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“Just not adding up” doesn’t even begin to describe the dissonances between the official story of what happened to Chris Eisinger on March 2, and what we know to be true. I already wrote the first story about the tragedy last week, but here are three more thoughts before we head off to the protest in front of the APD (5PM today – Friday March 16.)
ONE. When he got to the hospital March 2 he had not only a cerebral edema – fatal brain swelling – but a broken nose, a broken cheekbone, a broken jawbone, and a broken “orbital” – eye socket. To all appearances he had had his face crunched into concrete, possibly by someone’s boot. In anticipation of everyone soon knowing this, the APD spokesmen emphasized that Chris had had some sort of unspecified rough encounter “two weeks before” the incident resulting in two black eyes, and whatever facial damage we’d see may very likely be from that.
Pero no. Chris’ brother Nicholas confirms that he’d had a fight with a fellow homeless person – actually MORE than two weeks earlier, maybe three or four – and sustained two black eyes. (“He didn’t know how to fight, he probably accidentally got into somebody’s space and got punched out.”) Chris stayed in Nicholas’ van for a few days recuperating, and by the time he left, a few days before the March 2 incident, he was looking fine, the black eyes were gone. Nicholas got this picture of his brother sleeping peacefully around the end of February:
Nicholas also talked to Chris a few hours before the APD incident, and he was fine. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where all that damage to Chris’ skull was not a result of his encounter with Anaheim police.
TWO, THE “STICK.” APD spokesmen, in the habitual mode of trying to make the victim sound as armed and dangerous as possible, described him as “dropping a stick or stick-like weapon” as he began to run from the police. First of all, if you’re dangerous and you have a “weapon,” what’s the sense of ditching it when you’re in danger? But my wife thought about this “stick” and the homeless people we know, and suggested it was just something he was using to dig through trash for recyclables. In fact there’s a good chance that this “stick” was one of those cheap “pick-sticks” pictured at right, on sale at The Dollar Tree for a dollar.
This would make a lot more sense out of what he was doing prowling around west Anaheim yards – most likely NOT trying to break into people’s homes and cars, but looking for junk to recycle as so many homeless do. Sure enough, his brother concurs “Chris was always looking around for recyclables and other abandoned things to sell but I never knew him to commit burglary.” It’s still possible and understandable that some west Anaheim lady was terrified to see this strange man in her yard, but as hard as the police try to make Chris out to have been a scary menace, we are equally sure they retrieved his “stick” and we’d like to see if it looks anything like the above picture. And how that would be either a) a weapon or b) SOMETHING YOU’D CARRY AROUND WHILE YOU WERE TRYING TO BREAK INTO HOMES AND CARS.
FINALLY, METH AND HOMELESSNESS. We’ve said it before, and we say it knowing it’s true, but it’s still something that will never sink into the heads of the self-righteous judgmental bourgeoisie: Much more common than drug abuse leading to homelessness is the exact reverse. Living on the streets is stressful, and it is hell of dangerous at night. Nobody wants to sleep at night and risk getting mugged, robbed, raped, or killed. Much safer to stay awake while it’s dark and sleep in the day. Meth is available everywhere, cheap, and soon becomes the best solution to your plight. Not saying this even applies to Chris or not, but fuck a bunch of hateful anonymous commenters who try to write things on this blog like “another meth-head gone” – Karma Sez it’ll happen to you or someone close to you soon.
WE’RE MEETING AT 5 in front of the APD. We want answers. It’s “not policy” to let the public see the body-cam footage before the DA’s investigation is concluded? THEN CHANGE THAT STUPID POLICY.
Wow I am really surprised nobody has left a comment yet. Most of us are likely too busy with families and mortgage payments to take five minutes out to help an old friend. Chris had many friends and I am sure not many have even become aware that this had happened.
I did see John Stone’s comment on the previous post which made me smile for a second and reflect on much better times. I also am happy to hear news on Nick, Chris’s younger brother, as I had been worrying about how he has been handling all this since it came crashing down. I too am guilty of not doing enough and being sucked back into the monotony of daily devotions and doings.
I was thinking about Chris tonight though and decided to see if they have released the camera footage after this much time. Surely they have I thought as they have nothing to hide as the chief said. Even if they did after this much time that has passed they could have destroyed the tapes and filmed a reenactment that would suffice most the public I am sure.
So why not release them? Especially before they go missing which I feel is the next move they would do if they were pushed enough anyways.
Sadly in our modern day our attention spans are bombarded by a barrage of more interesting or at least more pleasant attractions to keep us from doing what we should in finding justice for a friend.
Honestly Chris was never even close to being anything you could claim as violent. Nor was he dishonest or a brazen thief in our younger years. Many of us would be more believable if the fates were turned and we were the ones whom ended up dead by cop only a few miles from the Happiest Place On Earth.
That is what this all the more tragic and makes the curiousness of it all turn into a rash like itch that desperately needs some solvent or the likes before we can reach resolve and move on. That is how I feel anyways.
I encourage any friend of Chris’s, no matter how big or small the role or the years in between your interactions with him to leave a comment.
After this happened the chief made references to things that were said in social media immediately like some 15 year old girl who mans the gossip column to make sure friends are not speaking bad about her behind her back. Especially when she knows she has some deserving ill will coming her way by her own deviance and deceit.
I use this metaphor as we are dealing with the OC here after all. Sorry. Though I mean this honestly. It seems very suspicious they were working in droves to try and stifle any social media attempt at painting this as anything more than a silly accident and mystery that just ain’t for solving you know.
Smells like a dirty rat to me and I ain’t talking about Mickey Mouse aka the big boss either. It is like they were ready for the hell that they had just brought down by killing a young man down on his luck.
It was cold as hell that night too as this was during those nights that can nearly leave frost. I remember the first thing I thought knowing Chris when I heard the report was that he was trying to find a warm place to sleep only.
May sound ridiculous to Joe Law who argues all day about things he sees and hears on the news regarding a plethora of events and subjects he has no expertise nor really understanding much at all to come to any conclusion that is close to reality but that’s how it goes. Everyone is criminal if they tangle with the police. Everyone is a thief if they are on your property at night.
As you can see Chris passed out in the photograph above he did enjoy his sleep and he was a heavy sleeper too I remember. And as you said above friend sleeping out in the elements with your meager possessions and very life open to anyone or anything that comes along is well nerve racking at best. It can drive someone to make a poor choice that would seem erratic to any normal person.
Chris could do dumb things as we all can and have done in our lives. He also was hilarious and could make anyone laugh like he had an invisible feather under your bare foot. I learned a lot about the art of comedy with the guy and when our coach for Lakewood Baseball, who is a huge dick and tyrant over the whole sport establishment for what seems like a century now I swear, came at us with his regal declarations and superficial rules merely for his own ego fap, I didn’t listen and rebelled but Chris did. Either from a love of the game or rather from a childhood raising that was loving and nurturing and held the amount of respect needed to meet a veritable bully full on and survive like Coach Dickhead.
Walter is a boy lover in that he vicariously wraps himself in the attention of those around him. Plays favorites and benched me for having a mohawk. Had he never seen Charlie Sheen in Major League or what!?
Anyway I pissed in a kid’s locker who quit our team and school and went to our rival school. Then came to the game and taunted us and the coach. I also wanted out by then as I was as good as a bench warmer for life I knew and though I could play better than most who started I didn’t wear the brown lipstick so well or talked too much during coach’s pep talks and refused to stare at his oddly shaped mandibles in his seemingly never ending wardrobe of short shorts made for women’s softball I am pretty damn sure.
Anyways Chris survived all of that as he was respectful to authority figures and cared enough about his parents perception to endure the game of politics which was Lakewood sports.
I am aware people can change and that obviously occurred to a degree unsettling here but I don’t think one can lose it all so fast and become a raging hulk taking on 5 cops at once for the crime of trespassing merely at that point.
I too found it very odd that such emphasis was put onto this mystery object which they later claim was a stick. It seemed like they were paving the way for an excuse to use deadly force if needed out of fear for their own safety. Either that or to excuse the literal bum rush they did on a guy guilty of trespassing by making it a more serious crime of attempted automobile theft.
Either way common sense and life experience to any concernable mind that has been around long enough to watch the arbitrary handling of justice in our cities should be left more than a little bit skeptical at the hop scotching comments made by this chief for and to give excuse for his paid patrolmen.
The negative light they drew over Chris is what really rubs me wrong though. It is a big whiff of smelling salt to me I will admit as one gets so used to hearing about just another dirty criminal drug addict dead at the hands of the police in the news that we think nothing but “Good. One more scum sucker of the street scaring old ladies and pissing on the walls of buildings.”
When it is your own dear friend though whom you know was a stand up guy and has had a string of bad luck and assumptions made that were not entirely correct though he just took them quietly and dealt with them in his own dignified way not to bother others with his own problems than you think twice about whom the ‘bad guys’ really are.
Not every cop is a bully but every bully dreams of becoming a cop. One can imagine how stressful their job is everyday and I know I would be driven to violence with a huge chip on my shoulder if I had to walk a mile a day for a long enough shift I am certain.
Still does that excuse to perversion of justice and discharging of truth? The prevention of family and friends who wallow in pain and depressive sorrow from being able to see Chris’s final moments alive and healthy enough to be conscious and aware?
If you have five videos of this event which you claim vindicate you and your own if not provide example of the exact process to follow in such a situation that it could be used to educate other rookie officers and provide a bird eye view for us all really to learn from your men whom you cleared of any wrong doing already with your own sworn words while our friend laid in a coma with a swollen brain and shattered face awaiting death which was only a short distance away?
After which you and your department seemed a bit relieved honestly if my years of psychology studies have provided me any glimpse into the unconscious slips and indicators that even your own detectives likely go by.
Freudian slips left and right my friends. Most I hardly would have caught if not this case being one of a close and beloved friend from much younger and very naive years.
Anyways it is way past late and I have to get to bed but I will be back and if only a few of us give any other indication of our feelings and thoughts here that will be enough to haunt your conscience if you still have one until you do the right thing and show us the damn tapes so we can see how you abused our friend or so we may apologize if we see nothing but tender care and patience being delved upon a meth-addled menace run amok right before his swelling cranium decides it has had enough and by coincidence only decides to go down to wait for everyone’s eventual sweet angel of mercy, Death.
So best to not stall and let the truth sing now before you raise any more doubt by your awkward and aloof twitching chief. Or it will be you someday on your death bed awaiting the one whom already knows what you know and what you prevent us from knowing… and SHE won’t be as merciful over your kind as you would like to think.
There are only a few things I really know friend… and this is one of them. Soon enough… I shall sign in a moniker, a pen name I have used at times, as I am among the less than saintly and those who it would matter to with benevolent tendencies can guess from it all and those others will have to make an effort at least.
Cheers to all the lovers and walkers in light. The truth really does matter and it will set you free from what ails you friends. Be that brave spark if you will try. A martyr to the pyre is a thing of marvel next to the marbled bust of the despised despot. The time always comes. We will be counting the falling grains until it gets here finally.
Simple… the videos in full now! Well…? ☻
I sent your great comment out to a couple of Chris’ friends, Harry Holmes and Matt Legault. I’m thinking of making it its own story.
You can do what you think is best. Thank you for taking the time to report on the things that otherwise would be swallowed to the black hole of indifference as though they never even happened. Harry and Matt are great guys and I know them well. I am very glad they have taken the proactive stance and been on the forefront of all this while many of us watch from the shadows either too busy or reluctant for various reasons. One being flat out fear and distrust of the system and it’s long arm or tentacle rather of the law. My love goes to them and all the rest of our aging chums and especially Chris’s family. They are in my strongly cast prayers that I send. Even though I am dubious there will be any reception. I still send them as what else can we do really? The only thing left is to ease his families suffering through love and clear god honest truth without any filtering or editing of the actual events. The truth is ugly almost always but once exposed to the whole horror of that truth the heart begins to heal as the mind wraps itself around it all. Chris was that important and special to enough of us to warrant that small request I feel. Anyways I hope he can be remembered for his brightest moments which were many and ubiquitous to the few dark patches that seem to always want to stain us and stand out above when they are really below it all if you had had the chance to know him as we were lucky enough to anyways. It still doesn’t seem real and the shock may never really wear off honestly. It’s too tragic and pointless honestly with no clear cut target to fully blame or burden with it all. I hold no grudge with anyone nor thing. Possibly life itself but it takes what is rightfully it’s own as we know to well. For my ramble of words here I am at heart speechless. Though I would possibly recant the urine in the locker story and my old grudge with Coach Dipstick O’Mally (sic) (sic) (sic) but in a lopsided show of intended good faith I will let them stand or wobble in hopes that maybe it will be followed by other full disclosures by the ones whom seem just a bit on the guilty side in this all. Accidents are forgivable. Mistakes are a regularity as we are human after all. These things can be forgiven and absolved if the heart is honest in it’s remorse and virtue leads a person to stand up when they know it is their duty under the unsoiled flag of truth to do so. Every man and woman in the end has only themselves to answer to in concerns to their integrity and life choices. If truly forged in love and compassion for life and it’s inhabitants they will be shown the mercy side of the palm over the back side strike of the swift hand of justice. Some may scoff but it isn’t unheard of to one day have it all flipped on you as you sit in the chair of condemnation and are declared unfit to crawl through the very dirt by the pious and near always hypocritical spectators and coordinators gathered for the daily shit show. We really have not come to far from the days of the Colosseum in Rome and it’s festival like feast for all our inner schadenfreude to lay gluttonous chubby fingers upon as we scarf it all down till our buttons blast like bullets and our feet turn to gout filled hooves to better represent the beasts we have become to be. Still I hold no grudge with any man doing his job with a trickle of the honest love in his heart. As with anything a few bad apples ruin the bobbing and if non sequitur than mistakes are close behind and in abundance to seem them passed around and in front of all. Some people fish to relax and some people knit to heal wounds. I spit didactics in two like Lou taught me and I am a mush mouth man child that still has a grudge with the geriatric society which would make us fit into it’s boring molds. Chris was the same way and he had a strong but gentle heart and any if close to all of this is purely my, er, our way to say good bye. We were in a gang together. A passive although offensive gang of three. S.E.C. for life. I won’t divulge the actual acronym but know we were very special people and forged good times from out of the boring crevice which is high school misery. Obviously still going and explains it all really. He just beat us to the punch. No pun intended as I have not seen the videos yet to be so sardonic yet. The guts hardly lie though and knots will be tied until they are done setting up their presentation. I just hope it is not a reinterpretation or version as we are weathered enough and battered to thick skin that we can handle the raw uncut. Then we can all make graves in peace and go see Chris again with his uncontrollable grin beaming the sun shine from much better days lost to the past. May we at the very least preserve those memories so they can grow old too through us and feel like they were just yesterday still and always. Love beyond the barriers of time good friend. Find a good place to rest and watch while we all try to make you proud. This goes for all our many friends as well gone to early. So it goes… as it always does with us and never without us.
♥
From Us All I Am Sure As Sin…
In 1999 anaheim police dept. Did the same exact thing to my brother Brian Drummond. Two cops, Chris Nedd and Brian Mcenhaney had my brother hand cuffed face down on the ground. They decided “for his own safety” that they both needed to put all of their weight on his neck and back. After about 20 minutes they got off of him and realized that he was dead. They had just had a training video on this exact subject. They didn’t care. They were able to get his heart started at the hospital. He spent the next 7 1/2 years as a vegetable. Then he died.
APD knows they are not to restrain people with this method. Look up my brothers case Drummond vs city of anaheim. Oh and inxase yoyr wonderingvwhat crime brian commited. He didn’t. He hadn’t broken any law he was not a danger to the public and he wasnt running away.he was totally cooperative. He wasnt even being arrested. See what the ninth cuircut court had to say about the case. APD are a bunch of murders and they get away with it everyday. Im sorry that another family has to go thru this terrible heartache. My condolences.
Brian’s sister