Comments: Sedatives Being Used By Cops To Make Arrests
It's a slippery slope. First this drug, next Seroquel.....I'm just saying.....
Posted by Angie at July 14, 2008 01:34 PM
This sedative is in no way a substitute for a tazer or a gun because the person has to already be on the ground and fairly well restrained before the paramedics can injects them. In the article, a man says he was restrained by "maybe four or five on each side." Eight to ten people were already holding him down before they injected him, so no matter how ripped the dude was, it's hard for me to believe that in this case they couldn't possibly have controlled him except "via Taser, ass-whupping or gunshot."
I think that force-injecting people with a drug that causes memory loss (which by the way ruins the credibility of the testimony of anyone who does remember) at a time when a person is acting agitated and being stigmatized as "irrational" and therefor is extremely vulnerable to mistreatment is on a par with chucking stale donuts at the cops' heads as an invitation for police brutality.
We're probably going to be seeing a lot more of these sorts of 'non-lethal' technologies for controlling people coming out in the near future. I expect many to follow a pattern of first being used on a very small number of people who are seen as being 'mentally ill.' But eventually, police may decide they actually like subjects who fight as much as sacks of potatoes even more than they enjoy dealing with people who struggle and spit and try to elbow their faces and kick the cruiser windows out. Once they start making the argument that officers are being injured unnecessarily because of restrictions on these technologies, there's going to be huge pressure to expand far beyond the quasi-pseudo-medical grey area to use in regular arrests.
Posted by UnderTheThresher at July 14, 2008 07:32 PM
Note this has only been used a few times, but may be the way of the future from past reading the ED/ER blogs.
Personally it scares the crap out of me. I'ld rather be tazered. You still have your mind after a tazer.
The example in the article about the first guy who was helped is misleading to the general public.
It is misleading because he says the old I was off my medications and out of control. Implying his mental illness was fully responsible, justifying the injection.
No mention of (too rapid)withdrawal from the medication is what have made him out of control and irrational. Just like any rapid drug withdrawal, legal or illegal.
Posted by mark p.s. at July 14, 2008 07:33 PM
I've read of several Taser deaths, and am mighty suspicious of the two week Zyprexa shot -envisioning the person in a permanent state of Ichabod Crane-dom until the drug does them in.
I am not surprised by this development. The society seems to be showing increasing intolerance and disdain for anyone who isn't rich.
Posted by sorrowful at July 15, 2008 08:32 AM
What does being rich have to do with tasers or forced injections? I'm pretty sure there is a Kennedy who had a lobotomy.....
Posted by Stephany at July 15, 2008 10:14 AM
My brother is a New York City police officer for many years now. I am a veterinary technician with almost 20 years of experience. We have an agreement between us: I don't negotiate hostage situations and he doesn't vaccinate his own dogs.
In NYC, there was strong backlash against the NYPD ESU (Emergency Service Unit, essentially Special Ops) for sedating stray dogs with Ketamine. (Ketamine causes an increase in intra cranial pressure, which would be a very bad thing for a dog hit by a car, for example.)
I can't imagine that it makes more sense to sedate a HUMAN with an unknown health history than it does to sedate a stray dog... Sigh.
Underthethresher makes good points about non-lethal force. My biggest concern is the associated memory loss. But IMHO I don't think that officers being injured will be the impetus for the change in methods. My brother has been repeatedly injured on the job by both suspects in custody and the general public.
If the push comes for new methods of restraint, it comes from "lawyers" and "accountants" at the top level, and not because the rank and file are being non-lethally injured.
Posted by Jo Ann at July 15, 2008 11:23 AM
I agree with the sedatives instead of other methods used by law enforcement. They should be given by injection for fast onset. Maybe a tranquilizer gun?
As a sidenote, many doctors put unrecovered alcoholics on benzos to have them stop drinking, and it works. This is because benzos cause less damage to the person than alcohol. Yet there are negative consequences with both agents, that work on the same area in the brain.
Posted by Dan at July 23, 2008 06:41 PM