Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
Knoxville, TN — Bradley E. Easterly, 38, has a criminal past. His drug addiction — being treated by the police state instead of actual help — has led to his repeated incarceration over the last 15 years. Though many of his stints in jail were justified because of burglaries and theft, the last time he visited jail, it was once again for his substance abuse problem.
Instead of treatment for his addiction, however, Easterly was tortured and humiliated by police. The video below should serve as an instructional video for how the war on drugs is not only a brutal failure, but facilitates the horrific and inhumane treatment of our fellow humans.
Because Easterly was an addict, when he was being arrested for drugs last year, he attempted to sneak some into the jail. As TFTP has reported countless times, cops will sodomize and gruesomely torture innocent people looking for non-existent drugs. So, when authorities found Easterly attempting to sneak in actual drugs, all hell broke loose.
The entire incident was captured on video which was just released as part of a lawsuit Easterly has filed against Knox County and several sheriff’s personnel. Knox County Sheriff’s Officer Lt. Josh Smith was the ring leader in this sadistic act of torture.
As the video shows, Easterly is being strip searched when police notice that he has something between his cheeks. So, they tell him to remove it.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen,” Smith told Easterly on the video. “You’re gonna be given the option to reach back there and remove those drugs. And drop that bag on the floor.”
The entire time, Easterly was complying with the officers and offered no resistance.
“The bag’s there, I can see it,” Smith said.
Smith said the officer on Easterly’s left was going to let go of his hold on Easterly’s hand and that Easterly was to reach back and pull out the baggie.
“If you do anything else, I’m going to Tase you. Do you understand?” Smith said.
In a move that was nothing short of sadistic torture, as Easterly began to reach back to remove the bag, Smith makes a face and then shoots him in the back with the taser. Easterly immediately cried out in agony as he fell to the floor.
As Easterly goes down, the other officers pile on top of him. Just then, another officer, Adam Baker joins in on the taser torture, deploying the taser again to the back of Easterly, who is not at all posing any threat.
As he is on the ground, Easterly is tasered, punched repeatedly, and hit with chemical spray.
The sadistic officers then handcuffed Easterly, put him in a restrain chair and a spit mask before hauling him off to solitary confinement — for 90 days.
One of Easterly’s attorneys, Lance Baker, described Smith as “trigger happy.” We believe this is an understatement.
“He (Easterly) wasn’t a threat to anybody,” Baker told 10News.
“That’s the kind of force you would use against someone with a pistol,” Easterly’s other attorney, Joshua Hedrick noted.
According to Hedrick, Easterly wanted to sue the county and officers in part because he later learned KCSO was using the video for training purposes on how not to use a Taser.
Yes, you read that correctly. The use of force against Easterly was so over the top and so egregious, that it was reportedly being used as an instructional video on how not to use a taser.
“Even if the policies and procedures regarding the use of force by corrections officers against inmates do not themselves violate federal law, there is and was — at the time of the violent encounter between plaintiff and corrections officer — a persistent and widespread practice among KCSO corrections officers of using excessive force on a subject when it is unnecessary and objectively unreasonable as a matter of law to do so…” the lawsuit states.
For attempting to sneak suboxone (a drug used to treat opioid addiction) into the jail, Easterly pleaded guilty to a felony contraband charge. Instead of getting the treatment he needs, he is currently serving time behind bars. Police also charged him with assault on a public employee over the incident, but that charge was thrown out because there was no evidence to support it.
Below is a video that should serve as wake up call to those who continue to support the war on drugs. When addicts are treated like this by those who claim to “protect” society, it is high time we rethink the decision to pay for “protection” like this.
Were the world ever asked for one very fine example of the depths humanity can sink to, this would certainly qualify. The control, the indignity, the false power. And always that cruel sadism seeping through.
The face of torture has so many masks.
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