NEW YORK INMATE DEATH RULED HOMICIDE

The numbers don't lie! US police forces are on a killing spree. In 2024, US law enforcement killed 1,366 people, setting a new record, according to data analysed by Mapping Police Violence. But the true horror isn't just in the rising body count. It's in who suffers the most. Black people are 2.8 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than white people.

These statistics and body-camera footage from December 2024 of officers beating 43-year-old Robert Brooks to death while handcuffed raises alarms. 

The medical examiner's office ruled his death a h*micide, with the autopsy report revealing Brooks died from ‘asphyxia due to compression of the neck, as well as the death being due to actions of another.'

Body camera footage shows Brooks restrained on a medical examination table at the Marcy Correctional Facility while officers repeatedly punched him in the face, stomach and groin. Other clips show a prison officer placing something in Brooks' mouth before striking him and another officer hitting Brooks in the abdomen with a shoe. Unfortunately, the medical examiner pronounced Brooks dead the following day.

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul has called for criminal charges against the officers but history tells us the system is designed to shield its enforcers. More than a dozen correctional officers and two nurses have been suspended without pay, and one officer has resigned. Brooks' son, Robert L Brooks Jr, has filed a lawsuit against the individuals involved in the attack, the then-head of the prison facility, and the commissioner of the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

At the time of his death, Brooks was serving a 12-year sentence and had been transferred to Marcy from the nearby Mohawk Correctional Facility on the day of the incident. The details surrounding Brooks's transfer remain unclear.

Sources:

https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/ 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g9vy9jz9po 

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-prison-death-robert-brooks-lawsuit-be7ca2d6cc2d6f916514010e8d0a577c 

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/us/robert-brooks-ny-homicide/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/new-york-prison-death-brooks-autopsy-bd9a38fd8940f2b3e210767dec5e11f4

https://ag.ny.gov/osi/footage/robert-brooks