A family of a man, who died shortly after he was arrested, is suing the city of
Rochester saying that the police beat and smothered him to death.
On October 15, 2003 a lawsuit was filed in a federal court on behalf of Lawrence
Rogers. The lawsuit says that Rogers died shortly after he had arrived to Rochester
General Hospital due to being beaten and also smothered so that he couldn't breath. The
reason for this is due to the negligence of the Rochester Police Department in his arrest.
The family's lawyer says that the way Rogers was restrained was warned to be dangerous
and should be avoided by the FBI (Morrell).
Rogers was arrested in the parking lot of Wegmans Food Market after a struggle
with a Rochester City Police Officer right after he had bitten off part a of an officer's
finger. Videotapes showed that Rogers was not being a threat to the officers at all prior
to the officers taking him to the ground (Morrell).
An autopsy of Rogers's body shows that he had 27 injuries to his body, mainly all
cuts and bruises. This shows that he was beaten at the time that he was arrested.
Rogers's lawyer did not say how much the Roger's family was suing the city for but he
said that the amount would be enough to send Roger's children through college (Morrell).
Kant says that one should treat others with respect: as people with value rather
then of means to an end. His categorical imperative sets up a rule that asks what would
happen if everyone acted the same way (Jentz, Miller, & Cross, 2002). In this situation I
don't think that the police were handling Rogers in a way that wo ...