California Police Brutality Lawyer Blog

Outrage over alleged abuses of Occupy Wall Street protesters by police officers has inspired artists to act. 46 artists contributed 48 pages of black and white images to collectively publish the Police Brutality Coloring Book. Joe "Heaps" Nelson created the book after an acquaintance, Chelsea Elliott, was filmed being penned in and pepper sprayed by New York police officers during an Occupy Wall Street march through Union Square in September. Nelson stated he was always sympathetic to the movement, but police misconduct across the nation sparked his outrage. According to Nelson, video footage of a University of California, Davis police officer pepper spraying seated students made it clear he wanted to become more involved.

Nelson began contacting artists he knew were sympathetic to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Eventually, a network of artists with their own police abuse stories to tell arose. The coloring book took off from there.

The Police Brutality Coloring Book was created to raise awareness regarding police violence against Occupy Wall Street protesters. Shepard Fairey, a graphic designer best known for creating President Obama's "Hope" poster, is another coloring book contributor. He was arrested by police at Occupy protests a total of 16 times. Fairey has stated the group chose to create a coloring book due to the stark contrast of a normally child friendly medium with the seriousness of the subject matter. According to Fairey, the artists chose to select the medium in order to heighten the effect of the artwork and truly showcase the various instances of police brutality against Occupy protesters.

Fairey believes police regularly commit abuses against citizens because they rarely have to answer for it. Because of this, police brutality is becoming increasingly common. He also believes a large part of the problem is a lack of perspective on the part of police.

Victims of police abuse may file a civil tort claim to seek monetary damages for a wrong that is not criminal in nature such as assault, battery, wrongful death, false arrest or negligence. Additionally, Section 42 U.S.C. 1983 allows victims of police brutality to bring a claim against police for constitutional rights violations. Under California law, an officer who unnecessarily uses excessive force on an individual may also be fined, imprisoned or both.