GET TOUGH ON CRIME
New autopsy in boot camp death
indicates boy died of beating

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Prosecutors say a teenager who collapsed after a boot camp beating did not die of natural causes, but stopped short of saying he was beaten to death.

A noted pathologist said earlier today that results from a second autopsy seem to indicate a 14-year-old boy died from a beating by guards at a juvenile boot camp, not from a blood disorder as a medical examiner initially ruled.

"My opinion is that he died because of what you see in the videotape," said Dr. Michael Baden, referring to a surveillance tape showing guards kicking and punching Martin Lee Anderson's limp body the day before he died.

After seeing the videotape, the boy's parents agreed to have his body exhumed and asked Baden to observe a second autopsy.

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If Abu Ghraib was no surprise because we already knew that US citizens are treated the same way in American prisons, then this is no surprise because we know about Abu Ghraib. I'm so sick of this shit: in America we have this chronic mentality that dehumanizes anyone society has branded a "bad guy." That's the same psychological motivation behind a quarter century of "get tough on crime legislation," which throws the convicted into hell holes of torture and rape, and the same psychology behind the mass torture of POWs held by the US military. Our nation is sick in many ways, but this is perhaps the sickest of all. I wholeheartedly agree that society has an absolute need to keep dangerous people off the streets, but this business about kicking their asses for extended periods of time not only makes no sense because it heightens pre-existing anti-social attitudes, but also because it's totally immoral. Convicts are human beings just like you and me. Torturing one means torturing all. Fucking sick.

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