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And once again it happens, in 2018 style. 2009-16 was all about the Anaheim Police shooting fleeing young Latino men they later claim they thought might have been armed. This year it’s always the brutal arrest of a homeless and/or mentally ill man gone horribly wrong, and the victim dying days later in the hospital. Justin Perkins is the 5th (almost the 6th if Yamashita hadn’t pulled through) APD fatality this year – the third or fourth who was mentally ill, and the second or third where the cause was accidental asphyxiation while being arrested.
A lot of people will miss Justin. A lot of people knew him as the fun-loving roadie for Agent Orange bass player Perry Giordano. Bipolar and equipped with the mind of a 12-year old, he was said to light up the room with his smile, laugh and silly jokes when he’d walk in. His funeral is tomorrow – Saturday the 10th – at 10am, at West Anaheim’s St. Justin Martyr Catholic Church.
It’s still in dispute, what started things off badly the morning of Saturday October 27th. Police were called to intervene in some altercation at the apartment complex where he lived with his uncle, although it’s not even certain at this point that it was Justin that was involved. But the police apparently knew of Justin, and they came to his door, tasered him and dragged him out.
The first thing Justin’s uncle saw when he came out was the police repeatedly hitting his head and body with their fists and batons – bodycam footage when released may presumably tell what led to that point. As Justin began to fall to the ground, one officer began to apply a chokehold to him while the other continued beating him on his body and legs with his baton.
We will print these officers’ names when we receive them, sometime next week.
As the two policemen managed to beat and asphyxiate Justin into a cardiac arrest from which he never recovered, they were somehow “seriously hurt,” and were rushed off to UCI medical center. The uncle failed to see any injuries on the police, who were quickly released from the hospital, but a witness says that Justin bit one of the cops’ fingers as he was being strangled.
Justin was then left to lie on the ground unconscious for what the witness estimates as 45 minutes before being taken, brain-dead, to West Anaheim Medical Center. Despite what you were about to say, no drugs were found in his system. It was two days before his 38th birthday, and it was two more days before he was officially declared dead, so it’s a matter of dispute whether he actually made it to 38 years old. Sadly, he had really wanted to be an organ donor, and had had a very strong heart, but all his internal organs were RUINED from the severity of his oxygen deprivation. I guess that happens.
At first his mother was not allowed to see him in the hospital, until a law-enforcement friend of the family called APD and raised hell. Still for the four remaining days Anaheim police kept guard outside Justin’s room just in case – in case, who knows? In case somebody saw what they had done?
Killed October 27, declared dead Halloween, and still NOBODY HEARD ABOUT THIS TRAGEDY UNTIL TWO DAYS AGO, NOVEMBER 7, when his family and friends began posting about it on Facebook. Within hours the Register was out with a piece of police-spokesman stenography entitled “Anaheim Man Suspected of Seriously Hurting Two Police Officers Dies in Custody.” You see how it goes, if you’re “nobody” and nobody fights for you?
Well, his family is fighting for him now! They have retained hotshot LA attorney DeWitt M Lacy, who represented Rodney King. No matter WHAT happened, to be revealed perhaps by bodycam, in those initial minutes, this was definitely HELL OF EXCESSIVE, DEADLY FORCE.
And me, I have to help you keep track, because that’s what I do…SINCE 2008 (a few of these were possibly unavoidable, most not.)
- Julian Alexander, 2008.
- Joe Whitehouse, 2008.
- Adolfo Sanchez, 2009.
- Caesar Cruz, 2009.
- Marcel Cejas, 2011.
- David Raya, 2011.
- Roscoe Cambridge, 2012.
- Bernie Villegas, 2012.
- Martin Hernandez, 2012.
- Manuel Diaz, 2012.
- Joel Acevedo, 2012.
- Robert Moreno, 2014.
- Paul Anthony Anderson, 2015.
- Rene Garcia, 2015.
- Monique Deckard, 2015.
- Gustavo Najera, 2016.
- Danny Rendon, 2016.
- Vincent Valenzuela, 2016.
- Adalid Flores, 2016.
- Chris Eisinger, 2018.
- Peter Muntean, 2018.
- Ian Tompko, 2018.
- Eliud Penaloza Nava, 2018.
- Justin Perkins, 2018. (I’ll put links to each of these when I get back home.)
See you at the funeral tomorrow morning!
UPDATE Feb. 18, 2019:
For a dose of reality, watch Uncle Mike’s testimony around 9:58
W. Anaheim 2235 W. Boadway st. Rally for Justin Perkins who was killed by APD Oct. 2018
Posted by Lou Noble on Monday, February 18, 2019
Thank you Vern.
I’m wondering under what sort of legal authority the police could keep somebody in custody without contact with anybody. Seems like a species of illegal detention.
This is heartbreaking. I am so sorry for the family who has lost a dear family member.
Anaheim PD is on a downward trajectory. Is it time to rise up again? Has our perceived complacency emboldened the police to resume killing innocents?
Without Mayor Tait we will now depend on our new DA Spitzer to prosecute police for brutality killing or harming people in our communities.
Thank you Vern. What would we do without your dedication to truth and justice?
Umm… thanks, if you’re not kidding. There’s a lot of us though trying to get the truth out.
Plus, Tom has been a good and inspiring mayor, but has not had much to do with any real or imagined police reform.
Watch the video it’s on YouTube, don’t believe what you read on the internet. This man attacked the police. Sucks police have to deal with this type of shit. One broke his hand and the other got his pinky bitten off, by Poor mentally ill homeless man
*We just met Officer Ema, of the Fullerton Police Dept. today at the Veterans Event at the Fair Grounds. This is a real guy and if the Interim Police Chief is as good as he says…
perhaps Fullerton has finally taken the high ground and the Citizens can look forward to a much brighter future.
Wrong. Again. Just because somebody talks to you doesn’t make him reliable. Grow up. Finally.
The Weekly put up a story about this yesterday as well, there’s not much information in it, and apparently I’m blocked from commenting there (maybe because Chuck Johnson or Chris Epting was impersonating me half a year ago.)
But anyway there was an interesting comment there by Natalie, which bears out the suspicion – that when there’s a certain number of deaths that shouldn’t have happened, there’s probably five or ten times more NEAR deaths by the same method. Natalie:
“…a couple years back I was taken to what seemed like an obscure, small inefficient dirty emergency room. While I was there, police brought in several people they had just arrested. The police were casually telling the staff in the er that one of the suspects they just brought in they had just ‘choked out.’ I noticed he was unconscious. The officer told the staff he would be back later to pick him up.
“I was very upset about what I had seen and heard and just wanted to get out of there, but I wanted to know more. I asked one of the staff what was wrong with the person the officer just brought in? He just as casually as the officer relayed said the officer choked him out and they’re not allowed to do that, so they bring them to the er till they come to. At that point, my head injury was of no importance…I wanted out of there. My husband picked me up and I kind of blocked it out till I started following this story. Wondering if [Justin] was ‘choked out’?”
Chief Cisneros? Harvey?
We will never know.
APD needs an adjustment. It’s coming…
Tomorrow morning – Presidents’ Day, Feb. 18 at 11 – the Perkins family is holding a rally and press conference at the apartments where Justin was killed by two Anaheim police – that’s the Madison Apartments, 2235 West Broadway just west of Brookhurst. (See story above.) Four months later, the videocam footage has still not been released to the public.
The Orange Juice Blog will be present, supporting, filming and reporting.
More info here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10156837137460822&set=a.10150324581385822&type=3&theater
As they say, #JUSTICEFORJUSTIN
For a dose of reality, watch Uncle Mike’s testimony around 9:58
https://www.facebook.com/luis.nobleperez/videos/2498463396847839/?notif_id=1550517664169082¬if_t=live_video
He bit an officers finger off after attacking them from his front door! Then the cops tried to save his life . While it sucks he was high on drugs and all this happened, those cops are not at fault! Stop looking to blame others!
You don’t read or hear much, most unquestioning cop-lovers don’t, they already know what they think before they find anything out.
He was not high on drugs, he was mentally ill. He bit one cop’s finger while they were fighting, but he didn’t “bite it off.” I don’t know if it could have been handled better, but once they saw him talking to himself at the front door, they probably should have called on the APD’s mental health crisis team. He coulda been left in his uncle’s home until they got there. Apparently he hadn’t been taking the correct meds. But those who knew him are heartbroken and say he was a great guy.
That doesn’t fit the new escalation paradigm.
As for misinformation, I recall the Fullerton PD “spokesman” declared as fact that the cops who beat Kelly Thomas to death received broken bones, an outright lie.
With Justin, the family and witnesses said he only “bit the cop’s finger and made it bleed.” Anonymous Cop Lovers Online unanimously insisted that he “BIT OFF the cop’s finger.”
According to the DA report he “bit off PART of his finger.” This could be true – as so often the truth being somewhere in between.
http://orangecountyda.org/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=23768
Poor cops have to deal with this
Poor people that get abused by police. In the end police will be the enemies because they themselves will not use their brain in enforcing the coming Sunday Law. America will be judged and already is.
Glad you guys all are honoring someone i grew up with. However. I will have you know that he started using drugs at an early age and fried his mind. Also, he was pretty violent. His dad had him committed when he was a teenager. Here beat up his dad, mom, and sister. But anyway, ya fuck the police and how they have to deal with shit like this. Justin was a good kid. Anaheim p.d. is awesome. You call them, they show up fast. The people here are the problem. Hate this fucking community.
Pick one name. Don’t make it “Anonymous.” Don’t make it the first name of the dead guy that you’re trashing. You can makie it “Crusader for Jesus Christ” if you must, but you might go to hell for defaming a deity. Maybe try something else. ONE something else.
The one and only time I called Anaheim PD from a crime scene (serial hit and run) they didn’t show up for 45 minutes and I went home.
P.S. I assume they eventually showed up, but who knows?
All you people on here are fucking lames. I knew Justin, we went to Fullerton High 10th and 11th grade. I used to hang out pretty frequently with him at his Grandmother’s house in Fullerton. Justin had some problem… sure. We all did. Was he mentally Ill? I suppose so. Was he a pretty bright, articulate (if not annoying as hell), absolutely. HE DID NOT DESERVE WHAT THOSE FUCKING PIGS DID TO HIM!
I, myself have had plenty of run ins with old Anaheim P.D. They’re fucking Storm Troopers and PIGS. And for whoever commented earlier about him using drugs eary and “frying his mind”….Boy, your about a dumb fuck, arent you? Fried his mind, huh. Give me a fucking break! Anyone being bludgeoned to death at the hands of the goon squad would try to defend themselves as well. Biting, gouging, throwing fists etc. Have any of you ever been put in a life or death situation, where someone is out to end your fucking lie? No. I thought not. If that was your family or loved one, would you spew the same boot licking, ass kissing rhetoric as you vomited here?
To Justin’s mom and uncle. I remember you and I remember Justin..it’s been a long time. Iam sorry for your loss and I am sorry about the ignorant garbage posted on this site. Keep up the good work and continue to fight these corrupt, fascist, gang members called Police. Keep giving them he’ll and don’t ever quit. Who the fuck do they think they are?
Thank you for your input. Now that I re-read this story of mine, I should have included Justin in my collection of stories of folks killed by the APD that WOULDN’T have been killed if a mental health team had shown up instead (as will hopefully be the case going forward.)
https://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2021/08/on-petrica-peter-muntean-and-every-problem-being-a-nail/