Huntington Police Brutality Lawyer

If you pay attention to the news, it’s hard to avoid accounts about police using excessive force, abusing their authority, or otherwise doing things they shouldn’t. While you may think that things like this only happen in big cities or areas that are very racially diverse, that’s not always the case. Illegal and unconstitutional behaviors occur virtually anywhere, including here in our part of West Virginia. And how do we know that? Well, because our Huntington police brutality lawyer team often represents victims whom law enforcement officers have taken things too far with.

The role of attorneys is to serve as a trustworthy resource for police brutality victims who, because of the nature of how they were victimized, don’t feel they can go to law enforcement and report what happened to them. We provide victims of police misconduct with reliable information about their rights and tell them what their legal options are. And here at Forbes Law Offices, we do this during your free initial consultation with one of our attorneys. So, if you believe the Huntington Police Department, WV State Police, or Cabell County Sheriff’s Office overstepped their bounds and you or a loved one suffered harm as a result, contact our law firm to discuss your legal matter now.

Police Violence Most Commonly Used Against Civilians

Publicly available state-specific statistics highlighting what led to and followed contentious police-civilian interactions can be hard to come by. It can also be challenging to find data for incidents resulting in injuries as opposed to fatalities, except in the local news. However, one statistic that’s much more easily accessible is data regarding police killings. And those numbers give us some insight into factors that contribute to our state’s residents getting hurt or dying following interactions with police.

The following factors are cited by Security.org as being the primary causes of fatal injuries stemming from police interactions between 2016 and 2021:

• Gunshots: 5,589 fatalities
• Tasers: 149 deaths
• Automobiles: 38 decedents
• Physical restraint: 31 losses of life
• Beatings: 13 deaths
• Chemical substances, such as pepper spray: 3 decedents
• Suffocation: 2 fatalities
• Bean bags: 1 loss of life
• Bombings: 1 death

In cases where brutality victims don’t die, they may be left with catastrophic injuries, including shattered or broken bones requiring surgery, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and more.

Police Misconduct Resulting in Death

Data compiled by Mapping Police Violence, a project of the non-profit organization Campaign Zero, shows that police violence, particularly their killing of civilians, is steadily increasing. Statistics show over the past several years, there were:

• 1,150 people killed by police in 2020
• 1,176 individuals slain by cops in 2021
• 1,251 people who died at the hands of law enforcement in 2022

If you look at a per capita map of how big of a problem police killing civilians here in West Virginia is, you’ll find that our state is one where it’s most pronounced. In 2023 alone, at least 6.13 people per million were killed in our state.

How a Police Brutality Attorney at Forbes Law Offices Can Help You

While not every contentious police interaction results in someone’s death, countless victims are left with disabling injuries that change the trajectory of their lives and sometimes leave them requiring caregiving from others for the remainder of their lives.

Whether you’ve been left with life-altering injuries or prematurely lost a loved one to police violence, situations like these often carry a financial burden, including:

• Medical costs for surgery, physical therapy, medications, counseling, and at-home health care
• Income losses, whether lost wages due to not being able to work while recovering from your injuries or future earnings due to a relative’s life being cut short by law enforcement’s actions
• Moving or home renovation costs associated with making your residential situation handicap accessible
• Vocational training to retrain in a new career because you’re unable to return to your prior professional role due to your physical or mental impairments

The list goes on and on in terms of actual losses you might sustain that become financially burdensome, especially as you’re trying to cope with what happened. Having to worry about how you’re going to pay this sudden, substantial accumulation of bills can adversely impact your recovery, but we can help.

At Forbes Law Offices, we advocate for injury victims and those lost to a wrongful death. We build strong cases that command maximum compensation for losses sustained from law enforcement engaging in misconduct, and we don’t back down, even if it requires us to take these cases to trial.

Moving quickly to preserve evidence is critical in cases like this, so email or call our firm for a confidential case review with a Huntington police brutality lawyer. Meeting with an attorney will give you an opportunity to learn about your rights, and it comes with no cost or obligation, so schedule that meeting with a lawyer now.