Comments on: The Jailhouse Death of Michael Patrick Lass

By: murmur55

murmur55 — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:22:14 +0000

DOJ statement in 1995 on avoidable death in restraint or custody: Positional Asphyxia and Sudden Death http://bit.ly/fWyJKg

Asphyxial Death During Prone Restraint Revisited: 21 Cases http://bit.ly/p86G5F

NYPD training video Positional asphyxia 2003 – YouTube http://bit.ly/eRBQRq

Prone restraint alone, or use of weight on the chest, if used at all, should last only seconds. There should NOT be a “struggle” on the ground. People die very quickly in this position. The extreme violence that is reported is due to someone experiencing air hunger due to suffocation which then results in extraordinary measures to move the chest wall to ventilate the lungs. Police often interpret this to be “resistance”, failure to comply with their orders, or assaults on them, and then increase the use of chest pressure, strikes and taser shocks.

Police academies, the DAs, and the FBI have all failed to prevent this form of lethal restraint through better training. A regular citizen would be charged with manslaughter for causing a death in this manner.

By: jb

jb — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 00:23:16 +0000

I would hate to have it go un-noticed that Orange County is the county in which the city of Fullerton is located, infamous for its own police force having beaten to death Kelly Thomas last month. Like the Michael Lass, Kelly Thomas was tasered multiple times and beaten by an overwhelming force of uniformed officers.

By: Helmut O' Hooligan

Helmut O' Hooligan — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:42:15 +0000

#27 John:
“…every one of those faux pigs who were too fucked up in the head to get a job on a legitimate police force ”

What exactly does that mean, John? What is a legitimate police force, and what is not a legitimate police force. What about people who work in the private security sector like me. Am I too “fucked up in the head” to beat tazer and beat homeless Schizos to death and lock people in cages for possessing marijuana. Isn’t that what our “legitimate police forces” are doing as we speak. Hmm. Hey John, your bravado took something away from this whole conversation. I think your just a little confused, dare I say, fucked up in the head. Don’t be a faux revolutionary tough guy.

By: Helmut O' Hooligan

Helmut O' Hooligan — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:37:16 +0000

Unbelievable. Even one of the deputies said “just one guy.” There were at least 12 to 15 jail officers around during this incident and they had to use that much force. And a tazer. In healthcare security we use numbers to restrain limbs until medical restraints or handcuffs can be applied (depending on the case). We do not use numbers to punish, and that is the key difference. You need that many deputies for one schizophrenic guy who went to jail for OPEN CONTAINER (that, in and of itself is an outrage). Put bluntly, these guys look like pussies, in addition to being murderers. Real nice, OC.

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:29:32 +0000

How is this different than how the Nazis treated the Jews?

What kind of fucked up set of ‘procedures’ makes it important to make sure your RUBBER GLOVES are on, but not to bother trying to keep track of how many times you’ve fucking tasered a guy?

“Excited delerium”. huh? Is that what you call it when you gang up on a guy, hold him down, and scream at him while you taser and beat him to death?

By: Gen John Stark Returns

Gen John Stark Returns — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:26:56 +0000

Meanwhile, instead of going after these thugs, the FBI is handing out flyers at surplus stores telling the owners to be suspicious of and rat on people who buy MREs…… Can someone point me to where the line starts for the revolution?

By: john

john — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:59:08 +0000

every one of those faux pigs who were too fucked up in the head to get a job on a legitimate police force deserve to have a target on their backs. and they should live their lives continually looking over their shoulder out of fear.

they are lucky lass was not a member of my family. because as many as i could get to before they stopped me would have a bullet in their head for what they did to this guy. and i would gladly take life in prison or a death sentence as a result.

By: et tu Brute

et tu Brute — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 03:16:51 +0000

Isn’t it time to water the tree ?

By: croaker

croaker — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:09:32 +0000

@21 Actually, it is a valid condition. Michael Dailey, MD of the Albany (NY) Medical Center has a very good lecture on the subject.

By: C. S. P. Schofield

C. S. P. Schofield — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:01:43 +0000

Why isn’t there more outrage in the mainstream media about this kind of thing? Because the mainstream media is busy shilling for Big Government and the Democrats. Not that the abuse is always in areas under Democrat rule, but even the dimmest Democrat operative knows that making a stink about out-of-control agents of The State could bring up all KINDS of issues the Statists would much rather pretend don’t exist.

The Narrative of the Left for more than a century has been that the Right’s vision is of a State where your treatment depends on your proximity to a wealthy elite. There is just enough truth to this to make it bite hard. But the bitter secret that the Left hopes nobody will notice is that THEIR vision is of a State where your treatment depends on your proximity to an ideological elite, a concept far more restrictive and exclusive than mere wealth. Many cities in this country (Detroit, Chicago, LA) are already this kind of State, and teh Left desperately hopes that they can avoid having anybody call them on it.

By: SJE

SJE — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:58:06 +0000

People have been trained to expect everything from the state, and so they get pissed when the state doesnt deliver

By: CB

CB — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:43:04 +0000

Some of us are getting a bit off the subject, but I’d like to recommend a few of the recent videos from Stefan Molyneux of freedomainradio.com. I think he provides a rare dose of insight into the root cause of the riots in the U.K. If you are familiar with Stef’s philosophy, it won’t be a spoiler to sum it up as, “it’s the state, stupid!” The root cause is a combination of poor parenting, violent environments, and the failure of the state to deliver what young people expect and need in their lives.

By: Judi

Judi — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:35:40 +0000

Excited Delirium? Never heard of it. My definition of excited delirium would be winng the lottery.

These morons looked like a hungry school of pirahna on this young man.

Geesh!

By: smeghead

smeghead — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:08:18 +0000

Ah, we come in peace. Shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill them.

By: JSL

JSL — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:40:39 +0000

Stop resisting, while we tase you bro…

By: SJE

SJE — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 19:34:45 +0000

#17: “over-excited”-wow, that is a new one. I think that the govt sponsored lab should be up for criminal charges for attempting to pervert justice.

By: Howlin' Hobbit

Howlin' Hobbit — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:34:24 +0000

gov’t sponsored autopsy said he got over-excited and died. privately sponsored one says he had a broken neck.

let’s just elide over the huge amount of contusions and get right to how the fuck do you miss a broken neck?

By: SJE

SJE — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 18:31:31 +0000

The riots in England raise a number of important libertarian issues.
-People who aren’t allowed weapons, and aren’t allowed to defend themselves and their property become entirely reliant on the police.
-The nanny state that controls everything, until everything is out of control.
-The billions spent on CCTVs don’t work on people with hoodies and masks.
-A very centralized government and lots of welfare is very difficult to wean from.

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:25:40 +0000

#13: Thank you, Mike Stivic.

By: MountainTiger

MountainTiger — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:17:54 +0000

This is pretty bad even as these misconduct stories go. I wouldn’t hope for any notice from liberals though; “where are libertarians on police abuse” seems to be at least as common a problem as the right-wing “where’s the ACLU” meme.