[Video] Teenager Stripped and Tasered Repeatedly in Alaska Jail

November 3rd, 2015

Awake Goy

Published on Oct 29, 2015
To Whom This May Cause Concern:
In a just and humane society, as envisioned by the founders of this country, we are protected from the excessive use of force by our government. Yet, in this small outpost of that government, here in Sitka, Alaska, at least two citizens, but likely many more, have had those protections violated.

I’m Alexander Allison, a fifteen-year veteran of the local school district, tour boat operator, former port and harbor commissioner, and father of one. However, I also speak on behalf of Franklin Hoogendorn, now in his early twenties, a former native student of our celebrated local boarding high school, Mt. Edgecumbe.

Last February 16th, after hearing of a police officer whose stated objective it was to charge at least one DUI every night, I decided to observe a DUI investigation as it occurred in a local parking lot. The video of what occurred on that occasion is also included on this channel. In short, after speaking calmly with an officer on the scene who was not conducting the investigation, and identifying myself when asked, I was arrested. Without being charged, without being read my rights, without being given a phone call, I was handcuffed, taken into custody, placed in a cell, stripped naked, given a concussion, and held until late the following morning. The city attorney refused to release the cell video to me. After being released I was not arraigned for seven weeks; my arrest wasn’t recorded in the local police blotter. Appearing in court, the district attorney pulled me aside, apologized for the circumstances, and offered to dismiss my charges of drunk and disorderly conduct, and criminal mischief for my behavior after my arrest. Though not physically resisting, I did not go quietly.

In the days following, a number of local attorneys reached out. Standing in the office of one of those attorneys, I was shown this video, of then eighteen year-old Franklin Hoogendorn. After his arrest for being under the influence of alcohol as a minor, he was placed in the cell I recognized, by two officers and the same jailer, and his pants and shirt were taken away. Like me, Franklin was rushed, shoved up against the wall, then down to the floor, where an officer and the jailer, kneeling on his back, held him face down. But then they did something to him that they did not do to me. With two already on his back, and after punching him in the face, the third officer stepped back, and began tasering Franklin’s bare leg, more than ten times.

When the police withdrew, Franklin’s arms and legs, which were held hog tied behind his back, collapsed, and he remained on the ground, unresponsive. They left him like this. A last officer leaving the cell can be heard saying, “What a douche bag!”

After the video finished, I was told that Kelton, who tasered Franklin, had been suspended previously by a department in New Mexico for tasering a man in custody to death. Then, in speaking with another local attorney, I discovered that the jailer, Hanson, had been suspended for the use of excessive force twice before.

I have agonized over how to handle this information. I decided against taking on the city of Sitka, because I love my home, my students, my community, and because I understand the current financial challenges we face.

But it is precisely because I care so deeply that I raise this alarm. If a teacher and a native teenager can have their constitutional rights so grievously violated, then it could happen to anyone – to your son or daughter, your husband or wife, your best friend who might have been out at a bar, or was pulled over for a failure to signal a turn.

I know there are many good law enforcement officers here, and they play an important and necessary role – I’m proud to say I have taught their children. But there has been a dangerous shift in department protocol, and this needs to be addressed. Bad cops not only endanger the community, they endanger good cops.

Finally, in the context of these stories, and of the many stories we hear of the current erosion of constitutional rights in this country, I have come to believe that it is we, the people, as it was intended, who must stand up and be willing to speak truth to power. When my rights are being taken from me, when I see my neighbor’s rights being taken away from him, I, for one, will not go quietly.
Thank you,
Alexander Allison