Is $5M Enough for Muhammad Muhaymin's Fam? Phoenix Cops Murdered Black Man in Public, Snapped his Handcuffed Arms Over his Head, Tore Ligaments and Sat on his Head/Held Him Down, Suffocating Him
From [HERE] The Phoenix City Council could soon approve a multimillion-dollar settlement of a wrongful death and disability lawsuit against the city and a group of police officers.
The 2017 case of a Black man who died after being arrested on an old warrant outside the Maryvale Community Center is scheduled to go to trial in April.
On January 4th, 2017, Muhammad Muhaymin Jr. was stopped by police for attempting to use a public restroom accompanied by his service dog, a chihuahua named Chiquita. Muhammad was non-violent and non-confrontational, yet at least four officers from the Phoenix Police Department ripped his dog from his arms, got on top of him, seriously injured him, and finally choked him to death as he cried out “I can’t breathe!”.
Video evidence of the incident shows the officers torturing Muhammad. They snapped his handcuffed arms over his head—tearing ligaments and causing extraordinary pain. They suffocated him, sitting on his head and holding him down while he begged them to stop until his body grew limp and he died pressed into the concrete. [MORE]
The Phoenix Police Department officers’ own body cam footage clearly shows their use of excessive and deadly force on Mohammad. Two medical examiners, including a Maricopa County Medical Examiner, ruled Muhammad’s death a homicide.
Court records say Muhammad Muhaymin died after multiple police officers allegedly twice put their weight on his body, including after Muhaymin was restrained.
On Nov. 17, the Phoenix City Council will weigh whether to pay $5 million to settle a lawsuit by Muhaymin’s sister.
COPS SEIZED UPON THE HOMELESS BLACK MAN B/C HE WAS TRYING TO USE THE BATHROOM AT A COMMUNITY CENTER AND HE HAD HIS SMALL DOG W/HIM. AFTER GRANTING HIM PERMISSION TO USE THE TOILET THEY ARRESTED HIM FOR HAVING AN OUTSTANDING MISDEMEANOR WARRANT FOR MARIJUANA PIPE POSSESSION (they discovered the warrant while waiting for him to urinate). Said arrest may seem petty and therefore avoidable but it is a most necessary consequence of having a legal system based on physical coercion (yes meaning violence) and obedience to authority. Every law or order from authorities is a command backed by the threat of violence against those who do not comply. As explained by Huemer, “without the threat of violence, lawbreakers could simply choose not to suffer punishment. . . Commands are often enforced with threats to issue further commands, yet that cannot be all there is to it. At the end of the chain must come a threat that the violator literally cannot defy. The system as a whole must be anchored by a non-voluntary intervention, a harm that the state can impose regardless of the individual’s choices.”
That anchor is provided by physical force. Even the threat of imprisonment requires enforcement: how can the state ensure that the criminal goes to the prison? The answer lies in coercion, involving actual or threatened bodily injury, or at a minimum, physical pushing or pulling of the individual’s body to the location of imprisonment. This is the final intervention that the individual cannot choose to defy. One can choose not to pay a fine, one can choose to drive without a license, and one can even choose not to walk to a police car to be taken away. But one cannot choose not to be subjected to physical force if the agents of the state decide to impose it.
Thus, the legal system is founded on intentional, harmful coercion. “ [MORE] SAID SYSTEM CAN BE DESCRIBED AS FREE RANGE SLAVERY OR A FREE RANGE PRISON OR A SYSTEM OF FALSE CHOICES AND COERCION WHEREIN INDIVIDUALS MUST EITHER OBEY AUTHORITY OR GO TO JAIL. Such is the nature of a system of “political authority” - perhaps the most dangerous superstition or form of evil that has ever existed. ENJOY YOUR ILLUSIONS UNTIL YOU END UP LIKE Muhammad Muhaymin.
Lawyer David Chami represents Muhaymin’s estate. He said how Phoenix police treat homeless and disabled people is under review by the U.S. Justice Department.
“Mr. Muhaymin had both. He was transient and he also had mental health issues,” said Chami.
Court records say Muhaymin had PTSD, claustrophobia and schizophrenia. A payout by the city would benefit Muhaymin’s children, said Chami.
“One of them is now 15 years old. She was 10 years old when her father died,” he said.
The Arizona Council on American-Islamic Relations released a statement on the potential settlement.
“Muhammad Muhaymin’s murder is a painful reminder that police brutality, anti Blackness and Islamophobia leaves no city untouched. The settlement sounds just, but there’s no amount of money that will ever bring Mr. Muhaymin back to his family. People don’t just want the money, people want to see the system change,” wrote Azza Abuseif, executive director.