By Carlos Miller
A schizophrenic man was taking his routine walk around his neighborhood when a police officer severely beat him for no apparent reason.
Ronnie Holloway, 49, was charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and wandering for the purpose of obtaining controlled substances, which is about as unconstitutional as you can get unless New Jersey police have the gift of reading minds.
Passaic police Officer Joseph R. Rios III has yet to be charged with assault and battery but you don’t have to be a mind reader to see he is guilty of that.
The incident occurred May 29th outside a bar which has a surveillance video camera outside.
The video shows two officers pull up to Holloway as he stands on a street corner. The female officer in the passenger side apparently tells him to zip up his jacket, which he does.
Seconds later, Rios jumps out of the driver’s seat and begins plummeting Holloway with his fists and baton.
Holloway spent the night in jail where he was denied treatment for his injuries, which included a torn cornea.
Holloway, who lives with his mother, said his favorite past time is to walk the neighborhood.
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Fernandez, as I mentioned in a 
Can’t see any video.
Like a schizophrenic substance abuser with a criminal record is a reliable source.
Ty,
But a surveillance camera is.
KK,
Try this one.
http://vimeo.com/5028267
Ty: Are you asserting the camera isn’t a reliable source?
Sorry, KK, wrong video, wrong thread.
Carlos, the vimeo video sends this back:
Do you have permission to watch this video? If you do please first log in to Vimeo to watch this video.
I did finally get the CNN video to work and saw it.
If you want to erase this “administrative comment” I won’t mind.
KK,
Just fixed the vimeo video. That is actually the one I took from the South Beach flooding. A friend of mine said he couldn’t see it on NBCMiami for whatever reason, so I thought you were referring to that one.
It’s too early. I need to head to work.
That goes to show the ignorance and troglodyte level of police brutality. Mentally ill people specially schizophrenic do not behave in a normal way. Their view of the world is skewed by their illness. Beating one up amounts to civil injustice. I think there are federal laws that protect these people. Even if arrested any judge will hold them for about 3 days before they are placed in a mental hospital for treatment. Yes some of them have drug problems. Too often they have no control of their actions. Some needs to advocate for these people and protect them from police brutality.
Policemen are nuts in America! I am glad I don’t live there.
The weird thing is that the female cop told him to zip his jacket. Huh? Maybe they really arrested him for failure to listen to mother. What freaking business does any cop have telling someone to zip up their jacket?
And the video seems pretty clear, there didn’t seem to be any provocation and certainly no resisting arrest.
Alternate video source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=7773867&page=1
Nothing like beating down a defenseless mentally ill person. Who would believe anything he even managed to say, anyway?
WTF? I think he’s gonna be able to afford a stairmaster or possibly a beach to walk up and down.
That cop should be thrown to the UFC and given whatever Michael Vick got X10.
I guess as we become more like England with cameras everywhere cops are gonna have to either own the means of recording or get some kind of jammers.
jones: i’m waiting on your perspective on this video.
“not all the facts are here”
“wait till after the hearing”
right?
I’ll reserve judgment until I see the whole tape. At 28 seconds the tape cuts from the officers being inside the car to the one officer going after the guy. I would like to see what happened before before the officer went after him and hear what the officer has to say.
Gene – “not all the facts are here”
Yes Gene, I wouldn’t consider an edited video without audio “all the facts”
I used to live in Passaic. The entire town reeks of corruption. If it’s not the mayor with his kickbacks and bribes then it’s the police with payoffs and brutality. They just had a scandal last year where the mayors daughter or something was promoted in the police department ahead of others even though she failed some tests and didn’t qualify.
I’ve thought of a possible scenario that might explain the alleged order for him to zip his jacket, though nothing excuses the beating he received. Is it possible that maybe his pants were unzipped and the female police officer was telling him to zip his zipper, and he misunderstood what zipper she was telling him to zip? If that were the case, then maybe the male officer got angry when Ronnie failed to zip his pants; maybe he thought that Ronnie was guilty of contempt of cop when really what he was guilty of was not understanding?
Again, I am NOT condoning what the cop did, in fact I think he should be charged with assault. Just trying to think of all the possible scenarios that could explain any of the behavior captured in this video.
This is a very disturbing video. I cannot fathom the reason why the cops arrested him. Even if there was a reason, the beating was unacceptable.
The victim is clearly not resisting arrest.
This officer should be fired, and then put on trail for assault and for falsifying police reports.
I lived in Passaic from 81 to 89. The Cops there (at least at the time) were anal apertures of the highest degree. I myself was beat down by one with his Maglite (AFTER he cuffed me) during an arrest for trying to swipe the “Welcome to Passaic” sign (stupid kid stuff), even though I was cooperative and not resisting arrest.
I hope Mr. Holloway sues Passaic into the Stone Age!
#17 I agree, critical thinking is always good. It’s important to try and think of possible scenarios and likely explanations. After a while though, you start to notice some patterns with those sworn to “protect and serve”. 1) 99 % of the time their behavior makes no logical or moral sense. 2) They’re only tough guys when they get to kick people who are already down and 3) the weak, sick or disenfranchised are easy targets for brave, tough cops.
I forgot to add 4) the camera always seems to catch their true sadistic colors 5) lowlife fellow cops will ALWAYS make excuses for their pig pen brothers 6) this ability to justify anything makes them very dangerous. 7) they really need to be shot, but fired would be good enough. Anybody have any contact info for this one?
Anonymous (#20&21): I have noticed the same patterns you mentioned, and am in complete agreement. Well, possibly not with them needing to be shot, but certainly with all the rest.
I was merely trying to make sense of why would a cop tell a person on the street to zip their jacket. Even if the scenario I presented were true and Ronnie failed to obey the order to zip his zipper, that would not give the cop legitimate cause to arrest him, let alone beat him.
The other thing that bothers me about this report is the allegation that they denied him medical treatment while holding him overnight. I truly hope that it turns out that someone was misinformed about it and he did indeed receive treatment. But, really, it wouldn’t surprise me if it is true – bother me, yes; surprise me, no.
Kylie, you are far more reasonable than I am! I know, you try to understand cops actions but it only leaves you frustrated. I think it boils down to the fact that they don’t have normal motivations…
What really makes no sense is why we as a society tolerate this kind of stuff, and from those we pay to “protect and serve”. When is it going to stop?