The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU/SC) condemns a recent brutal beating by two Los Angeles County Sheriffs deputies of a detainee at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, part of the county jail system.

The violent January 24 attack on James Parker, detained on a non-violent marijuana charge, was witnessed by ACLU/SC’s Esther Lim, who is assigned to monitor all county jails.

“We believe Mr. Parker’s beating is not an isolated incident,” said Hector Villagra, incoming executive director of the ACLU/SC. “Rather, it highlights the rampant violence that continues to plague the county’s jails, and demands court intervention to protect detainees from brutal attacks and retaliation. That the ACLU/SC monitor witnessed a brutal attack in plain sight is alarming and can only lead us to conclude detainees are subject to even greater cruelty when no one is watching.”

The beating was made public Monday in a sworn statement submitted in federal court by Lim, who watched through a glass window as deputies repeatedly punched, kneed and tasered Parker while he was lying motionless on the floor.

“Mr. Parker looked like he was a mannequin that was being used as a punching bag,” Lim says in her statement. “I thought he was knocked out, or perhaps even dead.” Lim hit the glass divider hoping to get the deputies’ attention and stop the attack, but the officers continued to punch and taser Parker.

“Mr. Parker was not fighting with the deputies,” Lim says in her statement, adding he “was not trying to kick, hit or otherwise fight with the deputies.” Yet deputies continued to order him to “stop resisting” and “stop fighting”, while simultaneously punching and kneeing his limp body repeatedly and tasering him multiple times. The deputies then wrote in a jail log that Parker had been fighting and resisting, contrary to what Lim witnessed.

“This kind of brutal beating is unacceptable,” said Peter Eliasberg, ACLU/SC managing attorney. “We are also very concerned that shortly after the beating the sheriff’s department issued a log report contradicting what witnesses, including our monitor, saw. The report claims Parker was resisting and fighting with deputies when he was on the ground. That is blatantly false.”

Parker now faces charges for allegedly assaulting the very deputies who beat him.

Lim’s statement, along with that of another witness to the beating, were filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, to bolster a motion the ACLU/SC filed in October seeking a federal court order prohibiting jail deputies from retaliating against prisoners through violence or threats.

The ACLU/SC first sued Los Angeles County and its sheriff in 1975, on behalf of all detainees in the county’s jail system in 1975, charging the conditions of their confinement violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Many remedial orders have been issued over the years in the case Rutherford v. Block. But the systemic problems plaguing the system have recently become so acute the ACLU/SC in December asked U.S. District Court Judge Dean D. Pregerson to order a new trial in a case based on “an escalating crisis of deputy violence, abuse and inmate suicides” at Men’s Central Jail, another facility in the Los Angeles County jail system.

A report released by the ACLU/SC in September painted a stark picture of unacceptable levels of violence in the jails, including reports of deputies beating handcuffed detainees, injuring some so badly that they ended up in intensive care. The report also showed retaliation against inmates to be an acute problem. Several prisoners have been severely punished for meeting with representatives of the ACLU/SC, which is the court-appointed monitor of conditions inside L.A.'s county jails.

“The reign of terror we’re uncovering in the Los Angeles County Jails is unmatched by any of the hyper-violent prisons and jails across the country we have investigated,” said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “The brutality there is so blatant and routine that the deputies carried out a vicious beating in full view of a court appointed monitor. The court needs to take immediate action to ensure the protection of prisoners.”

The ACLU’s National Prison Project, along with Disability Rights California, and the law firm of Bingham McCutchen LLP are co-counsel in the case.

The ACLU of Southern California and the national ACLU filed an emergency request to prevent a woman, who is a lawful permanent resident, and her U.S. citizen child from being denied entry into the United States.

The woman and her son were returning home from Egypt, which has erupted in violence and instability. The request was filed in the Central District Court of California to allow her to enter the United States and remove her from the “No Fly List.”

Samaa Kerba and her four-year-old son, Farias Daniel As Salaaf, left Cairo yesterday to escape the violence and return to Los Angeles. However, when they arrived in Amsterdam, Holland, they were stopped by U.S. authorities because Ms. Kerba is on the federal government’s “No Fly List” for reasons unknown. She alerted her brother, Samy Ali of Palm Springs, and he contacted the ACLU/SC for help. Mother and child fear they could be returned to Egypt in less than eight hours.

“The plight of Ms. Kerba and her American-born son highlight how horribly broken the “No Fly List” system has become,” said Ahilan Arulanantham, director of Immigrants’ Rights and National Security for the ACLU/SC. “Americans fleeing civil unrest should be welcomed here, not barred from returning in violation of the most basic constitutional rights.”

The ACLU/SC and the national ACLU filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of more than a dozen people who were placed on the “No Fly list.” According to the ACLU's legal complaint, thousands of people have been added to this list and barred from commercial air travel without any opportunity to learn about or refute the basis for their inclusion. The result is a vast and growing list of individuals who, on the basis of error or innuendo, have been deemed too dangerous to fly but who are too harmless to arrest.

“Surely, every American’s worst nightmare is to find themselves attempting to flee a country in chaos only to discover their own government has slammed the door in their face without any explanation,” said Hector Villagra, incoming executive director of the ACLU/SC.