Man in police custody died after being tased 20 times in 30 minutes

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It’s like the cops are just running one large Milgram experiment, except they’re both the experimenter and the teacher. The shocks are real and the wrong answers can be anything they feel like, such as not complying with orders, being obstinate, being on drugs, being in medical or emotional distress, being a minority, or just being a human fucking being.

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“The deployments of Tasers when a subject has become violent, causing damage to property and placing the safety of persons at risk, as was the case with Linwood Lambert Jr., is appropriate and necessary use of force,” according to [his] response.

And slouching, apparently.

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So this guy’s clearly not “with it” when they get to him. Ok. They stick him in the cruiser and try to take him to the hospital. Ok- seems… right. He freaks out in the cruiser and breaks some shit. They taze the bejesus out of him, and, instead of actually taking him into the hospital (where, presumably, they have both pharmacological and physical restraints), they put him back in the car. Um. What?
Then, knowing he’s taken cocaine (which, as I recall, elevates the heart rate? stresses your system, yes?), they further stress his system for “not sitting up” and whatever else.

Fuck these guys. Burn it to the ground. Sue them for every last penny they’ve ever had- fine. But that won’f fix these monsters. If we lock up dangerous people (to keep us safe from them, yes?) then these officers should be locked up. The guy needed help and they killed him. Shit, if you want to either a) charge him or b) bill him for the damage, fine. Do that after he’s gotten the help he needed.

Also: pull the license of the medical examiner who covered this shit up. And sue them, too.

Sometimes, and it’s stories like this, I wish there were some other reality I could just go to- and yes, I know how sad and feeble that sounds. I just don’t want to be part of a culture that does these things. It (clearly) makes me upset.

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Gee, I wonder how police manage to subdue people before tasers where invented…

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There needs to be a law that if someone dies in police custody and they didn’t do everything they could to keep him or her alive, they’re guilty of manslaughter or negligent homicide.

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Obviously, the only possible option back then would be to shoot the person being subdued.

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Did they remember to repeatedly shout ‘Stop Resisting!’ for the duration of the encounter? Departmental policy is very strict about that.

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Nightsticks?
Blackjacks?
Truncheons?

All of which lead me to wonder how much progress we’ve actually made.

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Isn’t that the law already? The problem is that it isn’t being enforced.

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Billy Clubs and Bullets - smartass. I guess what we need to do is give police some Ketamine to inject into subjects, right?

At some point, some of the fault has to lie with the person who is agitated and on drugs. I see a lot of complaining here but how would you handle the situation? How do you make someone who is irrational and violent behave?

that’s right, nowadays due to technological progress you can decide to shoot them - if you’re on a busy schedule and you just don’t have the time to really enjoy the whole killing the person thing - or you can set up a varying sequence of electrical shocks administered as frequently as you like in order to extend the transition between life and death as long as is suitable for your particular entertainment needs. Think of it as a game that the whole squad can play - remember even if the whole squad shoots a subject it is just not as social an experience! It’s really the best of both worlds.

Remember - Progress is great, without it there would be no progress.

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By, you know, taking him, in the handcuffs he’s already in, into the hospital you’ve arrived at, which has restraints and doctors trained to work with patients like that.

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Our police restrain them physically and use Velcro straps to hold their legs and handcuffs to hold their arms. It seems to work. Torturing them to death with a taser for not sitting up straight seems, well, excessive.

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He was handcuffed and at a hospital. Which, to my knowledge, is a place that can be helpful in calming down people, even if they don’t want to be calmed down. Beyond that, I understand materials science has given us the use of thin strips of “plastic” that can be effective in binding things. They’re called…zip…zip…well, google it and certainly you’ll come up with something.

But, hey, we’re all just faulting the cops for tasing slouchers, and we all know that slouchers lead to anarchy.

If it helps, that was sarcasm on my part. The whole thing. Because slouching is illegal and “plastic” hasn’t been invented and law enforcement officers don’t receive training in subduing people.

Damn…I may have done it again.

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By applying simple techniques anyone can learn…My wife is a 5’4" nurse and she can subdue 6’4" agitated and coked up big guy without a problem. But yeah, blame the dead guy for poor police training and a toxic police culture.

Edit to add: with as many cops as they had on hand they could have just cuffed him and sat on him until professionals arrived to help.

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I find it terrifying but also very interesting how less-lethal weapons have counter-intuitively made the cops more brutal and controlling. It makes me think of “soft power” in general, and how sometimes technologies or reforms which allow power to seem more humane can actually facilitate even greater violence and domination.

Also: fuck the police.

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How about agitated and mentally ill?

I have been in that situation and tasing me would not have helped the situation long term (thankfully it wasn’t an option in Britain at the time.) Instead I was talked down and voluntarily went to a psychiatric hospital. Admittedly I wasn’t a threat to anyone but myself, but that hasn’t stopped US cops from tasing before. I got let out a couple of hours later once a psychiatrist decided that the suicidal feelings had passed

See what @GilbertWham wrote as well. And stop victim blaming while you are at it

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“The deployments of Tasers when a subject has become violent, causing
damage to property and placing the safety of persons at risk, as was the
case with Linwood Lambert Jr., is appropriate and necessary use of
force,”

Binner’s remarks sound like justification for using tasers against police. I am surprised that more people don’t do it!

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The US has got some serious, fundamental issues with it’s society.

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