"Last summer in Citrus Heights, James Bradford Nelson, a man with mental illness who had been acting erratically, had his skin seared on the hot pavement until he passed out as police held him to the ground.
A year earlier in Burbank, a police officer pulled over Tawnya Nevarez and her teenage son, who has autism and was not wearing a seat belt. The officer ignored her pleas about how to respond to her son’s agitation and confusion and instead pepper-sprayed and Tasered him, causing a seizure.