on page 8 or 10 of a number of online newspapers.
But #CopsGottaCop — which is my way of saying “use of excessive force is required by uniformed thugs” so I keep posting about it.
Judges Endorse & Protect Police, Even for Murder
No, I’m not kidding. That’s another story you can find repeated, if you only refuse to close your eyes.
This travesty of justice — this invention of judges — is so clear that even an Artificial Intelligence gets it right.

In a story by Thaddeus Miller that the Fresno Bee last updated April 19, 2024, the Fresno Police Department murdered a man back in 2017. After they were sued — that’s right, not “charged with murder,” but just sued — Judge Danielle J. Forrest said it was okay. Yeah, sure, said said “a reasonable jury could have found officers violated Joseph Perez’s Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights” when they put a board on top of him and all sat on it. But, you know, “Qualified Immunity” and all that. (They seem not to even think this was a use of excessive force.)
Judicial Invention Blocked Black Civil Rights
As I highlighted back in 2021,
[Qualified Immunity] is a remarkably crabbed standard that, as applied in the federal courts, makes it very hard to get a § 1983 lawsuit past QI unless the facts it alleges are a precise match to facts held to be constitutional violation in the past. The level of similarity needed is often ridiculous: According to the Sixth Circuit, a precedent that establishes it’s a rights violation for cops to release a dog on a suspect who’s surrendered and is lying on the ground doesn’t “clearly establish” that it’s a rights violation for cops to release a dog on a suspect who’s surrendered and is sitting with his hands up.
— Rick Horowitz, in “When Law Dies: On the Need to Lift Constitutional Limitations” (November 3, 2021), quoting David Meyer Lindenberg, “Meyer-Lindenberg: Cottoning on to Qualified Immunity” (November 3, 2021)
Judges invented Qualified Immunity after Congress passed laws making it illegal for police to murder people without consequences. Of course, a large percentage of these people were Black or other persons “of color” — meaning, like McAlpin (let’s not forget that’s how this article started!) they were not white.
Conservatives are going to complain that Google’s AI is woke! It once again gets it right:

The Innocence Project provides further support for the idea that judges were tired of “the protections afforded to Black victims of racial terror[.]”
Originating in 1967 at the end of the Civil Rights Movement as part of federal civil rights law (Section 1983), qualified immunity was meant to balance holding officials accountable and protecting them from frivolous lawsuits while performing their duties. However, many argue that the doctrine signaled a retreat from the protections afforded to Black victims of racial terror by the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act).
— Alicia Maule and Keli Young, “What You Need to Know About Qualified Immunity and How It Shields Those Responsible for Wrongful Convictions” (April 22, 2024)
As I also pointed out in that 2021 post I quoted above:
[B]ased on qualified immunity, judges have thrown out almost three-fifths of § 1983 excessive-force cases.
Perhaps there is something mystical about this three-fifths number.
— Rick Horowitz, in “When Law Dies: On the Need to Lift Constitutional Limitations” (November 3, 2021), citing David Meyer Lindenberg, “Meyer-Lindenberg: Cottoning on to Qualified Immunity” (November 3, 2021)
McAlpin “Should Have Known” to Get Down on the Ground
So, to return to the story that started us off on this rant, Tyron McAlpin might not have been the white guy police were looking for. Sure, he was deaf. And yeah, he had cerebral palsy.
But those are just all excuses to the Phoenix Police Department. Because according to them,
[P]eople should know what to do if a police car comes up and uniformed officers approach and that the officers had to force McAlpin to comply not knowing he was deaf at the time.
— Alex Stone and Sean Keane, “Phoenix police officers punch, shock deaf Black man with cerebral palsy” (October 15, 2024)
Just in case you forgot what it is that “people should know”….

The post Get on the Ground When You See Police, or Enjoy a Little Use of Excessive Force appeared first on Fresno Criminal Lawyer. It was written by Rick.