A police officer has been charged with assault and is expected to be fired after authorities say he badly injured an Indian man whom he stopped to question as the man was walking through his son’s neighborhood. The man has filed a lawsuit, and the US FBI has opened an investigation.
The lawsuit filed by Sureshbhai Patel on Thursday claims that his injuries include partial paralysis. His son, Chirag Patel, said his father had to undergo surgery to fuse two vertebrae in his spine. Patel said his father is still unable to move his left leg.
Hours after the suit was filed, Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey announced that officer Eric Parker would be fired.
On Friday last week, Parker responded to the neighborhood in response to a call about a suspicious person walking onto driveways and looking into garages, department officials said in a statement.
Parker and other officers stopped Patel, 57, and tried talking to him, but he spoke little English, authorities said.
Officers tried patting Patel down, but he put his hands in his pockets and pulled away, police said. A video released by police shows an officer throwing Patel to the ground.
Later, after Patel was in cuffs, the video shows officers trying to lift him to his feet, but Patel’s knees buckle and the officers help him back to the ground. Officers then try to clean him up, picking things off of his clothing. Patel was taken to a local hospital, police said.
When Patel was stopped, he told police “no English,” and repeated his son’s house number, family attorney Hank Sherrod told Al.com. Sherrod claims Patel was accosted because of his brown skin.
Chirag Patel has told local news media that his father has only been to America once before and is visiting to help care for his grandson while Chirag Patel pursues a graduate degree.
“He was just walking on the sidewalk as he does all the time,” Chirag Patel told Al.com. “This is a good neighborhood. I didn’t expect anything to happen.”
Muncey said Sureshbhai Patel committed no crime and that the police are asking for the community’s patience while it investigates.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
RSS