Category: Profession

“I CAN’T BREATHE” – how cops accidentally kill, and how to stop it

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY – CONTENT MAY DISTURB AND OFFEND, VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED.

See bottom of this post for download links to the complete video and printable diagrams.

I give permission for the video and attached documents to be downloaded, played, modified and printed anywhere for free – only for the purpose of education.

TOPICS

00:00 – Intro
03:50 – Excited delirium
05:19 – Why are police involved in the first place if we’re talking about medical issues?
06:12 – Death in custody and sudden unexplained death
07:26 – Monitor your own state of mind when dealing with the patient
08:48 – De-escalation
09:54 – “Super Human Strength”
11:01 – Ability to absorb punishment
11:50 – Pain compliance
12:18 – Pain compliance loop
13:21 – Tasers
13:55 – Positional asphyxiation
14:25 – Do not lay prone for too long
14:55 – “I can’t breathe”
18:07 – Banning pressure – my opinion
19:06 – Examples set by martial artists
19:32 – A personal anecdote
20:12 – Restraint-resistance loop
20:51 – Sudden calm
21:22 – Do not make calmness a condition of your use of force
21:44 – Piling on
22:33 – What we lack in training
22:58 – Minimum force in minimum time
23:34 – Access to risks
24:06 – Caution with handcuffs
24:50 – Biting
25:11 – Position in cell/transport – monitor constantly
25:36 – You are always being recorded
26:31 – You are at the mercy of the world
27:24 – Final thoughts

Download video here

Preventing Death In CustodyDownload

Some excellent feedback from a paramedic in the Reddit thread for this video.

How to prevent death in custody – positional asphyxiation, excited delirium, best practice methods and more [28 minutes]
byu/PaperworkPTSD inProtectAndServe

Text wall incoming: I would like to add some comments here. I am a paramedic in the urban U.S., so I do not know the training or the things that are taught to LEO, but I would offer some alternative perspective. This was a well thought out video, but I would also add some tools/methods that I have used/seen used to help expedite the process.

  1. This was a very thoughtful video, and succinctly emphasizes your position when dealing with psych/overdose/mental health patients in delirium. Which is, in between a rock and a hard place. These people need medical evaluation and intervention, which often Law enforcement is ill equipped to provide. It then becomes a matter of how quickly can you get the ambulance to you to assist. Normally, EMS will not go into active scenes because our defense profile is much less robust than yours. But getting on the radio quickly will ensure that once you have compliance, or even 60-75% compliance, the ambulance is already on the way. Even on your way to the call, if your call notes describe someone who will need an evaluation, just start us. If we get pissy when we get there and its not super serious, thats on us and I hope you dont have that kind of working relationship with your EMS agency, because thats a junk attitude for us to have. Better an easy evaluation and refusal than a cardiac arrest.
  2. There were many clips in this video that show prone positioning, and the continued struggle. OP did a good job of alerting to the cycle of “movement/restraint” that so many of us get into, and how that leads to bad outcomes. If you have to prone someone, then do that, but if the ambulance is coming, there are also safer ways to restrain once we get onscene. The primary intervention is sedation. We all want that person to stop thrashing, so we have to get our drugs onboard. However, once we get there, you now have force multipliers. Do not shy away from using us as help to restrain while the medication takes effect. Limb joint restraint, waist and shoulder control can all be had while prone if need be, and take pressure off the chest. And to be clear, even pressure on the lower back where the abdomen would be can cause asphyxiation, by not allowing proper expansion of the diaphragm.
  3. Please continue to be observant. Many times, once EMS arrives on scene, the police tend to lower their security posture because “EMS is onscene” and it is a medical patient. But I have been stabbed by a patient with APD standing next to her because they were talking to themselves while I was doing my thing. Anyone who needed EMS and is hyperactive is by definition unstable. Please be ready to jump back into the fight. We may also have to use you as our own force multipliers.
  4. The pathophysiology of these patients is unpredictable. The reason why these people suddenly arrest with seemingly no pressure is because of whats happening inside the body. Extremely simplified basically, the drugs/psychosis/etc are causing an unregulated adrenaline dump, giving them their super strength, or their resistance to control techniques and the like. Once their body uses up all of their adrenaline, they’re going to arrest. Our sedation medications add onto that effect, especially if we have to give a double dose because of their extreme adrenaline dump. Which means that predicting when they stop fighting is a nonstarter. Once you go hands on, at any point in time, they may run out of energy and go into arrest, ems or no ems assistance. Look for the signs, and act appropriately.
  5. Thank you OP for not saying that Ketamine from paramedics kills these people.

Sorry for the long wall, I’ve been a paramedic for 11 years-ish now and teach both LEO/EMS team patient control, and basic resuscitation to the police I work with. You guys got the short end of the stick in dealing with these patients, and I dont want any of these cases to happen to you guys.

DOWNLOAD GRAPHICS

Compounding risk factors of death in custodyDownload
Pain Compliance LoopDownload

Pressure-resistance loopDownload
Death in custody – Combined chartDownload

An incomplete list of references:

Lethal Restraint – An extensive investigation by Associated Press, documenting police use of force:
https://apnews.com/projects/investigation-police-use-of-force

14 August 2022
Salt Lake City, USA
35YO male deceased
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc1nFY0iUo8

19 June 2021
Teplice, Czech Republic
46YO male deceased
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Stanislav_Tom%C3%A1%C5%A1

10 November 2022
Springfield, USA
44YO male deceased
https://wtop.com/virginia/2022/12/fairfax-co-police-release-bodycam-footage-after-man-dies-in-custody/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-UShHjqXHI

10 August 2016
Dallas, USA
32YO male deceased

31 March 2020
Los Angeles County, USA
38YO male deceased
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/09/us/california-settlement-edward-bronstein-death-police.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybWJe6G5guc

13 April 2022
Tucson, USA
34YO male deceased – 9 days after incident
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty2L435PDis

30 June 2024
Milwaukee, USA
43YO male deceased
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/02/us/dvontaye-mitchell-milwaukee-autopsy-report/index.html

15 August 2020
Sonoma County, USA
Male deceased
http://nixle.us/C547W

18 March 2012
Sydney, Australia
21YO male deceased
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Beto_Laudisio

29 August 2024
Man tried to rob a BJJ Black Belt in Auckland, NZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBa5-FMWeWg

2015
26YO male deceased
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2018/jul/16/i-cant-breathe-footage-shows-david-dungays-death-in-custody-video

2018 paper – Sudden deaths from positional asphyxia
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6023692/figure/F2/

8 October 2021
Altoona, USA
43YO male deceased
https://apnews.com/projects/investigation-police-use-of-force/event/demetrio-jackson-cc53e451-a7d4-58e6-80ec-c1aa7ed8bb35/

Milwaukee, USA
28YO male
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/crime/2021/05/11/subject-viral-arrest-video-2018-sues-milwaukee-police-officers/5025378001/

Other sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dvontaye-mitchell-death-milwaukee-hotel-hyatt-aimbridge-hospitality-security-guards

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/19/us/mario-gonzalez-death-california-officers-charged/index.html

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/frank-tyson-toledo-police-body-cam-video-handcuffed-facedown-bar-floor

https://abcnews.go.com/US/7-california-highway-patrol-officers-charged-involuntary-manslaughter/story?id=98217611

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/3-former-mississippi-police-officers-indicted-death-man-custody-rcna86161

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/paramedic-gets-5-years-in-prison-for-elijah-mcclains-death-in-rare-case-against-medical-responders

https://www.cpr.org/2023/12/22/elijah-mcclain-trial-of-paramedics-jury-verdict

https://abcnews.go.com/US/7-california-highway-patrol-officers-charged-involuntary-manslaughter/story?id=98217611

https://myfox8.com/news/north-carolina/winston-salem/charges-against-former-nurse-connected-to-john-neville-case-dismissed-at-familys-request-district-attorney-says

Male violence and gendered violence

There is a popular belief in Australia that domestic violence, and violence generally, is getting worse. However:

If homicide is the yardstick by which the level of violence in society is measured, then the belief that violence is increasing in Australia cannot be substantiated.

https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi/tandi359

Most discussion has centred around women as victims of homicide, however, men account for about 70% of homicide victims. Over the last 30 years, all homicide has been falling.

Women are certainly over-represented in intimate partner homicide, but these numbers are falling along with the overall count:

The likely cause of the drop is due to the following factors:

  1. Improved socio-economic conditions, including employment opportunities, better education, economic stability
  2. Public health initiatives to address mental health issues and substance abuse – we know that people with mental health drug abuse issues are over represented as homicide offenders
  3. Demographic changes, because we have an aging population who is less likely to commit crime
  4. Improved law enforcement and judicial response, with more effective strategies, crime solving, community policing and prevention measures assisted by technological advancements

Further pursuing these issues will ensure that homicide continues to fall; conversely, a decline in our standard of living, and public health services, could result in more violence in the long term.

Also missing from the conversation is the fact that men are victims of male violence at a higher rate. If we want to prevent the murder of women, we have to protect men also.

All these points and more are discussed in the above video.

Man run over by police vehicle after shooting at them during pursuit

ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Police on Tuesday released surveillance footage of a police pursuit in February that ended when the suspect ran away, fired at officers and was hit by a police car.

The department’s investigation into the officers’ use of force is ongoing. 

Police said on Feb. 21 they saw 42-year-old Taiwansley Jackson driving recklessly on Jennings Station Road and Halls Ferry. Officers tried to pull him over but he sped away, weaving in and out of traffic.

In the video, Jackson hits light poles near McLaren Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard in Jennings before jumping out of the vehicle, holding a pistol, while the car is still moving. 

As he is running away in a parking lot from several marked and unmarked police cars, he begins shooting at officers. A police car then hits Jackson from behind, and he goes flying in the air before landing on the concrete and being run over by another police vehicle. 

The St. Louis County Police Department released video recordings of a Feb. 21, 2023, incident. Officers said the man had “non-life threatening” injuries; he was later charged with first-degree assault, among other charges. No officers were hurt. Video courtesy of the police department

Jackson was the only one hurt in the incident. His injuries were non-life threatening and officers did not fire their guns, the police department said.

Police can be heard on dispatch audio, also released Tuesday, asking officers to check on residents who live in the direction of where Jackson fired the gun. 

Jackson is charged with first-degree assault, armed criminal action resisting arrest by fleeing and unlawful possession of a firearm. Jackson was in jail Tuesday on a $500,000 cash-only bond, police said.

The video was released as part of the department’s transparency efforts, where they aim to release relevant footage within 45 days of when an officer uses force.

The full incident report video can be seen here. 

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/video-shows-st-louis-county-police-car-hitting-man-after-he-fired-at-officers/article_84107686-9d1f-5377-bdde-426278be69f0.html

Eye gouges, groin strikes, bites, scratches, throat strikes, hair pulling: why “fighting dirty” is not enough in reality

Click to watch video on Youtube

Reddit discussion and video

Groin strikes, eye gouges, and other “dirty” street fighting techniques are often overestimated in their effectiveness, and are not reliable substitutes for fundamental fighting skills.

The key issue with these techniques is that they rely on pain to influence behavior, rather than directly incapacitating or controlling an opponent. Real fighting scenarios (see videos) show that people can endure severe injuries, including serious maiming, and still continue to fight. This resilience is especially true when the stakes are high.

Gaining a controlling position increases the effectiveness of any technique, including those banned in sports. Without a dominant position, attempts at “dirty” tactics are more likely to fail.

Consideration must also be given to what happens when these tactics fail. In a fight, once a certain level of violence is introduced, it can be reciprocated, potentially leading to more severe consequences.

Real-life examples illustrate these points. Fighters have continued to compete even after sustaining significant injuries like broken limbs or blindness. The effectiveness of these tactics is unpredictable and can vary greatly depending on the situation and the individuals involved.

While “dirty” techniques can be part of a fighting strategy, they are not reliable or decisive. Effective fighting requires a combination of skills, including striking, grappling, and a strategic approach to positioning and control. Simply relying on pain-inducing tactics is insufficient for real combat scenarios.

Here we have a man arguing with police, and he throws a knee to the groin. You can see the officer’s hips move back as the energy from the strike transfers to his body. The officer responds with a punch which knocks the man unconscious. This is a stark illustration of the difference between doing something that simply hurts a lot, and something that takes away your capacity to fight completely.
A jeweller is stabbed and attempts to stop the attacker by using groin strikes and eye gouges, which have no effect. Neither man is able to clearly dominate the fight before the stabber eventually gives up and walks away.
This man entered an MMA gym and challenged them to a fight. When he gets caught in a guillotine choke, he attempts to eye gouge his opponent, who continues to choke the man unconscious.
In Japan 1995, 5’7 Yuki Nakai fought 6’5 Gerard Gordeau in an MMA bout. Gerard illegally eye gouged Yuki, which left him permanently blind in his right eye. Yuki continued to fight with one eye, and won by heel hook in the fourth round. He never let officials know that he’d been blinded.
Full fight where a man’s ear is bitten off, and the biter loses by submission when he is unable to escape from a bad position, demonstrating the importance of basic grappling skills no matter the rule set.
A man’s lower lip is bitten off in a street fight; however, by the end of the video he is keen to continue fighting, while it is the biter who walks away.
Man has his ear bitten off in a street fight and does not stop – by the end of the video he is in a dominant position and continues to fight without issue.
A man who is allegedly a pedophile according to onlookers, attempts to bite and eye gouge while underneath the mount of his opponent, which fails. His opponent – the man in a controlling position – eye gouges and blinds the other man, demonstrating the importance of positional control no matter what rules of lack thereof.
Two men are fighting on the ground, one has his eye gouged out – however, he continued to fight and at the end of the video, he is in a controlling position and is now gouging the eyes of the other man.
Multiple unanswered strikes to the groin which appear to have no effect
Source of video thumbnail – by MMA photographer Esther Lin
“After the fight, Werdum said the poke didn’t hurt or affect him – and even if it had hurt, he might have lied to the ringside physician and said he was fine out of concern the bout would be stopped. Werdum, who won a unanimous decision, says he thinks some fighters embellish the severity of a poke to get out of the fight and that offends him to some degree.”

https://www.espn.com.au/mma/story/_/id/27850706/danger-mma-problem-eye-pokes

The limits of pain compliance

Click image or click here to watch video

Pain compliance is quite literally the use of pain as a method to achieve compliance, and discourage resistance and aggressive behaviour. It’s an integral part of any police use of force continuum policies. However, its effectiveness varies greatly depending on the individual’s pain tolerance, mental state, and the intensity of the situation.

Individuals under the influence of drugs, experiencing a mental health crisis, or in a state of excited delirium might not respond as expected to pain compliance techniques. Adrenaline and other physiological factors can significantly diminish pain perception, leading to less effectiveness in gaining compliance and potentially escalating the situation to more extreme uses of force.

Pain compliance is not a substitute for physical control. It should not be seen as a primary strategy but rather a part of a broader set of tactics aimed at safely controlling and detaining individuals.

It’s crucial for law enforcement to have a clear objective when employing pain compliance and to be prepared to shift tactics if it’s not effective.

Continuous application of pain without gaining control can be perceived as excessive and lead to public scrutiny and distrust. In extreme cases, it can lead to serious injury and death, particularly when the subject is of poor health.

Training, skills, fitness and teamwork are the only answer.

The public’s perception of pain compliance is increasingly critical. With widespread access to information and a growing emphasis on police accountability, the use of force is under more scrutiny than ever. Law enforcement agencies need to ensure their personnel are well-trained in a variety of techniques, understand the implications of their actions, and are capable of making judicious decisions in the heat of the moment.

In conclusion, while pain compliance can be a part of law enforcement’s toolkit, it should be used judiciously and in conjunction with other tactics aimed at safely and efficiently resolving confrontations. Continuous training, public engagement, and a commitment to ethical practices are vital in maintaining public trust and ensuring the safety of both officers and those they serve.