337

Why did more than 1,000 people die after police subdued them with force that isn't meant to kill? (apnews.com)

submitted 7 months ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Carl Grant, a Vietnam veteran with dementia, wandered out of a hospital room to charge a cellphone he imagined he had. When he wouldn’t sit still, the police officer escorting Grant body-slammed him, ricocheting the patient’s head off the floor.

Taylor Ware, a former Marine and aspiring college student, walked the grassy grounds of an interstate rest stop trying to shake the voices in his head. After Ware ran from an officer, he was attacked by a police dog, jolted by a stun gun, pinned on the ground and injected with a sedative.

And Donald Ivy Jr., a former three-sport athlete, left an ATM alone one night when officers sized him up as suspicious and tried to detain him. Ivy took off, and police tackled and shocked him with a stun gun, belted him with batons and held him facedown.

Each man was unarmed. Each was not a threat to public safety. And despite that, each died after police used a kind of force that is not supposed to be deadly — and can be much easier to hide than the blast of an officer’s gun.

Every day, police rely on common tactics that, unlike guns, are meant to stop people without killing them, such as physical holds, Tasers and body blows. But when misused, these tactics can still end in death — as happened with George Floyd in 2020, sparking a national reckoning over policing. And while that encounter was caught on video, capturing Floyd’s last words of “I can’t breathe,” many others throughout the United States have escaped notice.

all 20 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[-] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 91 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Also, why is all harm short of killing someone considered acceptable when police do it?

[-] girlfreddy@lemmy.ca 52 points 7 months ago

Yup. The average person would be charged, but qualified immunity means these assholes have carte blanche to murder at will.

As always, ACAB.

[-] vividspecter@lemm.ee 10 points 7 months ago

A lot of statistics about dangers in society seem to be entirely centred around deaths. Which is understandable of course, but underplays the many other harmful outcomes that can occur short of that.

[-] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 8 points 7 months ago

You could argue very convincingly that some non-fatal injuries lead to a fate worse than death.

[+] MxM111@kbin.social -6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The idea is to offload violence from the society to the police (to give lawful monopoly on violence to the police). The alternative is wild west where everyone can do policing/violence as they see fit.
Granted that the policing should always be scrutinized and improved as needed, having completely "defund police" is not something we want to do.

[-] mox@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

The idea is to offload violence from the society to the police

My point is that conferring such enormous authority and power without enormous responsibility and accountability (and careful selection and training) is a mistake.

The alternative is wild west where everyone can do policing/violence as they see fit.

I'm 99% certain there are other possibilities in between the two extremes.

having completely “defund police” is not something we want to do.

As I understand it, the "defund the police" movement is not about abolishing police. (And is a bit off topic, so I'll save that discussion for another time.)

[-] MxM111@kbin.social 1 points 7 months ago

May be you think “defund police” is actually train police or create additional department of people who can deal with things mentally ill (both of it costs money, the opposite of “defund”) but I bet most of the people do not think so, and treat “defund police” and ACAB exactly as it sounds.

In any case I have answers a very specific question in my previous post.

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 31 points 7 months ago

Daily reminder: ACAB

[-] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago

PEB: Policing Enables Bastards

PEB allows for one (out of 700k cops in the US) or more e.g. trans BIPOC officers to try to be the change from the inside without insulting them in the meantime.

Could be a stupid plan (e.g. if that approach is impossible). But a stupid person isn’t necessarily a bastard.

Also PEB considers it takes a while to fire whistleblower/“good” cops, and similarly doesn’t insult them during their firing process (insult to injury).

…am I being too literal with the word “All”?

[-] xantoxis@lemmy.world 28 points 7 months ago

We can talk all day about lack of training or inability to de-escalate but at the end of the day those people died because a cop wanted them dead. The problem is the cops.

[-] MadMonkey@lemmy.world 25 points 7 months ago

Grateful to be living in a country where police don't even carry firearms regularly - New Zealand

[-] Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago

"National reckoning on policing" MY FUCKING ASS. I will never understand people who think just cuz it was on the news more than a week that some great change came of it.

[-] hypnotoad__@lemmy.ml 7 points 7 months ago

Acab motherfuckers

this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024

337 points (98.3% liked)

News

23311 readers

1129 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

rjc@lemmy.world

Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world

dezmd@lemmy.world

Tenthrow@lemmy.world

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

Blackbeard@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

jeffw@lemmy.world

enu@lemmy.world