Shah Alam had been in the Erie County Holding Center since February 2025 after being arrested by Buffalo police. On February 15 last year, he had been out for a walk in his neighborhood and had been using a curtain rod he purchased as a walking stick.
Nearly blind and with no ability to speak English, Shah Alam got lost and ended up on the porch of a woman’s home as she was letting her dog out, according to Macaluso. Shah Alam is completely blind in one eye and can only see with blurry vision for several feet in the other, according to Macaluso.
The woman called police, Macaluso said. When Shah Alam did not follow police commands to drop his curtain rod, they Tasered and beat him, then arrested him, Macaluso said. The officers suffered minor injuries in the scuffle, he said.
A spokesperson for Border Patrol, in a statement Wednesday evening, said after agents determined Shah Alam was not supposed to be in their custody, they “offered him a courtesy ride, which he chose to accept to a coffee shop.” That Tim Hortons, the spokesperson said, was “determined to be a warm, safe location near his last known address, rather than be released directly from the Border Patrol station.”
Agents, however, did not notify Macaluso or Shah Alam’s family of his release to the coffee shop. Macaluso previously told Investigative Post he expected Shah Alam to be taken to the ICE detention center in Batavia and that his client would be released from there.
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I’m not convinced he died after they dropped him off. They don’t release anyone. Even u.s citizens.
They hold everyone. For long times. Months.
This man was dying or dead when they dumped his body to absolve themselves.
The lesson as usual is don’t trust law enforcement. Call an EMS/hospital, call the fire dept, hell call a lawyer before calling the cops.
The people you’re telling here are not the ones that need to hear it unfortunately.
And the ones that need to hear it wouldn’t GAF anyay :/
Yup
When Shah Alam did not follow police commands to drop his curtain rod, they Tasered and beat him, then arrested him, Macaluso said. The officers suffered minor injuries in the scuffle, he said.
They tasered him, beat him, but then we report that the officers suffered minor injuries
FUCK the officers, I’m sure they’re fine after assaulting an old blind guy with a curtain rod in his hands, how was he after that assault?
I’m all for neutrality in reporting but this isn’t it. This is focussing on the grave injuries of the poor police officers who bravely sacrificed themselves against the scour that is a blind old man. Fuck that shit, those police officers should all be arrested and jailed yet here I am reading about how they had a boo-boo on their body after an assault with weapon.
I’m really trying not to rage here
If a cop manages to get injured in a situation like that it’s 100% on them for either being too incompetent and/or too aggressive. They probably got a bruise while slamming him to the ground.
Also the curtain rod he had was because he didnt have a dedicated cane for blind people. The ones they use to make sure they dont walk into a wall or trip on something.
Given the police track record, they probably hurt each other in their zealous bloodlust to inflict violence on someone who was fairly defenceless.
They’re reporting on statements made by the victim’s lawyer. In this case I think the neutral way to report it is to relay those statements without omitting anything substantial.
So the guy got lost and ended up in a woman’s doorstep. He has a curtain rod he issues as a walking stick and is mostly blind. The woman apparently called the police and the police charged him treating the walking stick as a weapon for some reason.
In order to avoid an issue with ICE for some reason he plead guilty (why a defense lawyer would recommend this or why it would not make things worse with ICE is beyond me).
Then when released the sheriff called Border Patrol for some reason to “offer” him a ride. BP claims he asked to be taken to a Tim Hortons, but obviously nothing they say can be trusted at this point. BP did this in secret which is totally normal and not suspicious, and didn’t inform his family or law enforcement, who put out a missing person’s report and started an investigation.
The successive layers of cruelty and reckless disregard - the woman calling the police for an apparent lost handicapped person, the charges, local LE calling BP, the guilty plea, BP taking custody for a “courtesy ride” that no one was told about that left him to die - are just incredible.
The successive layers of cruelty and reckless disregard - the woman calling the police for an apparent lost handicapped person, the charges, local LE calling BP, the guilty plea, BP taking custody for a “courtesy ride” that no one was told about that left him to die - are just incredible.
And that folks, is roughly what happened in Nazi Germany and how they managed to get that far mass murdering people.
This sounds an awful lot like they just gave him a classic “starlight tour”. Nazi Germany nothing, cops have been doing this for decades since here in the States.
Canadian mounties too I hear, they grab natives and drive them in the wilderness and release them, without the right clothing or any way to get back safely or phones or whatever to call for help.
I haven’t heard about this. Do you have some sources I can read?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon_freezing_killings https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/25/darrell-night-who-exposed-canada-police-freezing-deaths-scandal-dies-at-56
I could have sworn there was something about british columbia in the east of the province too but maybe I misremembered.
Thank you. Deeply troubling, but I’d rather have awareness than not.
Well starlight tours are cops doing cops things, the difference here and the parallel with Nazi Germany is that everyone involved did something shitty, not an ounce of empathy came from anyone.
Death camps in Nazi Germany happened because of cold, cruel bureaucracy and people following orders and being completely devoid of empathy.
The successive layers of cruelty and reckless disregard - the woman calling the police for an apparent lost handicapped person, the charges, local LE calling BP, the guilty plea, BP taking custody for a “courtesy ride” that no one was told about that left him to die - are just incredible.
Incredible isn’t the word I’d use, personally, but the route to his death was certainly more circuitous than normal.
the woman calling the police
That’s the only part that’s normal. A blind man who doesn’t speak English shows up in front of your house? What are you supposed to do? This is exactly what the police are for!
This is entirely the police department’s fault.
I don’t mean this in a disrespectful way at all but this is a very white perspective. No minority (including myself) would default to that option and even many white people are wising up.
Knowing that calling the police on someone is very likely to result in their harm or death, I would be VERY VERY VERY wary of using that option
The fact that Americans can’t trust your police for things like this is insane. In most developed countries, the police dealing with a lost and confused individual is a bread and butter call. Alzheimer’s patients are notorious escape artists.
In the UK it’s generally a calm, polite offer of a cup of tea etc. Followed by a ride to hospital, their carer, or the station to identify them.
The language barrier would be an initial problem, but they are set up to deal with that, when it arises.
Who else do you call?
Your neighbors. Ask around. Someone knows where he lives. Then walk him home. He obviously lives close by. And if you don’t know your neighbors, today is an excellent day to introduce yourself.
There are a lot of people that I know of that walk in my neighborhood. I know where about 2 of them live. I don’t think this is as easy as it sounds.
And for all the bad things police do, most of them are not evil. You do roll the dice calling them. In some areas more than others. And I am sure she called 911 to ask for help, not the police directly. Often they will send firefighters, who are awesome at helping in my area.
There may have been a time when calling the police would be reasonable, but with innumerable ways to translate speech today, a person’s first reaction shouldn’t be calling the boys in blue anymore.
Not to say it’s her fault, obviously the police are incompetent, but it’s not like calling the police is the only option for when someone turns up on your doorstep.
Who else would you call in that instance? Not a fan of the police but i just can’t think of anyone else i would have thought to call at the moment. I mean, if i had any context as to how he wound up there–i would try to find non-LE help, but again–who would one call? I can’t exactly blame the lady, she likely was also unfamiliar with the situation.
with innumerable ways to translate speech today
My first thought wouldn’t be to call anyone.
If translation doesn’t pan out, I suppose trying if any neighbours recognize the language would be the next step. Failing at direct communication, take a vague guess at nationality and call ethnic restaurants to see if anyone has a better idea what the language might be? Better yet, community groups would more than likely understand the urgency of the situation and try to help out.
While the man might have been agitated at being lost and not understood, I seriously doubt he’d have been acting in a threatening manner. Just giving him a bottle of water or a snack might have brought him some comfort and made the situation easier to resolve.
if any neighbours recognize the language would be the next step. Failing at direct communication, take a vague guess at nationality and call ethnic restaurants to see if anyone has a better idea what the language might
How many neighbors do you know speak Rohingya? How many Rohingya restaurants are in your city?
It’s an obscure language even in his native country of Burma. The original incident that resulted in his arrest happened on Feb 15th of 2025. It was below freezing outside. While you are screwing around calling restaurants, he would have died of exposure- just like happened after he was dropped off at a Tim Horton’s without notifying his family.
While you are screwing around calling restaurants, he would have died of exposure
You pointed out yourself when he was on the doorstep it wasn’t a medical emergency. But even so, try to bring him inside, hand him a blanket, get out the space heater, any number of things. I’m suggesting treating a person like a person, not like a problem.
The obscurity of the language isn’t exactly relevant as I wouldn’t know it was obscure if I didn’t speak it. It could have been Polish, but if I’d never heard a Slavic dialect before, it would’ve been just as uncommon as this man’s spoken tongue.
wasn’t a medical emergency.
Standing outside isn’t a medical emergency that would cause an ambulance to show up. If you called they’d transfer you to the police.
Standing outside for hours becomes a medical emergency. You would watch him die rather than call the police.
But even so, try to bring him inside, hand him a blanket,
He’s waving a shower rod at you. He’s blind and confused.
If he was capable of following directions he would have walked into the police cruiser and been driven home.
The obscurity of the language isn’t exactly relevant as I wouldn’t know it was obscure if I didn’t speak it
It’s relevant to your claim that you could have found someone to translate for you.
It is not the woman’s fault for contacting the appropriate authorities. Fix your police.
but it’s not like calling the police is the only option for when someone
He was confused, blind and didn’t speak English. It wasn’t a fire and wasn’t a medical emergency so neither would respond. Social workers are not first responders- they don’t show up on call. What would you have done?
Fix your police. Don’t blame the woman.
He was confused, blind and didn’t speak English.
Right, I read the article. I also wrote what I would have done in this very thread. Here’s a link to that comment. The tldr is a community approach, not calling a social worker.
Additionally, it’s now popped into my head that when needing to communicate over a significant language barrier, you could probably just start listing countries and infer by the reaction which country the person is from and have a better bet on determining language.
Are you joking? I don’t agree with that at all, I don’t call the police on someone unless it’s to prevent violence from taking place that I’m not able to prevent myself. People are paranoid, and facebook and nextdoor have encouraged all the crazies that see grand conspiracies, they get emotional support and reinforce their delusions, and feel justified calling the police on anyone they don’t recognize, seeing antifa assassins in every stranger, coming to rub them out for their dumbass facebook posts on soros’ orders.
Police encourage them too, they give them an excuse to fuck with people.
No, if you see a confused person on your porch, don’t immediately call the cops and let them deal with it. Safely talk to them, see what is wrong, and help them. Don’t trust the cops to help anyone or do the right thing, in case you are living in the alternate reality with the rest of the deluded masses.
Or call the firefighters.
Safely talk to them,
HE DIDN’T SPEAK ENGLISH!
He’s blind. He didn’t speak English. He needs obviously needs help but there is no one to call. It’s not a fire. It’s not a medical emergency.
Communicate with them, do something other than calling armed thugs to remove them. Anyone not living in a cave should be aware of all the people killed by the police because someone, often someone that loved them, trusted the police to help them, whether they were going through a mental health crisis, or high on drugs, or just weren’t answering their phone and wanted to make sure they were alright.
Case and point, this case video haunts me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JO0DE3ZoNU
Communication is not an option when the man speaks no English and is functionally blind. You can’t mime any thing. You wouldn’t have been able to guess his language either to use a translator app, because it’s not like he was speaking something recognizable to the average American.
I agree, calling the police is a gamble at best, but so is letting a stranger into your home who is holding a curtain rod. It was not obviously a walking stick with red tape on the end. Unfortunately, as a woman in America, your default is to be wary if not afraid of men.
This situation just sucks for everyone involved, and is a downright tragedy for the man. He was abused by the authorities, not the random woman whose porch he ended up on.
Communicate with them,
HE DIDN’T SPEAK ENGLISH! And its not like he spoke Spanish or something somewhat common that you could find a translator. He was Rohingyan. His language is obscure even in his native country.
And the blindness gets in the way of a lot of physical communication, though cultural differences could make even that difficult impossible to understand even if both parties can see fine.
And I wouldn’t blame anyone for being nervous about what the uncommunicative person on their porch with a curtain rod might intend.
If there was an advice post that just asked what to do about a random stranger on a woman’s porch that was holding a curtain rod and wasn’t communicating, I’d bet “call the police” would be the most common response. It’s so easy to judge the best actions when you know the extra context the article provided.
The normalized lack of empathy in the US is crazy.
What lack of empathy? A confused blind man who didn’t speak English was at her door. What was she supposed to do? Ignore him?
Fix your police. Don’t blame the woman.
Talk to him. Try a translation app. Try to figure out what language he is speaking and call your neighbors if there’s anyone who speaks the language. Call your neighbors to see if someone is home so you can go inside and drink tea with the three of you.
It’s mostly not a personal failing of the woman. American culture constantly reinforces racist paranoia and treating everything you don’t like as an externality, so it’s natural that she would internalize that. It’s hard to be conscious of the fact you’re putting someone’s life at risk when you’re doing what your culture says you’re supposed to do.
But it is that cultural mindset that gets people to want to hand these tasks over to heavily armed murder-racists, and to vote for parties that empower the heavily armed murder-racists. Waking up to the police’s systemic cruelty and wanting to abolish them will necessarily involve realizing that calling the cops in a situation that involves a brown person is violence against them.
The police were negligent
Border patrol was homicidal
The woman called police, Macaluso said. When Shah Alam did not follow police commands to drop his curtain rod, they Tasered and beat him, then arrested him, Macaluso said.
I dunno if I’d call that “negligent”.
Oh, that’s just par for the course for American cops. I expect them to be actively trying to harm people for the smallest reasons.
I imagine the woman absolutely knew about copious evidence of police brutality (and murder) in their country, so it’s not like that isn’t a factor. She might have called also bcs she was angry/frustrated at some point with the situation.
Where I live I would call the cops even if there was no language barrier, just to help the dude get home. But I was cautioned enough that in case I would witness that event over there that I would not call the caps at all on a black dude clearly not actively trying to murder people.
I imagine the woman absolutely knew about copious evidence of police brutality
Are you kidding? The media glorifies police. It’s non stop Police procedural drama on TV.
You are right about the constant propaganda, I just thought that works more in the areas where the police isn’t killing folk (ie white neighbourhoods).
But idk. It could have been a factor, I just can’t imagine it.
