Georgia Sheriff Victor Hill, the self-proclaimed “Crime Fighter,” has been federally indicted on several civil rights charges, including the use of a restraint chair policy. He’s already notorious for shooting a woman and using military tanks for drug raids.
But what he’s said to the victims he’s restrained is nothing short of horrifying.
In 2020, he asked a man he’d just detained what the man was doing in Clayton County. When the man replied, "It's a democracy, sir. It's the United States,” Hill said, “Not in my county," then tied him into a restraint chair for hours! Whoa.
But why are restraint chairs so dangerous?
Jails only started using restraint chairs in the 1990s. Since then, they’ve been responsible for at least 50 deaths that we know of and countless serious injuries, including blood clots and seizures. Last year, Sheriff Hill left a teenager alone in a restraint chair for hours!
Police officers are enabled to continue violence like this because the system of policing cannot be reformed. Victor Hill, like many officers, already received anti-force training over and over again. It doesn’t work! And, after these indictments, Hill’s still returning to work.
We can't change the system from the inside if this is what people do with a taste of power. And this isn’t a white cop problem, either! This whole system has got to go.