Inmates At US Jail Forced Into Gladiatorial Combat As Sheriff’s Deputies Placed Wagers

At just 150 pounds, it was hardly fair to pit Ricardo Palikiko Garcia against an opponent well over twice his size. But Garcia had to fight him — or else he’d allegedly face torture. 

Like the gladiators of old, Garcia and others were forced into pugilistic matches, local authorities said. Four sheriff’s deputies then placed bets on their bouts.

“Deputy’s betting against me and forcing me to fight and if I don’t fight, then he’s basically telling me that he was going to beat me up, cuff me, Tase me all at once,” Garcia said in an audio recording.

Investigators fear the fights may have gone on for a while. For Garcia, there was a lead-up. Deputies forced him to do pushups to train for fights.

- From the CNN article: Inmates Forced Like Gladiators to Fight as Deputies Took Bets

By Michael Krieger: You know something’s just not right in your culture when you see a headline about prisoners engaging in gladiatorial combat while incarcerated, and the first thing that comes to your mind is, “this reminds me of a similar story from last year.”

Indeed, all it took was a quick search and I uncovered an article I wrote last March ago titled, FBI Launches Investigation into a Private Prison So Violent it is Called “Gladiator School,” which noted that:

The understaffing has been the subject of federal lawsuits and a contempt of court action against CCA. The ACLU sued on behalf of inmates at the Idaho Correctional Center in 2010, saying the facility was so violent that inmates called it “Gladiator School” and that understaffing contributed to the high levels of violence there.

In that case, it appears the violence erupted as a result of private prison company Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) attempting to boost its profit margins.  In the latest case emerging out of San Francisco, the fights were organized events arranged solely to provide entertainment to sheriff’s deputies and create an outlet for their gambling habits. The inmates allege they were threatened with torture or sexual abuse if they failed to participate in the pit fights.
From CNN:

At just 150 pounds, it was hardly fair to pit Ricardo Palikiko Garcia against an opponent well over twice his size. But Garcia had to fight him — or else he’d allegedly face torture. 

Running away was not an option for the inmate locked inside a San Francisco jail.

Like the gladiators of old, Garcia and others were forced into pugilistic matches, local authorities said. Four sheriff’s deputies then placed bets on their bouts.

“Deputy’s betting against me and forcing me to fight and if I don’t fight, then he’s basically telling me that he was going to beat me up, cuff me, Tase me all at once,” Garcia said in an audio recording.

The deputies spurred Garcia’s 350-pound adversary on, Adachi told CNN affiliate KGO. 

“Chanting like, ‘Get him. Get him. Hit him. (Expletive) him up or kick him in the (expletive). Stuff like that,” Garcia said.

Investigators fear the fights may have gone on for a while. For Garcia, there was a lead-up. Deputies forced him to do pushups to train for fights.

One deputy was the main instigator, Adachi said. He had been accused of sexually assaulting inmates in 2006, but was not convicted.

Notice that the main instigator here had serious accusations previously leveled against him, but was never convicted. This is quite similar to what was highlighted in yesterday’s police abuse article, which revolved around a Michigan police officer William Melendez, who was nicknamed “RoboCop” due to a history of violence and planting evidence. He had been previously freed by a jury for prior offenses, and then earlier this year beat a 57-year-old unarmed man with no criminal record to a bloody pulp for running a stop sign. If you missed that article, it’s a must read: 57-Year-Old Michigan Man Beaten to a Bloody Pulp by Police Officer Known as “RoboCop” for Running a Red Light.

As alluded to in the CNN article, it appears the instigator of the gladiatorial combat was previously accused of sexual assault. This deputy is Scott Neu, and as BoingBoing reports:

San Francisco sheriff’s deputy Scott Neu is accused of leading a ring of corrupt jail guards who coerced prisoners into gladiatorial combat with threats of rape and violence.
Neu serves at County Jail No. 4 at 850 Bryant St despite having settled claims that he raped a woman prisoner and two transgendered prisoners while working at the jail. He sports a tattoo reading “850 Mob,” believed to describe the name used by the corrupt deputies to describe themselves. At least four other deputies are implicated in the program of sexualized torture.
Neu and his co-conspirators gambled on the outcome of fights. One fight pitted the smallest inmate in the jail against the largest, and the fighters say they were threatened with rape and beatings by the guards if they didn’t spar. Neu is also said to have coerced prisoners into training for the fights with threats of rape and violence. Neu has a reputation for sadistic practices overall, including making prisoners gamble to receive their food, clothes and comfort items. Even when prisoners won the games Neu forced on them with the red dice and the deck of cards he carried, he would sometimes take away their “winnings” and give them to other prisoners.
When you have a society with zero accountability for people in positions of power, this is exactly what you get. Expect a lot of more of this until we start putting America’s sociopaths behind bars.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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