Texas police routinely rough with medically vulnerable, lawsuit alleges

The Rosenberg Police Department in Texas is accused of using severe force on the medically vulnerable.

A damaged dialysis device. A busted hearing aid. A roughed-up cancer patient. These allegations are included in a federal lawsuit filed this week against a Texas police department accused of routinely using “severe force on compliant civilians” — including people with medical issues.

The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas by lawyers with the National Police Accountability Project, claims that officers with the Rosenberg Police Department illegally detained a couple at gunpoint before destroying, damaging or confiscating their belongings, including the dialysis device, on Nov. 6, 2020.

Regina Armstead and Michael Lewis, who has kidney disease, said the nearly hour-long stop left them feeling “frightened, humiliated, embarrassed, and persecuted for being Black,” the suit says.

Regina Armstead and Michael Lewis. The couple is suing the Rosenberg Police Department for illegally detaining them and damaging Lewis' dialysis device.Courtesy Regina Armstead and Michael LewisTheir experience, according to the lawsuit, is typical for “many other civilians” in the city of roughly 39,000, located about 40 miles southwest of Houston.  

The pair, who had been driving home after picking up a meal, was stopped by authorities searching for a white car linked to a group of armed teens, the suit states.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-police-accused-using-severe-force-medically-vulnerable-rcna41676


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