On June 19, New Haven, Connecticut police arrested 36-year-old Randy Cox for possession of a weapon and took him into custody without incident. He was handcuffed and placed alone in the back of a police transport van without fastening his seat belt. When the driver made a sudden stop, Cox fell to the floor and was slammed head-first into the side of the van. He’s currently hospitalized, paralyzed from the chest down, on a ventilator and feeding tube.
The video from inside the van and taken by police before Cox was transported to the hospital, went viral when it was released by Cox’s Attorney Ben Crump, who represented the family of George Floyd and many other high profile cases involving police abuse. Crump and local lawyers representing Cox, who say they intend to sue the city, maintain the video shows officers mocking Cox for being unable to sit up after he was injured. All five police officers involved in the incident have been placed on paid administrative leave.
At a march and rally on July 8, New Haven residents gathered to express their outrage and called for accountability. At an earlier press conference, Crump did the same. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus attended the press event, and presents excerpts of Crump’s statement.
BEN CRUMP: Randy Cox is lying in that hospital bed paralyzed from the chest down because of the actions and inactions of the New Haven Police Department. I came here today after his family reached out to me and I got a chance to reach out to these great lawyers here in Connecticut who are going to join us, not only making the case here in New Haven, not just in Connecticut, but all across America, because right now all America is waking up and watching that video.
Last night, we put the video out on social media, and by the time we woke up this morning, a million people had watched the horrific video, and they had more than 10,000 comments, pretty much saying the same thing: This is shocking. This is horrific. This is unacceptable. This is inhumane, we are better than this, New Haven. We are better than this, America.
How many more times do we have to see Black people brutalized at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect and serve them? I am here because when I look at that video, it shocks my conscience. And I believe when you all see that video, it’s going to shock your conscience. The only question is, Why, when the police look at Randy Cox saying “I can’t move,” why doesn’t it shock their conscience?
Why, when he said, “I can’t move my arms. I can’t move,” that they didn’t use their training, they didn’t use their professionalism, they didn’t use the policies they are all supposed to know. Why didn’t they use just a ounce – just a ounce – of humanity, to say, “Well, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt when he says, I can’t move my arms.” Let’s give him the benefit of consideration. Let’s give him the benefit of humanity, because this is what this is about, humanity. We have to say humanity is in all of us, no matter if our skin is black, white, brown or red.
I thought about Freddie Gray. I mean, it is tragically similar to Freddie Gray. This is Freddie Gray case on video. Thank God we have the video, so they can’t deny what happened. They can’t deny that they had a man handcuffed and put him in the back of this paddy wagon inappropriately and drove – he may have been using a cell phone – I mean, all the things we don’t want people to do when you have someone not only in your custody, but in your care. If we learned anything from the George Floyd trial, that when you have a citizen in your custody, you have them in your care.
And so, I don’t know what it’s going to take for police officers around America to start believing marginalized people of color, especially Black people, when we say that you are brutalizing us. Why didn’t they believe George Floyd when he said, “I can’t breathe,” 28 times? Why didn’t they believe Eric Garner when he said, “I can’t breathe” 19 times? And why didn’t the New Haven police officers not believe Randy Cox when he said, “I can’t move”? Why did they mock him, and say, “You’re not even trying.” Why didn’t they follow the policies when he stopped and he said, “I can’t move”? He called it in and said, “Citizen said he fell in the back of the wagon and said he couldn’t move.” But yet he didn’t follow the policy of waiting for EMS to get there to see about this person who was obviously, you knew, in some kind of distress. You heard that THUMP! When his head hit that wall in that van. It was obvious that this was serious.
That was Attorney Ben Crump speaking at a press conference in New Haven after his client, Randy Cox, suffered serious injuries during his arrest by police.
