
Tased in the Chest for 23 Seconds, Dead for 8 Minutes, Now a Life of Recovery - llamataboot
https://theintercept.com/2016/06/07/tased-in-the-chest-for-23-seconds-dead-for-8-minutes-now-facing-a-lifetime-of-recovery/
======
cloudjacker
If only all Americans got these kind of expose's after the media reveals they
had an ounce of weed on them.

I frequently see the suspect/victim/dead person/perp's association with drugs
as a reason why their life is worthless. I've seen instances in some
departments where the police just stand on the victim until all the life is
gone, or the paramedics never arrive, or the paramedics just nonchalantly go
through motions but never attempt resuscitating.

I would just assume all these contrasts would be fresh on everyone else's
minds too.

edit: and here it is, this is addressed in the article

"When asked if he still has faith in the system, considering that Runnels is
one of the rare officers to face criminal punishment for using excessive
force, Matt shakes his head no. He knows there are many deserving cases,
especially involving minority victims, that never see the inside of a
courtroom. “I get a lot of sympathy from my black cop friends, like, ‘this is
what we’ve been saying about cops for a long, long time.'”"

~~~
dewitt
_" I've seen instances in some departments where the police just stand on the
victim until all the life is gone, or the paramedics never arrive, or the
paramedics just nonchalantly go through motions but never attempt
resuscitating."_

What do you do for a living that causes you to see these things firsthand, if
you don't mind me asking? What happens when you report them?

~~~
cloudjacker
I only see the videos and incongruent arguments from the departments and
families, the incidents were already reported by the time I see it.

------
dmitrygr
As sad as it is unsurprising.

But this will continue until the justice system stops assuming cops are always
right and everyone else is always guilty.

------
gravypod
Are there any court documents here showing what happened before the video?

Last time I was at a traffic stop, the cop didn't tase me. How did it come to
that in this situation?

Edit: I just got to that point in the video. While I don't support tasing
people for things as light as this, I do have to say that I personally don't
think it's a good idea to this adversarial to anyone.

------
palakchokshi
This reminds me of "Making of a Murderer"[1] documentary on Netflix.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_a_Murderer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_a_Murderer)

------
GreaterFool
“Whenever you see these officers come out with a use of force, whether it be a
shooting or a tasering or a whatever, there are phrases that always go in
those reports, that we’ve been trained to put in there,” Matt said. “And so
many times that’s just like an ‘insert quote here’ in your report because
that’s going to cover your ass.”

So he knew exactly what was happening. But I'm sure he's ~one of the~ the only
good cop that never covered his ass for excessive force and unwarranted
actions, right?

------
waterphone
Police in America are a cesspool of scum, dishonor, poor judgement, poor
impulse control, and sociopathic behavior. It's not every cop, but on the
other hand it's also the system as a whole, which does affect every cop.
Police are not good. They are not to be trusted. They are a barely controlled
monster that we ostensibly hold the leash to but increasingly are getting
bitten by.

It shouldn't be normal to be constantly filled with rage by the actions of
police officers. It shouldn't be normal to silently celebrate whenever a
police officer is killed. It shouldn't be normal to have to consciously put on
an exaggeratedly compliant persona when interacting with police so they don't
kill you. It shouldn't be normal to be a law abiding citizen who actively
avoids any interaction with police because you might end up in jail or dead.
It shouldn't be normal to have to refuse to talk to police because they can
and will use anything you say against you if they feel so inclined, even if
you're completely innocent of anything. But it is normal. And that needs to
stop.

~~~
dang
Please don't post rage rants to Hacker News. This is not the kind of discourse
we want here, regardless of one's position on excess use of force by police,
etc.

This, in particular, is egregious: "silently celebrate whenever a police
officer is killed". You can't comment like that here. Please don't do it
again.

~~~
civilian
Is he raging? waterphone sounds depressed about these state of affairs, not
rage-filled. He doesn't want to be happy about an officer's death, but in the
face of the behavior of our police force? It's weird how our monkeybrains
celebrate the death of a member of a corrupt and insane organization.

~~~
dang
I see your point and approve of your charitable reading. Still, there's no
interpretation of the HN guidelines by which inflammatory rhetoric like that
belongs here, and it isn't a defense of police abuses to point this out.

Like most of you, we get mad when we read these articles. At the same time, HN
calls for thoughtful discourse, not blaring or venting. There's no
contradiction here.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)

~~~
ryanobjc
I couldn't disagree with your more. The author was using interesting rhetoric
and you misquoted him in an attempt to censor him.

You are asking people to silently and politely discuss issues that very
serious and very problematic.

Honestly, seeing the moderator of HN say this, has made me question if HN is
worth participating in anymore. To me this is the turning point where 'dang'
demands civility in uncivil situations and mutes and waters down the
discussion.

I very dissapointed in you.

~~~
scrollaway
You're blowing things way out of proportion. I also disagree with dang's
assessment of the situation but I can also understand being bothered by the
quoted statement. I'm bothered with it because I strongly disagree with it - I
think the US should be ashamed of its police forces but certainly do not
"silently celebrate" when they are killed.

