San Jose police officers told homeless to watch them beat mentally ill man

Journalists from the Bay Area News Group and the California Reporting Project reviewed a series of cases involving violent confrontations between San Jose police and mentally impaired individuals. Many of those cases raise questions about the conduct of the department’s officers, who have been trained to avoid the use of force in such situations. Our full report can be read here.

Case Study #1: Arthur Lee Turner

THE SCENE: A homeless encampment near the Guadalupe River, on September 16, 2019. A decision by two San Jose officers to corral residents for “trespassing” led to the beating, pepper spraying and Tasing of an unhoused man who failed to follow the officers’ commands but did not appear to threaten them. A policing expert who reviewed the records called the officers’ actions “the wrong approach.”

Officers Steven Aponte and Alex Cristancho had little doubt of Arthur Lee Turner’s mental state: Turner proclaimed himself to be God and told them “not to mess with God.”  Their training urged a focus on “active listening” when engaging a subject who seemed to be mentally impaired.

When Turner walked away rather than heeding a command to stop, the officers swiftly decided to use what they later called ‘pain compliance.’ “Watch this guys, this guy’s about to get batoned,” one officer announced to the encampment residents, according to the body camera video.