THE BIG STORY
We Wish We Didn’t Know
Konk Life Staff Writer
The new video that has surfaced showing Charles Eimers’ face covered with sand and blood all over his ear is such bad news that most of our society just wishes it weren’t true.
A minority of people have been critical of the police action that resulted in the new retiree’s death last Thanksgiving on the day he was moving to Key West. But the KWPD, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Medical examiner, the State Attorney, the Grand Jury, our Civilian Review Board, all of our commissioners and other senior city staff, and the corporate media have been in deep denial. So has the majority of the population, especially those who revere jet booms as “the sound of freedom” and other emblems of state power.
They all so want to believe in the ability of our police to control themselves that they have clung to the official story that Eimers died of a heart attack that had nothing to do with the way our police arrested him. To that end, they have believed that he was able to stand after the take-down, that the sand was inconsequential, that the 10 broken ribs were from CPR and all police procedures were acceptable.
But we now know that Eimers died face down on the ground with our police all over him, one proudly declaiming the violence which put him there. And if there is anything worse than the crime itself, as we all know, is the cover-up afterward.
The cover-up began as soon as Eimers was with the EMTs. The police gave them false information about the circumstances of Eimers’ condition, eliminating any chance the EMTs would take the appropriate actions that would have had any chance of saving him. The second step was NOT getting witness statements from the many people in the area while their memories were fresh.
The cover-up continued with letting Eimers’ body not only avoid a timely autopsy, but letting him almost be cremated. During that time, officers’ car cams were not collected by the state investigators for weeks, by which time all had been lost or erased. Proven witnesses were not contacted — the critical video of the sand and blood was retrieved in two days after a phone call to a number the police, FDLE, or SA never dialed.
Somehow the Medical Examiner made a mockery of his profession by accepting the police description of events, even shredding pertinent witness statements without reading them. He ignored the sand and broken ribs, whitewashed it all, and, appropriately, quit and left the state.
The State Attorney brought in a crack police defense witness and no counterpart for the prosecution so a gullible selection of your fellow citizens, representing the majority wish that this really didn’t happen and would all go away, did their best to accomplish just that. They accepted the police version of events, ignoring visual evidence of the original eyewitness video, instead believing the charismatic police defender and the write-and-run Medical Examiner.
Our hard-won Civilian Review Board, facing the most vivid example of why they were created, shamed themselves with their silence and inaction.
I don’t know how anyone in the state can trust any investigation by our FDLE. I cannot imagine how any such agency could have done a worse job. They did not attempt to collect evidence like the dash cams until it had disappeared. They took so much time that evidence and memories degraded as they slow-walked the process for almost a year.
Most embarrassing, something that must make every officer himself cringe with guilt by association, is lead investigator Kathy Smith’s involvement. She had been married to and shared a child with the current police captain in charge of the men being investigated. The only more inappropriate relationship would have been if she were, say, currently married to one of the officers at the scene.
The recent revelation of her having signed a false sworn document to get a mortgage is the final straw for me. You might ask what signing an Affidavit of Continuous Marriage four months after getting divorced has to do with her investigating the death of Charles Eimers. Here is what I take from that. She signed a sworn statement that was egregiously false just to get a better deal on a refi, even though it would become a public record. It took me now just 55 seconds to ring it up on the Clerk’s website, being able to read the “Dissolution of Marriage” one slot away from the “Affidavit of Continuous Marriage.”
How could you believe anyone who could sign such an easily discoverable, indubitably criminally false oath could be trusted to sign off on more hidden matters? I believe everything she has signed off on in her position should be re-investigated.
From “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” to “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” we want to believe in the best in us. It is time our city faced up to our collective guilt, come clean and started to make amends.
I hope to see you at the Charles Eimers Memorial at 6 PM today where he died on the beach at the end of Duval. It is NOT a police protest. It is simply to say we are sorry, taking a small step towards appeasing his poor soul, and the hearts of his survivors.
[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]
The memorial is at 6 PM on Thanksgiving, not today. This was written for print publication on that day.
Such an absurd and tragic mockery of justice. Shame on all the players involved and all the cheerleaders of denial. The latest video of Mr. Eimers’ dead body on the beach should convince the doubter of the concerted effort by the police and law enforcement to cover up their complicity in his death. The video recording of Chief Donnie Lee’s deposition is also an eye opener.
I believe people are forgiving when given a chance. If the police had come forward immediately after this tragic death and admitted their responsibility and begged for forgiveness the story today would be entirely different. They chose the cowards way and we, the city and citizens of Key West are paying the price.
P.S. See you at the candlelight memorial on the beach.
Good coverage. The blue paper and all else I’ve seen say the service is Thanksgiving Day, at 6 p.m. Some of us down here knew right away what it took Rick many months to accept. We knew because we were not brainwashed gullible sheep, I suppose it the kindest way to say it.
Rick:
The Eimers case demonstrates once again that even us white kids will pay the price for pissing off a cop. If you are a black kid and you live in Ferguson, Mo….
Larry
Thank you for your continued dedication to true Journalism!
If such outrageous miscarriages of justice and subsequent coverups can be pulled off so easily by local authorities with a middle finger in our faces, just think what is going on in higher government. It’s about time that all of America becomes as outraged as the citizens of Ferguson. Notwithstanding, it appears the Michael Brown coverup is progressing the same way as the Eimers case. Who will watch the watchers?
You very eloquently expressed the troubling concerns any thoughtful reader has at this point.