The brutal videotaped beating of a handcuffed Black man by White corrections officers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in New York was horrific but not surprising nor shocking. Three corrections officers beat Robert Brooks, 43, the same day he entered the prison, which has a troubled history of abuses and lawsuits.
“Robert Brooks died on December 10 following a vicious assault by state correctional officers at Marcy Correctional Facility, near Utica, New York. According to people who have watched video footage of the incident, the depravity of the assault is ‘incomprehensible,’” said Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, a civilian oversight group.
As CNN reported, body cam videos “begin with Brooks—face down with his hands cuffed behind his back—being carried into a medical examination room by three officers. It is unclear what led up to this moment.
“One officer appears to shove a white material in Brooks’ mouth as another officer holds Brooks by the throat. The officer then repeatedly punches Brooks in the face, while another officer punches him in the groin. One officer is seen striking Brooks with a shoe.
“Two officers then pull Brooks to a seated upright position at the edge of an exam table––one officer holding Brooks by his neck––before laying him flat on his back. Another officer then puts his foot on Brooks’ lower torso, while another officer hits him again in the chest.
“The officer who struck Brooks with his leg is then seen restraining Brooks’ legs before punching him in the buttocks approximately three times.
“He and another officer appear to yank Brooks up to the edge of the exam table once again, his face visibly bloody. Brooks appears to speak before an officer punches him in the chest again.
“Two officers then grab Brooks by the collar of his shirt and shoulder area, picking him off the table before forcing him to the back right corner of the room and holding him up against a wall as other officers look on.
“Minutes later, one of the officers gives Brooks a sternum rub––a technique used to assess if a person is conscious—as another officer pulls off what appears to be Brooks’ green inmate uniform. The footage ends with Brooks no longer handcuffed, lying on the table, motionless in his underwear.”
How could such brutality and torture be perpetrated on a man who had barely been in the prison for 24 hours? It’s hatred. It’s pattern and practice. It’s conspiracy and collusion. It’s a sadistic, warped, deadly mentality. It’s disdain for Black life and Black dignity. It’s the action of an outright enemy.
Under state law, the Correctional Association of New York (CANY) visits and examines correctional facilities to identify and report on prison conditions, treatment of those incarcerated, and the handling of policy put forth by the governor and legislature.
In a report six months ago, CANY condemned conditions at the Marcy facility and called for changes.
“During interviews, 80 percent of incarcerated people reported having witnessed or experienced abuse by staff and nearly 70 percent reported racial discrimination or bias,” said the association.
“According to one person we interviewed, ‘Physical abuse is rampant; the CO told me when I got here, This is a hands-on facility, we’re going to put hands on you if we don’t like what you’re doing.’ Another said staff ‘brag and intimidate us about the number of people they’ve beat or sprayed.’ ”
“On the second day of our monitoring visit, incarcerated people reported that security staff had announced the prior evening that anyone speaking with CANY representatives would experience retaliation,” said the civilian oversight group.
Their report called upon the state corrections department’s Office of Special Investigations and the New York State Inspector General to investigate these charges at Marcy Correctional Facility.
“Several times per week, we notify DOCCS and other state agencies about allegations of abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or violations carried out by staff in New York’s prisons,” CANY added.
Did anything happen? If little or nothing happened was there any desire to admit problems, let alone solve them?
As New York’s legislature ended its 2024 session, “at least 11 bills related to transparency, accountability, or monitoring of prisons were pending,” CANY noted.
“Taking steps to terminate the staff involved in the killing of Robert Brooks at Marcy is a good start, but Governor Kathy Hochul and the Legislature must go much further:
They need to take bold and courageous actions to fulfill past commitments and bring about a new era of transparency and accountability in state government. Empowering oversight entities to serve as partners in this endeavor is an important start,” said CANY’s executive director.
The governor is firing officers, appointing a new head of the Marcy facility, offering prayers and expressing shock at this highly disturbing death. Other officials and politicians are crying crocodile tears citing the body cam videos.
We’ve seen this before and we’ve seen things quickly go back to usual until the next death or tragedy made public.
If the state of New York wanted things to change, they would.
State failures and refusals to act assure that we should expect more losses in 2025. Most abuses we won’t see and heartbroken families will be pleading for some small measure of justice or even attention paid to the suffering and loss of loved ones behind bars.
We have no reason to expect that our enemies will suddenly have heavy hearts and turn from their evil ways. They have not and they will not.
They will only change to the degree that we force change. We force change by coming together and using our political and economic power to punish individuals, institutions and business endeavors. Our unity and action will bring us into accord with God Himself.
“What good is it to say ‘justice’ … . We don’t have time to play with the principle of justice! Justice is a principle of fair dealing—we have never been dealt fairly since our fathers set the soles of their feet in the Western Hemisphere,”
Said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan during an interview with Felisha Monet of Miami’s WEDR 99 JAMZ radio show. It was conducted during the “Justice Or Else!” tour in advance of the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March Oct. 10, 2015, in Washington, D.C.
“So justice is what we want. … And there definitely is an ‘or else’ … but the biggest ‘Or Else’comes from God Himself,” said Minister Farrakhan.
“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said: ‘Justice is a principle of fair dealing; justice is the law that distinguishes between right and wrong.’ But he also said, ‘Justice is a Weapon that God will use in the Day of Judgment.’
He said, ‘If justice were in the world there would not need to be a Judgment.’ But since the world is run by a satanic mind, and justice is not the order of the day, justice is denied.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, ‘the arc of the universe bends toward justice.’ So even if I can’t get justice in the courts of America, which are run by White Supremacists, that is not the Court that ultimately has justice in its grip,” Minister Farrakhan noted.
He continued: “And the evil of America? A great evil that America has done to the Indigenous people! A great evil America has done to the Blacks—who didn’t come here on the Niña, the Pinta or the Santa Maria.
But the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade—is a crime that they have not paid for yet! But this is reaping time. I am happy to announce to the enemies of justice: Your time has come, and you will not escape the Wrath of God!”
