Wednesday, March 19, 2008

CAMERA TASER USED

A man died Tuesday night after Chicago police shocked him with a Taser stun gun because he was combative during an arrest on the West Side, authorities said Wednesday morning.
Tribune


I too was involved in a "death in custody" incident, and this prior to supervisors being issued Tasers.
The offender was dressed only in his underwear (outside temp in lower 40's), sweating, and breaking windows of the residences on the block. We tried speaking to him and he mumbled incoherently. He became agitated and attacked a group of 8 officers. We struggled to cuff him and as we turned him over to bring him to the wagon we found him unresponsive. Fire was called and he was dead. We later found out that he died as a result of a heart attack and that he was under the influence of cocaine. I'm sure the fact that he weighed nearly 400 pounds didn't help his heart either. The citizens that were on scene, and there were plenty of them, gave the same account of the events as we did.

I found this article that I would like to share with you from PoliceOne.com
Three truths are becoming clear about excited delirium, the perplexing and violent human meltdown that is increasingly confronting LE and EMS personnel as a menacing problem.

1. A subject in the throes of this affliction may be on a "freight train to death" that no form of intervention can slow or stop.

2. Despite accusations by activists, angry relatives and the media, Tasers, "positional asphyxia," and other common scapegoats are not the cause of the person's ultimate demise.

3. If an ED sufferer is to be saved, "early and rapid" coordinated efforts of peace officers and EMS responders will probably be necessary.

These critical facts were the core of a frank debriefing by ED authority Dr. Michael Curtis, attended by PoliceOne and an audience of firefighters, LE officers, EMTs and hospital ER personnel at Waukesha County Technical College near Milwaukee. Curtis, an EMS medical director and an advisor to the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Standards Board, will be featured in a roll call training package on ED that the state’s Department of Justice is preparing.

"We have been lulled into a sense of security about medication taking care of psychiatric problems," Curtis stated. "But now we’re seeing an increasing number of people who stop taking their meds, along with a rise in methamphetamine and cocaine use." That baleful blend, in his opinion, means "we’re going to see more and more and more ED confrontations. Major cities may see more than rural areas, but it can strike anywhere."

Much about ED remains a mystery, although the syndrome has been recognized since 1849 or earlier. Modern experience shows that the typical encounter with first responders begins with an "agitated, excited" adult male creating a disturbance, triggering a call to 911.

As Curtis describes it, the subject will exhibit confused, disoriented ("Where am I?") and bizarre behavior that has begun abruptly ("He just snapped, out of the blue!" witnesses may exclaim.). This may include visual or auditory hallucinations, distortions (he may interpret benign noises as gunshots, for example), signs of "unusual fear," and violence directed at objects, especially shiny items and glass.

Hyperthermia (overheating) may be spiking his body temperature from 105 to 113 degrees, so he’s often sweating profusely, although perspiration may cease "in the later phases of the emergency." Frequently ED subjects will be tearing at their clothing or already be partially or totally naked. When police arrive, they probably find the subject "yelling and screaming," with emotions very unstable ("all over the place") and attention span "very short."

Typically a struggle ensues when officers try to restrain him. Because he has "superhuman strength and insensitivity to pain," multiple officers probably get involved ("It may take six to displace him."). He continues to fight even after restrained. Typically, he’s "transported in a police vehicle to jail."

He dies in custody. And the police, police tactics and police equipment are blamed.

[For more details on ED, Curtis recommended that responders consult the PoliceOne Web site, where a number of authoritative reports on the subject are archived. Another resource is the Institute for the Prevention of In-Custody Deaths, headed by Dr. John Peters Jr. (www.ipicd.com).]

Curtis then explained what often doesn’t make the headlines:

Intervention and survivability

Researchers in Los Angeles County studied 18 cases in which ED subjects were placed not in a police vehicle but in an ambulance after being restrained, with paramedics monitoring them. Despite cardiac treatment, all died, and all attempts at resuscitation failed.

Once their body crash begins and "they go over the edge, there is [generally] no bringing them back," Curtis said. Paramedics may try "every trick they have up their sleeve" to no avail. "ED creates some kind of profound derangement of underlying physiology," and in the vast majority of known cases subjects "can’t be resuscitated by any means." Whatever the intervention, "they usually die anyway."

Those who do happen to survive "often have severe medical problems for weeks afterward, including muscle breakdown and kidney failure that may require dialysis," Curtis reported.

The blame game

An autopsy typically shows that the subject suffered "minimal injury from the police confrontation," and that he had "illicit stimulant drugs" in his system. Because of the ineffectiveness of OC, baton strikes and other pain-compliance measures, a Taser may have been used to control his combativeness.

"The news media have implied a cause-and-effect relationship between Tasers and in-custody deaths," including those involving ED. But, Curtis asserted, "if you search the medical literature, there is no scientific evidence to date" that such a relationship exists.

Nor, he said, is there valid evidence that the way these subjects were restrained caused death via so-called positional asphyxia or hog-tying.

"If you [conduct a Web search for] ‘Taser and death,’ you’ll find news articles from all over the U.S., and the headline is always the same: ‘Dies After Being Stunned by Taser,’" Curtis said. "Cause-and-effect is assumed, but that is a fallacy of logic. Even though ‘B’ came before ‘C’ doesn’t mean that ‘B’ caused ‘C,’ especially if an alternative explanation, ‘A,’ better explains the result" ("A," in this case, being the nature of ED itself).

"Several forensic pathology studies" have confirmed that ED "is an imminently life-threatening medical emergency" that can produce fatal consequences, Curtis said. In short, the ED subject is already a medical mess before responders arrive.

"Because of pathology going on in his brain, his body can’t cool itself and his temperature just keeps shooting up" toward lethal levels. This is aggravated by his extreme physical activity (agitation and violence) and by dehydration.

Disruption of the subject’s metabolic functions, particularly a dangerous lowering of his blood’s acidity (pH) level, tends also be a significant characteristic of violent activity and dehydration — and of ED, Curtis explained. "The body works best within a narrow range of pH;" outside that range, there may be dire consequences.

Less clear but also a common associated factor in ED deaths is the subject’s "noncompliance with medications to control psychosis or bipolar disorder," Curtis said. Perhaps the effects of sudden withdrawal without being under medical supervision has placed these people "more at risk."

The dominant cause underlying this physiological chaos, Curtis said, is most often "stimulant drug abuse. A characteristic pattern is binging for two to four days before the ED episode. Acute intoxication with one of the stimulants — cocaine, meth, PCP — triggers the event" and sets the subject up for a calamitous outcome.

Mix into all this possible contributory health threats such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and you have a subject who’s "on a freight train to death," Curtis said, quoting a phrase coined by Sgt. Dennis Angle of Waukesha, Wis., Police Department.

In some cases, Curtis acknowledged, coroners or medical examiners have blamed Tasering for ED deaths, "but when subjected to scrutiny these determinations have not held up." The ED syndrome itself "is the underlying reason for these people dying, not intervention. So far, no one has been able to show a pathophysiological pathway from Taser to death."

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excited Delirium,complete BS,does not exist.More junk science from the sausage crowd.

Anonymous said...

Taser kills.

Anonymous said...

You have to be kidding. Sausage, homo, traffic nazi, suburban sausage guy is on here too?

WTF is wrong with you, dude?

At least you will never have to worry about confronting anyone....it's painfully obvious you are the "sorry squad, can't make that assist, hold me down on this low tire" guy. PUSSY.

Anonymous said...

0551 and 0654, trolls,not the police. Never were.

Anonymous said...

Excited Delirium,complete BS,does not exist.More junk science from the sausage crowd.

Wed Mar 19, 05:51:00 PM

Taser kills.

Wed Mar 19, 06:54:00 PM

Who the fuck are these guys?

Anonymous said...

Taser kills.

Wed Mar 19, 06:54:00 PM

Excited Delirium,complete BS,does not exist.More junk science from the sausage crowd.

Wed Mar 19, 05:51:00 PM

'Scuse me, dummies? Let's see, in the latest incident, overweight clown full of booze gets violent. Heart rate? Goes through the roof. The liquid courage brings out his machismo and he thinks he can take on the world. The liquor anestetizes his ability to register pain - even pepper spray/mace doesn't work. He can't even tell he's having chest pain. The taser actually saves lives because it prevents having to use higher amounts of force on subjects. But, in this case his rapid heart rate plus the chemical effects of the booze (causes arryhtmias) killed him. Lesson: Don't write checks that your out-of-shape body can't cash.(Go study the Kinematics of Trauma).

Now, I know you're laughing because you can't even pronounce the things I'm telling you. Don't exalt your stupidity. Turn off the TV and pick up a book once in a while. You'll be a better person.

How can I tell you watch TV? Because CLTV has been playing this incident over and over. Instead of telling the truth, they keep replaying comments made by his illiterate cousins, "De poleeces, dey are animawls." They couldn't find members of his immediate family to comment - why? - because they aren't here in this country.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
You have to be kidding. Sausage, homo, traffic nazi, suburban sausage guy is on here too?

WTF is wrong with you, dude?

At least you will never have to worry about confronting anyone....it's painfully obvious you are the "sorry squad, can't make that assist, hold me down on this low tire" guy. PUSSY.

Thu Mar 20, 01:52:00 AM

Way off base my friend,no wonder CPD has a 36.6% clearance rate.Your profiling skills are laughable.You like the taste of celery dont you??

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
SCC! WE need help to move the St. Jude parade back on Michigan Ave. I haven't researched it. But how long have we been doing the parade, and has it always been on Michigan Ave.? Any ideas on what steps to move it back? The more we give up or let them take away from us. The more they're going to do it. And without asking. God knows, no one sticks up for us or has the balls to do it. PLEASE HELP! I hope I don't stand alone on this.
God Bless our Men and Women that have already given the ultimate sacrifice. They deserve to have the streets blocked and the positive Media coverage.

3/19/2008 02:17:00 PM

Or we could move it back to were it all began on the south side no not mt greenwood, beverley. yes im talking about 3200 E 91st Street. Known by its parishoners as OLG and home to the ST JUDE shrine.

PS ITS in the 004th dist.

3/20/2008 04:17:00 AM

ANOTHER ABYSMAL SLAP IN THE FACE TO THE CPD BY FAT PHIL. FAT PHIL MOVED THE ST JUDE MARCH FROM MICHIGAN AVE,A RIGHTEOUS PLACE OF IMPORTANCE AND HONOR,TO THE HIDDEN LAKEFRONT WHERE NOBODY CAN SEE IT AND NOBODY CARES.

THE REAL MEANING OF ST JUDE OCCURRED AFTER THE MARCH AT HOLY NAME CATHEDRAL WHERE ALL CPD'S DECEASED WHERE REMEMBERED AT MASS. TRADITIONALLY ALL OF THE BOSSES ATTENDED ALONG WITH QUITE A FEW OFFICERS AND FAMILY MEMBERS. THAT IS WHY THE MARCH ENDED AT CHICAGO/STATE ST.

THE MEMORIAL IS NICE BUT IT IS A PLACE OF SILENT REFLECTION, THE PURPOSE OF THE ST JUDE MARCH WAS TO SHOW THE WORLD THAT WE CARE ABOUT OUR DECEASED BROTHERS AND SISTERS BY PROUDLY MARCHING DOWN CHICAGO'S MOST PRESTIGIOUS AVENUE AND THEN MEMORIALIZING THEM AT MASS AT HOLY NAME CATHEDRAL.

THIS IS A REAL SLAP IN THE FACE TO ALL CHICAGO POLICE OFFICERS,PAST,PRESENT AND FUTURE.

BRING BACK THE MARCH TO MICHIGAN AVE. FAT PHIL IS HISTORY NOW.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
0551 and 0654, trolls,not the police. Never were.

Thu Mar 20, 08:10:00 AM

I bet you want to be a profiler.Wrong again.Not everyone in the police world drinks the koolaide.

Anonymous said...

The taser actually saves lives because it prevents having to use higher amounts of force on subjects. But, in this case his rapid heart rate plus the chemical effects of the booze (causes arryhtmias) killed him. Lesson: Don't write checks that your out-of-shape body can't cash.(Go study the Kinematics of Trauma).
Thu Mar 20, 09:36:00 AM

So you are telling me that the guy would have died anyway,at that point in time,if the Taser was not used??
So passing high voltage through someone does not affect your heart??
I think COMPETANT cardiologists would differ with TASER INTs paid whores that come up with crap like ED.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7608386

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excited_delirium

ED is complete junk science,part of the failed model approach.

Anonymous said...

Nice post, good article. There you go making sense again...

Anonymous said...

I too was involved in a "death in custody" incident, and this prior to supervisors being issued Tasers.
The offender was dressed only in his underwear (outside temp in lower 40's), sweating, and breaking windows of the residences on the block. We tried speaking to him and he mumbled incoherently. He became agitated and attacked a group of 8 officers.

*********************8

Thanks, Sarge. Been there, done that. When I was a know-nothing pushing bush in Vietnam I dreamed about coming back to the world. We were the mighty in battle. We had hearts like a lion. We thought we had kinsmen on many a shore. We came home to find we had been deserted. Much like the CPD PO's of today. A patriot warrior salutes you. Those of you rolling your eyes, cover your groin, move to the back and make way for those who will never come back, but who gave their lives for you. Visit the Wall.

Anonymous said...

hello fellow real police comrades we here in the Kentiworth dept of public safety have recently have a new innovation other then the inhuman taser device, What we have adapted is a paint ball device containing a watery liquid mixed with a strong honey flavored sugar substance . We have found this curtails the summer climbong over the fence to go swimming in the country club by rambuntious youths after closing hours just a tip that you may want to adopt thank you

Anonymous said...

Simple solution: Don't fight the police, obey police commands and you'll be OK.

Fight the police.....then you're on your own.

Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Reunion_sausages_dsc07796.jpg

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said...
hello fellow real police comrades we here in the Kentiworth dept of public safety have recently have a new innovation other then the inhuman taser device, What we have adapted is a paint ball device containing a watery liquid mixed with a strong honey flavored sugar substance . We have found this curtails the summer climbong over the fence to go swimming in the country club by rambuntious youths after closing hours just a tip that you may want to adopt thank you

Thu Mar 20, 09:26:00 PM

Does NEMERT offer certification on this system??I would like another certificate for my wall.Is an instructors course offered?That way I can beat my chest at the wateringhole.

Anonymous said...

...I think COMPETANT cardiologists...
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7608386

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excited_delirium

ED is complete junk science,part of the failed model approach.

Thu Mar 20, 04:32:00 PM

Bwahahahaha! He's quoting NPR!! HAHAHAHA! Oh, man! What an empty shell! Hey, that earring you're wearing is affecting your brain. And if you're going to use CAPS, make sure you LEARN TO SPELL! COMPETANT - HAHAHAHAHA! - It's COMPETENT, stupid!

The TASER does not pass high voltage THROUGH the body like a defibrillator. As I said before, read up on it...and yes, that Latin King could very well have died without the TASER - JUST LIKE THE GUY WHO DIED IN THE NPR STORY YOU ARE QUOTING - NO TASER USED - you don't even read the stuff you quote!!!!

Anonymous said...

This dope is a troll that that hits all the area police sites. You can ID him by the repeated use of "sausages", "homos" and "failed model approach" in various permutations in his posts.

He is a wanna-be police hater that pretends he is PD.

Anonymous said...

Ok - not to sound insensitive or anything but: A piece of crap that was a drain on society died doing what he did best - being a piece of crap.

Yeah, the thing wasn't supposed to KILL the asshole, but it happened.

The world is a worse place now because.... ???

Anonymous said...

Taser kills.

Wed Mar 19, 06:54:00 PM

So do drunken Democratic Congressman

Anonymous said...

Tasers don't kill people, Chuck Norris kills people!!

Anonymous said...

Even the third world is catching on to the problems created by mixing drugs & alcohol

Expert blames robbery and youth restiveness on drug abuse

DRUG abuse is becoming a pervasive problem and is directly responsible for the increase in robbery, violence and youth restiveness being experienced today in Nigeria, the President of Association of Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria, (AISSON) Dr. Ona Ekhomu, has said.

Drug abuse, according to him, is also responsible for the high rate of accidents on our roads in recent times. Speaking at a security seminar for intending Certified Protection Officers in Lagos recently, Ekhomu indicated that drug abuse decreases productivity, increases workplace accident and safety incidents and also results in greater absenteeism.

“Psycho-active drugs alter the structure and function of the brain, including mood, perception or consciousness,” he said. Ekhomu identified marijuana, a drug that diminishes the user’s mental capacity as the most abused drug in Nigeria. In Lagos metropolis, marijuana is openly abused by youths, motor park touts, and working class persons trying to get high, he said.

“Increasingly, Nigeria is becoming a net consumer of hard drugs. Cocaine and amphetamines are being mixed with local gin at motor parks and sold as drug cocktails nicknamed Shepke and monkey tail. These potent stimulants are used by long distance drivers as “stay awake” drugs. However, these stimulants have been a significant factor in road crashes.”

Anonymous said...

YOu want to play, you have to pay.
Lots of us Sgts. have been tased as part of the taser training. No deaths as a result as of yet. You better believe these jacked up losers have other issues going on that have eased the way to their restless "transition." When the toxicology reports come back, you'll see...

Anonymous said...

I told you I knew it was you

Anonymous said...

"Don't taze me bro!"

Please keep in mind that this is an open blog
that can and is read by people other than Chicago Police Officers.