Photo via @hou5edm/Instagram
December 29, 2020, 2:43 pm
Disturbing footage of a Navajo and Oneida man screaming in pain and begging for help as he’s tased multiple times by a park ranger was posted on social media by the victim, who goes by Chief House, on Sunday.
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He was cited by the ranger at the Petroglyph National Monument in New Mexico after going off trail a bit in order to maintain a safe distance from other hikers.
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After refusing to give his name to the ranger, the white man elected to detain him for the very minor offense, and when Chief House objected, he was subjected the extremely painful electric shock in spite of already being back on the trail.
The following video may be upsetting to some viewers:
“This could have been a civil interaction,” Chief House wrote. “The law doesn’t work for the Indigenous. The government doesn’t give a s–t about us. This was uncalled for. You see I’m clearly on the trail. I explained my reason for being off-trail (which I shouldn’t have to.) If anyone has the right to be off trail and wonder this land, it’s the NATIVE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY!”
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Thankfully, his sister was there to film the incident, though her begging calls for the park ranger to stop hurting her brother are just as heartbreaking as his screams. Chief House is clearly terrified in the video, cowering from the taser and refusing to be handcuffed. In his video caption, he invoked George Floyd, who died in police custody after being handcuffed by a white officer.
“You would think with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor with the Black Lives Matter Movement authorities would try to avoid having to pull a weapon out,” he said.
Chief House reports being traumatized and experiencing ongoing numbness and bleeding from his left leg. He also laments that his dog appeared to feel one of the shocks and hasn’t stopped shaking from the encounter since.
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The video soon spread online after he asked people to share it. A National Parks Service representative provided a non-committal statement to TMZ after they reported on the story saying that they “cannot speculate” on what happened.
“While we work to gather the facts of this specific situation, we cannot speculate on the events leading up to what was captured on video,” they said. “We take any allegation of wrongdoing very seriously, and appreciate the public’s patience as we gather the facts of this incident.”
Chief House was ultimately cited for interfering with agency functions, concealing identity, and being off trail and released, and has asked for help finding legal representation.
Native American communities are disproportionately affected by police brutality, often even more so than Black Americans, and have also been hit extremely hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Navajo Nation has suffered a rate of over 8,659 cases per 100,000 people according to CNN, and those numbers are from November, long before the new devastating surge reached its peak.
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In comparison, the rate of infections among New York residents was 1,806 cases per 100,000 in late November.
These details as well as increasing outrage against police brutality in the U.S. in 2020 has many calling for the park ranger’s firing as well as charges against the National Park Service.
“This was a park ranger on a power trip. He should loose his job and they should bring charges against him,” wrote one commenter. “He is not required to identify himself and the stupid park ranger is a puss if he felt that was the only way to deal with the situation.”
*First Published: December 29, 2020, 2:43 pm
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