Man in Need of Medical Attention Gets Tasered By Skittish Police Instead

[marmar]

via AlterNet's PEEK:



Man in Need of Medical Attention Gets Tasered By Skittish Police Instead

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 12:28 PM on December 10, 2008.

In Oklahoma, a driver goes into severe diabetic shock, but instead of getting help, he's tasered and then handcuffed.




It looks like we all need to be sure we don't have any kind of medical emergency while driving these days or risk being shot through with electricity for failing to hop to quickly enough when the authorities demand it.

In Oklahoma, a driver goes into severe diabetic shock, but instead of getting help, he's tasered and then handcuffed.

This video shows what happened in El Reno, Oklahoma last month after the man's truck spun out on the interstate.

The town's police chief says his officers thought the 53-year-old man was under the influence of drugs or alcohol and was resisting arrest.

He says after they realized that wasn't the case, they called an ambulance.

The tape is here. The officers feel bad about what they did, but I have to wonder how police handled situations like this before tasers? Did they shoot them with a gun?


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/111719/man_in_need_of_medical_attention_gets_tasered_by_skittish_police_instead/

[Greyhound]

1. The militarization of our police forces. Police used to, largely, be a part and members, of

our communities. After the Gates era in the 80s, the us vs. them mentality took a firm hold in PDs all over the country. Now their are mostly thug enforcers allowed to abuse and kill with impunity.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. The us vs them has been there for at least fifty years, if not longer

this is not new

But how an officer behaves in the field comes straight from the top... and their academy training

And when it comes to less than lethal (don't care which device) they are not given enough training anywhere

And to medical emergencies, in an ideal world cops would be trained in more than just first aid, basic first aid, don't expect to see it ever, or at least as long as we live in such a litigious society

Me... not surprised they believed he was on drugs or alcohol... the level of death rates in drunk tanks have gone down across the country, under the intense education of the American Diabetes and local medics... but it is extremely easy to confuse and you require a blood test, simple finger prick actually. It should become standard in the field... whether the cop suspects it or not. That would save lives.

[Greyhound]

13. In the cities in the northeast since forever and LA since the 30s at least,

but in most of the country it is relatively new. Certainly the equipment and training are vastly different than 30 years ago.

This is not to say that all was sweetness and light, certain types of people are drawn to that profession, but even in small cities cops were very different.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Nah, it has been present for ever

if anything in some areas training has actually somewhat reduced it, (community policing comes to mind)

Hell, my local PD has actually improved over the years

There are certain things though that have been place since they got really trigger happy back in the 1980, and one of them is the civilian review board, the other the regional training academy

It is also regional, with the exception of LAPD, the furthest east and south you go, the higher the assholeness you get. Even cops say that.

We need civilian review boards, like the one in my town, as well as other means of supervision over departments, and they need to be trained to know that they work for us

But the paramilitary characteristic of police departments, that has been present from the word go. Why you have ranks, uniforms, and close order drill.

[ColbertWatcher]

11. "The militarization of our police forces." That says it all. n/t

[Chulanowa]

2. "Resisting arrest" needs to be removed as a criminal charge

all it is is a way to add more years to a sentence for the benefit of our corporate prisons. It's so poorly-defined that rolling your eyes is legal grounds for "resisting arrest." it's a law that allowes cops to arrest you for anything. That's right. You're under arrest for resisting arrest

[doc03]

12. Our local police tasered an 80 year old man

a couple years ago, he was relieving himself in a city park. They said he was belligerent and resisting arrest, to some cops today the lack of bladder control and senility is a crime I guess. Of course the cops investigated themselves and said that it was justified. I think if a 30 year old man needs a taser to subdue a senile 80 year old he shouldn't be a cop.

[Chulanowa]

25. I think that if a 30 year old man needs to subdue an 80 year old man, period, he shouldn't be a cop

I may not be in the nursing section of the elder care place where I work, but I know folks that age are pretty fragile, no matter how tough they act.

Somehow, cops managed these same situations with a minimum of electrocution and beatings not a few short years ago.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Don't worry - soon worthless piece of shit torturing cops will be able to tase us ALL at ONCE!

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/taser-update-by-digby-just-little-note.html

In general, Digby is really a wonderful go-to source for this issue:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=digby+taser&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&num=10&lr=lang_en&as_filetype=&ft=i&as_sitesearch=digbysblog.blogspot.com&as_qdr=all&as_rights=&as_occt=any&cr=&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&safe=off

[Warpy]

4. These clowns need to learn that a taser isn't a tranquilizer

and shouldn't be used like one. It is dangerous to people with heart conditions. Quality control is poor and the voltage can be much higher than the label states.

Any discharge of a taser needs to be handled exactly the same way the discharge of lethal weapons are, by an automatic investigation by IA.

This is unforgiveable. Unless lives were in danger, certainly not the case here, they had no excuse to use that taser.

[Ian David]

5. Make it a law that every time a cop Tasers someone, he or she also needs to be tasered.

The Taser has gone from being a safety tool to becoming a productivity tool.

[Warpy]

20. Tasers, used properly, save lives

I just want to make sure they're used properly.

The goons who sold them to the cops didn't train them properly and the forces themselves seem ill equipped to train them properly.

Perhaps the kind of paperwork that arises from discharging other weapons would discourage these guys from using them so cavalierly.

[BlooInBloo]

21. (facepalm)

[surrealAmerican]

9. Quite right.

There is something seriously wrong about the way these cops were trained.

[happychatter]

6. I remember a suicidal man in a motel once, no hostages but armed...

Police broke into his room and gunned him down dead

He didn't commit suicide

I'll never forget that because to me, it's illustrative of the true nature of so called "law enforcement"

time is money and only those with the money, get our time

[bobbolink]

7. I"m just sure they "feel bad".

Riiiight.

:crazy:

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Not to justify them, but I am not surprised

having taken care off more than one diabetic patient (and having been severely bitten by one), yes, easy to confuse

And yes, when I got bitten my EMT wanted to well you know what my patient across the you know where. Once we got the D50 in he didn't even know he bit me. Good news, I was wering my bunker gear... or I would have lost a piece of muscle.

Low blood sugars do weird things to the brain...

At least LOCAL police are trained to get the paramedics to test for blood sugars... just in case, but it took many people dying in the drunk tank over the course of at least fifty years, of having the technology available... today it is just very convenient.

To add, locally use of tasers are now treated as use of lethal force, that said, cops are not trained long enough in the use of them... two months for a gun, four hours for a taser

[IDemo]

14. I can offer a bit of background, as a Type 1 for 46 years

Diabetic hypoglycemia, sometimes called an "insulin reaction" or "insulin shock", can occur due to too much insulin, too little food, or too much exercise. In many cases, the patient can recognize the symptoms and take care of it with a snack or glucose tablets. (I could fool most people that I am OK even with a blood glucose reading as low as 30, but most will be on the floor well above that point).

Often though, the onset happens too quickly. If the blood glucose levels drop too low, the body will respond by releasing adrenaline, and that is where the real fun begins! I have punched a hole in the kitchen wall, dented the dishwasher with a kick, and woke up in my truck outside the laundromat at 3:30 am, just to name a few. Speech can be difficult to comprehend, and answering questions may be difficult as well, even if you know what you want to say.

I wouldn't want to have to deal with myself in a severe reaction, but I have to think there are better tools available than 50 kilovolts.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. As a type two, I had several hypo reactions, too much meds

as a trained medic I recognized the sighs and symptoms and reached for the tablets FAST.. it was not rational either can't explain it... just did it

But I did feel the speech impediments and all that... like fog in my brain.

And as I posted above, I got bit pretty bad by patient who's glucose was bellow forty. Meters fifteen years ago didn't go before forty

Once we started IV and gave him his D50 he started to relax, like magic, well we used another med to control the seizures as well, but hey...

He made it, and I got a nasty reminder in my arm. He broke skin, even with the heavy bunker gear. I fear what would have happened if officers had been on-scene.

[IDemo]

18. My old meter said "Do you need a snack?", which makes more sense than a number at -40

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. My new one also says that

on top of the number

:-)

Now the doc removed one of the meds... after so many lows... lost a lot of weight (sixty pounds)

And as I loose more, I guess we will have more meds reduced now

[bertman]

15. Give boys toys and they're gonna use 'um. It's the training that matters.

[librechik]

22. I am sick and tired of all these complaints about the Skittish Police

they are no different than British police or Welsh police, for example, and if they make a mistake it's not because of being Skittish, for heaven's sake....

Oh.

Never Mind.

[Kitty Herder]

23. Scary shit. My cousin almost got thrown in the drunk tank overnight because of hypoglycemia.

The cops finally listened to his girlfriend when she kept telling them that he was diabetic with low blood sugar, not drunk, and needed sugar of some kind immediately.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. These stories have been around for literally EVAH

cops should be required to do a simple blood test of every drunk on the way to the tank...

that will prevent stories like yours

And will save lives

Yes, that was my personal fight down in TJ with the cops. We finally got to an unofficial agreement, never managed to make it policy

If an ambulance was downtown, and there was even an inkling of a suspicion, we'd go test... took literally a minute, and we ended transporting people to the hospital, saving lives

Don't know if they still do that...