This Alabama jail really did torture an inmate with a Burmese python

Burmese python, torture device

This Alabama jail really did torture an inmate with a Burmese python

Shaun King

Yes. This really happened.

Trawick Redding Jr., of Ozark, Alabama, a former inmate of the Dale County Jail, just filed a lawsuit. In it ...

He claims correctional officers, Zeneth Glenn and Ryan Mittlebach, used a "deadly and venomous snake as a means of torture, assault of inmate, cruel and unusual punishment" while he was in jail two years ago.

Alan: No, the Burmese python is not venemous although it is deadly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_python

"We think this is a very serious matter that should be dealt with," Redding's attorney Martin Weinberg told AL.com. "This was not just a garden snake that somebody just found on the ground walking into the jail or the woods by the jail. This was something that was planned out as a means to control, torture and harass the inmates."

We know this really happened because the county admits it fired the two officers over the incident. What's doubly disturbing, beyond the obvious torture by snake, is that after Officer Zenith Glenn was fired by Dale County, it appears he has now been rehired by the nearby Ozark Police Department, according to attorney Martin Weinberg, reached by email, who is representing the inmate in this case.

So, in summary, an inmate from Ozark was tortured with a snake in jail, the officer was fired, the inmate is now free, and the local police department in Ozark hires the terminated officer. Can you imagine having to see a police officer out walking the street who tortured you in jail with a damn snake?

This is a recurring theme in law enforcement in which officers are fired or quit after complaints of misconduct and simply move one town over and push reset. We desperately need a national database of police misconduct and a federal law prohibiting officers found guilty of misconduct from participating law enforcement.

"Robocop" Bill Melendez was fired from multiple police departments, sued in a dozen different cases of extreme police misconduct, and was still hired by yet another police department in Michigan where he beat a black grandfather and attempted to plant drugs on him. He has since been charged with three felonies and terminated, but only after a life of misconduct.

Jeff Roorda was fired for falsifying reports as a police officer in Missouri, then literally moved one county over and became a small town police chief. He's now a key leader in the St. Louis Police Union in spite of his previous misconduct.