CIVIL RIGHTS WORKER IN COMA FOLLOWING ARREST

Family members, activists, NAACP accuse cops of using excessive force.



A community in Miami is outraged over the hospitalization of 74-year-old civil rights leader, Bernard Dyer, who is currently in a coma after police took him from his home following what family members describe as a psychotic episode.

Dyer's friends and family members have joined local activist groups and the NAACP in accusing the Miami Beach of contributing to his condition by using excessive force during the Nov. 23 incident.

Neither the family nor organizers of the press conference would give more details about what happened that night, reports the Miami Herald.

"We're outraged," his sister, Gloria Dyer-Davis, told the newspaper. "The family is outraged. My sons in Newark are outraged. When is this injustice going to stop? When does it stop?"

State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle commented in a statement: "I share our community's concern with the current medical condition of Mr. Bernard Dyer and my hopes and prayers go out to him and his family. I remain hopeful about his chances to recover even as I recognize the extreme seriousness of his present condition."

Fernández Rundle noted that she has requested that Miami-Dade Medical Examiner Bruce Hyma conduct an autopsy if Dyer dies "so that the true circumstances of Mr. Dyer's condition can be forensically determined."