Grandfather visiting AL from India left temporarily paralyzed after stopped by police during a walk

Indian citizen roughed up in Madison, AL

Madison police last week roughed up a 57-year-old Indian citizen who was walking on the sidewalk outside his son's home, leaving the older man temporarily paralyzed and hospitalized with fused vertebrae.

"He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time," said his son, Chirag Patel, this morning. "They put him to the ground."

No crime had been committed. Madison Police on Monday issued a statement saying the department had suspended the officer and were investigating the use of force in this case. The police statement wished the man a "speedy recovery."

He said his father, Sureshbhai Patel, was to help his wife care for their new baby, a 17-month-old son, so he could pursue his masters degree in electrical engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

"The caller, who lives in the neighborhood did not recognize the subject and thought him to be suspicious," reads the statement released by police.

"This is broad daylight, walking down the street. There is nothing suspicious about Mr. Patel other than he has brown skin," said Sherrod.

Sherrod says the Sureshbhai Patel told the police officers "no English" and repeated his son's house number.

Sherrod said he spoke with Sureshbhai Patel at Huntsville Hospital this morning. He said there were two officers present and that Patel was patted down and did not pull away. Sherrod said one officer then pulled Patel's arm up behind him and slung him face first into the ground. He said Patel could not say what happened after that.

"This is just one of those things that doesn't need to happen," said Sherrod, saying the police escalated to violence without cause and left Patel lying bleeding from his face, paralyzed and in need of paramedics. "That officer doesn't need to be on the streets."

Sureshbhai Patel was taken by ambulance to Madison Hospital. Hospital staff called his son at work at 9:42 a.m. on Friday. Chriag Patel found his father at the hospital unable to move his legs and with limited motion in his arms.

From there, due to swelling in the spine, Sureshbhai was transferred to Huntsville Hospital for surgery to fuse two vertebrae. He remains hospitalized. Chirag said his father can now move his right leg a little bit, but the left remains paralyzed. He said his father can raise both arms, but cannot make a tight grip.

He said his father had no health problems prior to this incident.

I'm sorry, but NO takedown needs to be so rough you end up paralyzing someone! I don't give a flick what excuse you have! There is no excuse for this amount of violence. There's a chance this man may never fully recover. What then? What if this poor man now has to b cared for by his son because this idiot got an itch in his jock that he just had to scratch to take someone down in such a violent way! Flipping blastard! This crap is out of hand! I hope they sue the department for everything they can. As for the departments disingenuous wishing him a speedy recovery....Flip off! We know you don't give a flying flip!

a reply to: Anyafaj

Wooow.
Some pretty weak stuff here. All comes back to a caller that decided to put in a call about a person that may have been false leading to the mistreatment of a person.

Sure doesn't help that he doesn't speak English.

I guess this is Alabama's idea to solve the immigration problem...

Should stop the smart people from coming over here pretty quick.

originally posted by: Sremmos80
a reply to: Anyafaj

Wooow.
Some pretty weak stuff here. All comes back to a caller that decided to put in a call about a person that may have been false leading to the mistreatment of a person.

Sure doesn't help that he doesn't speak English.

WOW. Just wow!

A man walking down the street gets brutalized by the police and you want to blame the caller, and that fact the visitor to your country does not speak english.

I am flabbergasted at your response!

P

a reply to: Anyafaj

This reinforces my contention that LEOs should be licensed by the state and subject to a review board. Conduct like this would result in their license being revoked and they would no longer be allowed to practice law enforcement. Also, any legal settlement incurred by the police department should be levied against the officer as restitution. All wages, bank accounts and tax returns should be garnished until full reimbursement is made.

AL.com

Sherrod, a civil rights attorney from Florence, has recently handled several cases involving law enforcement in Madison County. He said the Patel family will sue, but has not yet filed.

Capt. John Stringer, spokesman for Madison Police, said there are both audio and video recordings of the stop. But he said those recordings were evidence in the internal affairs investigation, and would not be released to the public at this time.

Madison Police have also refused to identify the officers involved in the stop.

Hopefully the will release the video and audio soon. After all if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear (or is that just some BS that the authorities like to tell us?)

originally posted by: coldkidc
I guess this is Alabama's idea to solve the immigration problem...

Should stop the smart people from coming over here pretty quick.

Knowing alabama, they must've been doing this for a while.

a reply to: pheonix358

How does this not get right back to the caller?

Totally the cops fault as well but that wouldn't of happened if some one one didnt call the cops about a man walking down the street.

I am tired of bs calls leading to cops doing 0 police work about the call and the people getting the short end of that stick.

And it wasn't a slam on the person not speaking english, just simply a statement that it didn't help.

Far from the person that thinks it is on you to speak English in this country

I foresee a wealthy retirement for this man... and I don't even have ESP.

What interests me most is that only one officer is suspended. What about his partner in crime who stood by while someone he has sworn to protect was thugerized.

a reply to: Sremmos80

I agree but it's not just on the caller.

Yes, we have too many people calling 911 for basically nothing in the US. And that's dumb.

But as a trained professional working to "protect" people..

You should be able to know when and when not to slam someone's face into the ground.

a reply to: rockintitz

Ya I didn't mean to take blame away from the cops, guess I just figured that was a give in.
IMO the cops did 0 police work here and this man paid for it.

My problem is also with the person that called the hounds on the guy.
Getting tired of that person getting off scott free in these cases.

a reply to: Sremmos80

That's a good point.

Let's make the douchebag who called for a BS cause 50% responsible.

I'm cool with that.

a reply to: Sremmos80

True enough, as far as I can see the only reason the cops were called is because some brown person was walking around their neighbourhood. Now that poor man is partially paralyzed.



Doesn't look that big of a man either, I'm guessing the cop probably had a couple of pounds on him too. Probably had to teach him a lesson for not knowing English, this story really pisses me off.

originally posted by: rockintitz
a reply to: Sremmos80

That's a good point.

Let's make the douchebag who called for a BS cause 50% responsible.

I'm cool with that.

Know why that is not cool? Cause one of these days when a person really needs a third party to get involved and make that call- that third party may choose not do so for fear that they may be on the held liable for the actions of someone else that is outside of their control.

I am so sick of hearing people wanting to blame a person who called 911 for help. Now I do agree, too many people call for some seriously stupid reasons, but what do you expect from a seriously stupid population? We live in the world of "if you see something, say something", so people call things in that probably more often than not turns out to be nothing- but to blame the 911 caller for the actions of the Officer is like blaming the waiter cause the cook didn't make your food right.

What does that caller have to do with the actual Police response? That is something completely outside of the control of the caller. You want people to call the cops. Hell- you NEED people to call the Cops. If people do not call the Cops, they will handle it themselves, and "legally" that is called being a vigilante and if people get hurt or killed everyone would be yelling about, "Why didn't he/she just call the Police"? There are no shortage or robberies, rapes and countless violent acts that are stopped daily because someone saw something and called the Police to intervene.

What happens after the Police get there is not the fault of the person who called. It is the fault of the responding Officer. It is the fault of the entire Police Department for inadequate training. It is the fault of the DA who does not investigate allegations against Officers objectively. Hell it is even the fault of you.... yes, YOU for not being involved locally to hold your local Police Departments accountable.

originally posted by: sosobad
a reply to: Sremmos80

True enough, as far as I can see the only reason the cops were called is because some brown person was walking around their neighbourhood.

And while I am at it...I'm sick of people playing the race card! Is it remotely possible that the person who called did so simply because a person they had never seen before was walking up and down their street??

Now I admit, there is nothing suspicious about walking down the street, and calling this in as "suspicious" makes that caller guilty of being idiot but not a racist. Can we hold off on playing the race card until there is some evidence that race played a factor in the event? I don't care that this happened in Alabama. I got news for some of you that may come as a shock, but the "South" is not any more or less racist than the "North".

a reply to: MrWendal

"The caller, who lives in the neighborhood did not recognize the subject and thought him to be suspicious," reads the statement released by police.

"This is broad daylight, walking down the street. There is nothing suspicious about Mr. Patel other than he has brown skin," said Sherrod.

That is an excerpt from the op, read it. If you want to bury your head in the sand you are fully entitled to but don't try and ram your crap down everyone's neck.

a reply to: MrWendal

Ya I get that people need to call the cops, but people need to do so reasonably.

The caller does have control of the police action, if they call in a suspicious person then they cops need to act accordingly.
Cops are going off only the info of the caller at times, so they greatly influence the response of the officers.

Again, it was the caller that got the cops out to the man, without that call it could be argued the man continues to walk down the street unmolested.

I also feel the need to reiterate, I completely blame the police as well, but if you call the hounds out then why do you get to wash your hands of the actions?

Also, the idea of this being racially charged is very possible and should be discussed.
Nothing gets solved by not talking about it.

a reply to: MrWendal


If it had been this fella walking down the street would the cops have still been called? Please

More proof. Unless you want the target to be dead or severely injured, you do not call the police on someone in the US.

If you're going to call the cops for something, ask yourself first... does someone really deserve to die for what went down? If the answer is no, then don't call and hope no one calls them on you.

What is Alabama's unofficial State Slogan? "Thank god for Mississippi"