Friends and relatives of George Barlow addressed the Inyo Board of Supervisors at
Tuesday’s meeting, asking for an investigation into the altercation between Barlow and Inyo County Sheriff’s deputies last weekend, an incident that has been widely viewed on the Internet.
“What would you do if George Barlow was your son?” asked Roger Barlow during the initial public comment period. “The whole community is your family.”
Board Chair Jeff Griffiths responded within limits of items not on the Board’s agenda. “Legally we can’t discuss,” he said. “The Sheriff is an elected official. I’m not sure what role we play in this. I’m personally concerned and looking forward to a full investigation.” Sheriff Jeff Hollowell did address the issue during the agendized department reports. The District Attorney’s office will conduct an investigation in the use of force, a long-standing
policy. In addition, the Sheriff’s Department has hired an independent firm to conduct an investigation. Both investigations should take three weeks, Hollowell said.
“I understand the frustration and shock and ask for your patience,” Griffiths said. “Let the investigation run its course.”
No update on Barlow’s condition is available.
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This is a wake up for the Tribal Council needs to hire a full police force to handle problems on their land.
They have a Casino and 2 gas stations making quite a bit of money, yet they cant hire a police presence?
Bishop PD, Inyo Sheriff or California Highway have no business and should not go onto tribal land period.
Gotta agree with you on this one: the tribal budget is above $15.5M. that’s much higher than I had thought.
Kim, you sound like an idiot. You need to know your info before making such asinine comments. So I will give you the information you seem to be lacking. The Tribe does have a Tribal Police actually two as of Monday. At the time the only Tribal officer was off duty, you can’t expect him to be on duty for 24 hours. You should also read Public Law 280. As for the Sheriff’s, they do have jurisdiction on Tribal land, if they refuse to respond that is against the very oath they swear upon to protect and serve, and that also applies to the other law enforcement agencies when called for backup. Also these agencies look at Tribal Police as just security. So that is their business to respond. Maybe you should take a History lesson, you seem to be forgetting whose land this once was. All this land belonged to the Natives and was stolen from them and they are put on the small land they are given by the government. So good for the Tribe they are prospering on this land that is theirs to begin with. It’s incidents like this that reminds us of how many racists people we live amongst here in this valley. How sad that racism still exist, I know it will never go away because of ignorance.
“M”, you are a huge part of the problem of incivility infecting America. Anonymously calling people racists and idiots persuades no one, gains only the approval of other haters, and ensures the downward spiral will continue.
Tourbillon, sounds like something a racist would say.
No M, you are the racist for jumping to the conclusion without any proof whatsoever. Barlow is and always was half a bubble off. Maybe you’d like to see this list of arrests ? I’ve seen the video and it would seem he was acting irrationally as though he wanted a fight. Looks like he got his wish.
M you are ignorant and unintelligent. Sit down the adults are having a discussion. Let’s see what the toxicology report says and how much meth was in his system. The behavior displayed fits the profile. Also very Greedy tribal Counsil on display here. They see the decline of the people on their land and do nothing. 2 wannabe tribal cops is sufficient?
EverythingIsracist, what are you on about, my comments aren’t about him not being on drugs. No where in my comments did I say that. We are all pretty sure he is on something, we all know that is not normal behavior. Duh! I don’t know what Tribal Council has to do with it. What people do on their own time is their business. People also have to realize when George was on the Chevron property that is NOT Tribal land. Also, show me the decline in Tribal members leaving their land. As far as the Tribal police, one is actually a Sheriff’s Reserve and the other just graduated from the academy. So again know your facts.
The BPT indeed has law enforcement currently patrolling. After the troubles with some of the previous law enforcement officers, they now have new officers.
Right you are,, right you are. Spot on.
I attempted to state a similar comment 24 hours ago, but the “editors” couldn’t find the courage to post it.
Sami is spot on. It must have been a boring night and these deputies (I use that term loosely) wanted a little entertainment for the night and found easy prey, someone mentally ill or on drugs and a person of color. George Barlow was NEVER an IMMINENT THREAT TO THESE DEPUTIES and that is the ONLY justification for treating him the way they did. They were “toying” with him. These “deputies” are a disgrace to every decent LEO who served with pride and respect for others. Criminals, the mentally ill or someone in an altered state still have rights to be treated as a HUMAN BEING. These Jack-ass wanna be boys playing cop need to be adequately charged with the crimes they did against Mr Barlow. They are a disgrace to the badge.
I do not know Georges’ character personally. I know he was brutalized. What I viewed was him in the ditch with and officer behind him on top of him he got up had his hands up and was tasered and he fell to the ground he was hit with a baton in the neck area and head. He held on to the baton for dear life. Let me ask you would you let them knock your brains to the ground? You can not convince me they wanted to arrest him. If they did it hey would have. When there was three officers present on Tu-Su lane ditch with the camera off. He was mauled for over a minute rapidly losing blood being chewed alive Does character warrant that? It was another agency who called the ambulance. They were sitting on top of him. They didn’t care. While, he was begging help me, over and over.
Well stated, Josita. I agree with your statement 100%.
It makes me wonder what this area (Inyo/Mono) has become to have this many “down” votes. I expect it In heavily Leftist counties like LA and San Francisco , but here? Or are most of these votes from fellow drug abusers, dealers or progressives. I’m really curious.
You could move elsewhere.
Bobk some trick there lumping drug dealers, drug addicts and progressives all together. If you don’t living in a county where everyone is allowed a different perspective you could always move elsewhere.
Yeah, and you could change your habits….It’s just not going to happen.
Bobk you nailed it ! Everyone’s favorite dealer.
Why are my comments posted?
Do you only allow countervailing (conservative/republiakan) comments on here?
Gee, what a surprise.
I just love how they–the above-mentioned conservative “commentators”– accuse Mr. Barlow of a multitude of crimes –past and present– without a shred of evidence. Notice how they can’t spell or use the most simple diction? It’s like they’re fed a steady diet of hate radio and Fox (faux) news and just regurgitate what they listen to, morning through night…
Crack open a book, you choads. Learn to write before you castigate anyone–especially members of your community. And YES, the tribal members have just as much of a right to walk down the street as you expect/assume to have. There is a long, racist double standard alive and well in Inyo. Any person who spends five there knows as much.
I agree and appreciate the background information. George appeared to by mentally ill. Drugs and alcohol could explain it, particularly methamphetamine.
The officers behaved well, better they used their police dog than a gun. That was a tough arrest for the police.
George need mental treatment.
If Barlow was my son, I would have him evaluated by a specialized psychiatrist, one who treats violent behavior. He was way too violent with the officers. They needed more officers.
Glad investigating this but one thing Sheriff wont be able to add is what a known troublemaker, bully and drug abuser George is to the tribal community. Almost everyday tribal members call the Sheriff for violent disturbances, domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse across the reservation.
The majority of the tribal members look to the sheriff for their security and it was a call from them that brought the sheriff that night.
Im glad the sheriff saw fit to release their videos to reveal how George came after them before they’d barely said a word to him and never once stopped resisting thruout the whole encounter.
When he attempted to walk away across the street, he had already committed arrestable assault crimes and was no longer free to just leave as some seem to think.
If you think it could have been handled differently, I challenge you to put yourself in the Sheriff’s shoes with a known offender and attacking dog coming at them.
May the investigations reveal the truth and spark the tribe to start AA and NA 12 step groups and domestic violence groups to bring some peace to the reservation.
I have worked private security and dealt with violent people just like this (yes, on drugs, yes screaming “I’ll kill you!”). The difference is we were trained in de-escalation and minimum force. Two healthy officers did not need to put a man in the hospital in critical condition to safely detain him. Especially after they’d already put down the dog.
You have clearly not interacted with a person on meth. It could easily take 3 people to arrest a suspect high on meth.