Unarmed, non-violent mentally-ill man beaten for taking a walk

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Were it not for the video camera above Lawrence's Bar and Grill in Passaic, NJ, the ferocious and seemingly gratuitous beatdown of 49 year old schizophrenic Ronnie Holloway, a local resident out for his nightly walk, would have been lost to posterity, and probably not sparked the city wide protests it now is.

ABC News reports

Ronnie Holloway's eyes were still black and blue one week after he was allegedly beaten by a Passaic, N.J., police officer -- an attack that was inadvertently caught on a video surveillance camera.

Holloway, who is on medication for schizophrenia, joined more than 80 others outside that community's city hall Saturday to demand that Officer Joseph R. Rios III be fired.

The tape shows Holloway, 49, waiting outside Lawrence's Grill and Bar restaurant in Passaic when a police cruiser pulled up and a female officer asked him to zip up his sweatshirt. Holloway appears to comply, but Rios jumps out and begins hitting him with his fists and a baton.

The scene shows baby strollers and other pedestrians walk by in the downtown retail section of this community of immigrants and working poor.

Holloway does not appear to resist, and at one point, Rios seems to stand him back up and then slam him into the police cruiser.

"These cops know him," said Holloway's lawyer Nancy Lucianna of Fort Lee, N.J. "He's lived in the town for 25 years, does the same routine every night. He goes out after dinner, takes a walk, and paces back and forth."







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This page contains a single entry by Phil Leggiere published on June 7, 2009 7:33 PM.

Tasered and put on Psychiatric detention for 72 hours for trying to warm-up car in freezing cold parking lot? was the previous entry in this blog.

Fla. HS Orders Valedictory Speech cut is the next entry in this blog.

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