Inmates are not animals to be tormented by their keepers

LT. STEPHEN PERKINS of the MDC Detention Officers’ Union sees nothing amiss in the sickening video of the incident involving inmate Susie Chavez (“‘Twist her wrist until she shuts up’,” Aug. 11) and is disdainful of citizens who judge the force to be excessive.

This implies an attitude that is part of a recurring American problem: we are to be policed, and it is not ours to question the use of violence by our zookeepers. The problem is that we view ourselves as citizens with a selfevident right to address power.

Perkins (should) edify us (and) describe a hypothetical context that might justify the punitive torture of an inmate who is on the ground, crying because she is in physical pain; intentionally pulling a woman by her hair; twisting her wrists to punish her for crying — not, evidently, so she can hear instructions — and threatening further extra-judicial punishment after she suggests they are using excessive force on her, when Sgt. Eric Allen warns, “Now you’re getting into stuff where we’re going to hurt you.”

In pain and frustration, she bangs her head on the floor and, at this point, the care she received from her captors was to spray her in the face with Mace, after which Allen mocks her about life choices. The citizens of New Mexico would be most interested in an example of a context where this behavior looks professional and measured rather than sadistic.

Inmates lose some rights, but not all. They are not animals to be tormented at the whim of their keepers. When evidence emerges of questionable use of violence by detention workers, citizens’ questions require answers, not deflections and contempt.

ALGERNON D’AMMASSA Deming