In
September 2006 James Chasse was tackled by three law officers on a
downtown street corner before a dozen eyewitnesses. James was not
suspected of a crime, he had not committed a crime.
The officers beat him, kicked him, broke 17 ribs and his shoulder. They
used a Taser on him repeatedly. He screamed for mercy.
The officers thought James was a drug dealer, a homeless person, a
non-person, a ghost. They were wrong. James was a poet, a musician, he
had a family which loved him, friends, neighbors, dreams and hopes. He
was an artist; a small, shy, gentle person. And he was a person with
schizophrenia.
James was sent by paramedics to jail. Jail nurses refused to admit him.
He died en route to a hospital in a police car driven by the same
officers who had earlier beaten him.
A grand jury refused to indict those officers. The City and County
refused to terminate or discipline them.
Alien Boy is a feature length documentary film about the life and death
of James Chasse.