The sample included 315 respondents. While 99.8 percent believed excessive force is used, almost as many (97.8 percent) reported that they had managed cases that they suspected or that the patient stated had involved excessive use of force by law enforcement officers.And they would know what excessive force looks like... how? Oh, the patient said it. That makes all the difference.
I'll admit that what we do sometimes looks excessive. I'll also admit that when we use excessive force, we're running the danger of losing the trust of the public and opening ourselves to criticism. I'll also tell anyone who's had to deal with an intoxicated, angry, out-of-control arrestee, what looks excessive may not be. That's for the Courts to sort out, not the doctors. A doctor has no more business giving opinions in this matter than I have giving medical advice.
If the doctors who talk about the police want to talk about professionalism, how about learning to cure the common cold, or Aids, or cancer. You guys haven't figured that out yet? What are you doing? Standing around with your fingers up your butts? I'd suggest that until you get a 12-hour cure for the common cold, that you shut-the-hell up about anything not medical related.
I promise to refrain from giving medical advise.
Hat tip to Matt G.
Put them on the street for a month as part of their training, let THEM subdue those misguided ones and then redo the report...
ReplyDeletePawpaw, have you ever heard of a drunk driver who didn't claim he was cold sober? The same drunk was sober and calm and collected when the officer shot him with a TAZER, just to watch him jump and hear him holler.
ReplyDeleteAs a young cop, I was part of a 5-Deputy posse which arrested a stout drunk who had cleaned out a bar with a pool cue.
ReplyDeleteHe laughed at our nightsticks when we surrounded him in a field. I picked up a 2X4 sticker about 4' long and advanced on him, and he surrendered.
When we took him to the hospital to get his scalp stitched up (he got the wound in the bar fight, not from me), we had him tied to the gurney with leather restraint cuffs.
The young doc came in and told us to remove the cuffs so he could examine the patient. First we told him that was a bad idea, but he insisted. The restraints were removed, the drunk went berserk again, and now the TWO deputies left had to subdue him and he had all kinds of metal chairs, etc to swing.
The doc, who had retreated, came back with a HUGE syringe with Demerol, told us that if we could just get him still for 5 seconds, the fight would be over 15 seconds after that.
Using chairs to pin him, we got him in a corner and the doc gave him the shot. 15 seconds later, the drunk went to sleep.
That doc learned all about violent men in one tough lesson, and any violent person who came into his ER after that was ALWAYS kept restrained.
Docs aren't god, as they themselves tend to think, but once they learn the hard side of life, they're smart enough to play their cards right from then on.