*Joliet, IL police Sgt. Javier Esqueda has been stripped of his police powers and placed on administrative leave after he blew the whistle on the death of Eric Lurry in police custody.
According to CBS 2, Esqueda said enough was enough after he watched video of fellow officers appearing to suffocate Lurry until he died.
Here’s more via the Free Thought Project:
Nicole Lurry said her husband had just finished getting his license to be a barber, and was enrolled in school to become an instructor at the barber school. But in late January, the 37-year-old – who had served time before for drugs – got arrested again.
When police arrested Lurry, they put him in the back of a squad car and suspected him of putting drugs in his mouth. In an attempt to get Lurry to spit out the drugs, police held his nose closed while shoving a baton in his mouth and slapping him. This torture went on for nearly two entire minutes until Lurry fell unconscious and eventually died.
For five months, the department kept the video secret while clearing the cops involved.
Lurry’s wife never knew of the video’s existence until Esqueda blew the whistle after he came across it.
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Cop who blew whistle on death of #EricLurry is stripped of his badge. “That’s what you get,” says one source for going against the “blue wall of silence” Lurry had nose pinched shut for 98 seconds in cuffs. Police Sgt Javier Esqueda, a 27 year vet fighting for job. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/E61I1pGqcQ
— Dave Savini CBS (@davesavinicbs2) July 7, 2020
“He was suffocating,” Sgt. Esqueda said of Lurry. “In my opinion, anybody would suffocate in that situation.”
“It was almost like the supervisor looks off and says something to somebody, and then you hear the sound cut out. That’s what alerted me that possibly, they were trying to get rid of evidence,” he said.
“So there was a deliberate, initial act to turn off the audio or get rid of the audio?” CBS 2 reporters asked Sgt. Esqueda.
“There had to be. There’s no way that can happen,” he said.
“He’s supposed to tell. That’s what police officers are supposed to do. He’s supposed to lead by example, and he did,” said Lurry’s cousin, Effie Lee. “He said he cried for days seeing my cousin treated like that.”
“Seeing that video was so disturbing, I cried,” Esqueda said. “Every day, having to live with that was a hard thing, knowing this administration was probably going to do nothing about it.”
Naturally, Esqueda is scared of retaliation for leaking the video.
Cop who blew whistle on death of #EricLurry is stripped of his badge. “That’s what you get,” says one source for going against the “blue wall of silence” Lurry had nose pinched shut for 98 seconds in cuffs. Police Sgt Javier Esqueda, a 27 year vet fighting for job. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/E61I1pGqcQ
— Dave Savini CBS (@davesavinicbs2) July 7, 2020
“There’s some fear. When you see stuff like this, you have to come forward. You can’t sit there and be quiet, because then, we’re just part of the problem,” he said.
Meanwhile, Esqueda has the support of the Black Police Officers Association.
“He’s a member, and we’re going to back him,” said Dave Jackson, president of his department’s Black Police Officers Association.
“If someone’s doing the right thing, we’re going to stand right there with them. Sgt. Esqueda has been held as a well-respected supervisor and United States Marine and has served his country and his community proudly,” Jackson added.
Jackson also called Esqueda “brave as well as a hero” for exposing Lurry’s killers.
“Without Sgt. Esqueda drawing attention to this death to city officials, this in-custody death may still be pending,” Jackson said, according to Patch.
“In light of everything that’s’ been happening – you know George Floyd really had a lot of us police officers. When we saw that video, a lot of us cried. People don’t believe that. But the thing is, there are a lot of good officers out of 750,000. Not everybody is a bad cop. Most cops that I know were upset by George Floyd,” he said.
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