Breathe or Die: Deadly Force
Written by Elizabeth Moon –
In a Court TV segment of the trial of Derek Chauvin, Barry Brod, a “use of force” expert witness, insisted that Chauvin did not apply deadly force. He said if only Floyd had been “compliant” he could have rested “comfortably” with his hands behind his back, and blamed his death on his lack of compliance and attempts to resist arrest. This reveals that Brod does not understand the mechanics of human respiration, especially “weighted” prone position.
The pertinent facts:
- The human brain demands more oxygen and glucose than any other organ in the body. That’s why it’s also the organ that signals us when we’re short of oxygen–that says BREATHE MORE when the oxygen level drops.
- We have no other biological warning of lowered blood oxygen. So when someone says “I can’t breathe,” it means their brain has detected a drop in oxygen that, if it continues to drop, will kill them. Normal oxygen saturation is 95-100%. Below 95%, normal body functions, including brain functions, start to suffer from lack of oxygen. Below 88%, the situation becomes dangerous and below that, signals the need for immediate transfer to a hospital for emergency treatment. Permanent disability or death will follow if not.
- Many conditions can cause lowered oxygen levels: heart disease, lung disease, stroke, COVID-19, etc., but the one of interest right now is an outside force: someone forced to assume lying down position (either supine or more commonly these days prone) with extra weight pressing on their rib cage making it impossible to breathe and restore normal oxygenation.
This condition occurs during police take-downs, and is defended by police with the all-too-common belief that if someone can say “I can’t breathe,” that means they are breathing effectively, and are just lying. Most police do not have advanced life-saving skills beyond (maybe) CPR; they’ve probably heard that in triage situations, the person screaming has an open airway and is less critical than the silent one who doesn’t. But an open upper airway does not guarantee effective breathing–it’s just one requirement. The other is the ability to free movement of the ribcage and upper abdomen, so their movement can pull air into the lungs and push it out. Immobilization of this breathing apparatus kills just as surely as a strangler’s cord around the neck.
Being forced to lie prone without the use of extremities to assist in lifting the rib cage with each breath, coupled with enough weight on the back, makes it impossible to breathe. The prisoner saying “I can’t breathe” or “You’re killing me” is right. The demand for compliance (“just don’t move–relax”) is functionally a demand to accept being crushed to death, the kind of agonizing slow death George Floyd suffered. A few centuries back, “peine forte et dure” was a fairly common method of torture and execution: tie someone down on a hard surface with arms and legs spread wide and start putting stones on their chest until they confessed or died.
Police have repeatedly shown that they are not capable of stopping short of killing prisoners when they have them face down on the ground. They interpret any movement, including struggles to breathe, as “resisting arrest” and put more weight on, making the hypoxia worse. More than one person, in different jurisdictions, has died from being forced face down to the ground, with too much weight on their back.
The only way to avoid more unnecessary and brutal deaths is to change how police treat their prisoners. That will require changes in the law, forcing police to take legal responsibility for the lives of their prisoners, and changes in police training, so they know less lethal takedowns. It’s really simple. If someone says “I can’t breathe” get the weight off their backs immediately. Turn them on their side. That frees the rib cage and diaphragm to function normally.
I have a longer and more detailed form of this which explains the multiple ways pressure can cause lack of oxygen in the blood and thus death, in simpler terms than the books I learned it from. If anyone still has questions, I’d be glad to email the longer form.
Militant bigot cops and P’Tak those that defend and enable them. I have no use for cops see no real use for them as they are defined at this time, here in USA.
1Yeah. Whatever, medical or reasonable. When an “arrestee” is in cuffs, prone on the ground and otherwise subdued, explain once again why kneeling on their neck is ‘reasonable’ FFS. 9 or 10 minutes?
Or, give “officer” d’uh dumb whatever a reasonable doubt for “mistaking” her taser for her service revolver.
What cops do not get is that their alignment behind the psychopaths in their ranks is that they are exposing themselves to a citizenry tired of extrajudicial murder. They have a choice, and it’s probably not what they think, if they’re thinking.
2Thanks, Elizabeth, for a succinct explanation of the mechanism at work here. We need immediate training of all law enforcement people that struggling to breathe is NOT resisting arrest, and that cuffed and on the ground is adequately restrained no matter HOW pissed the cop is. The only exception is someone in the middle of florid psychosis, which is much more difficult to deal with.
3The defense in the Chauvin murder trial really had no defense. The pictures we’ve all seen are so compelling that it’s hard to think the jury will be swayed by “experts” that had no first hand knowledge or credibility. I think that’s why Chauvin didn’t testify. He could not defend his actions and he knows it.
4Since the George Floyd murder, there have been several other killings that shouldn’t have happened (and many more before). It’s going to take a murder conviction to maybe get a message out to cops that don’t get it. If not, we’re in trouble.
I think what I hated most about this guy was that while he was killing George Floyd, he had this defiant, I dare you to interfere, look on his face when the witnesses were begging him to stop. I hope he spends the rest of his life in prison…however long that will be once he gets there.
5Hear ya go old buddy category: police brutality
A timeline of 1,944 Black Americans killed by police
Black Americans are more likely to be killed by police. The police are rarely held accountable.
https://www.vox.com/2020/6/30/21306843/black-police-killings
6AK Lynne, we totally agree. What all of us need to embrace is the fear of the bystanders, including the cops, who dared not intervene knowing they’d be next at the hands of Chauvin.
Before the next person dies, and unfortunately there have been several including children, since the death of Mr. Floyd, everyone good cop needs to stand down, stand aside, and demand that every cop submit to an evaluation.
When citizens fear telling one of those sworn to “protect an serve” to back the off murdering a citizen in custody, LE has lost all credibility.
7Jane & PKM, I’ve seen plenty of folks calling for cops to “submit to an evaluation,” but I’m having a terrible time figuring out what kind of evaluation that would be and what it would really do to get us out of this mess.
I’m not sure a “routine psychological evaluation” is what we really need; what I think we need is an evaluation of things like their social media postings, their up-close-and-personal association with the people they are supposed to “protect and serve,” their affiliation with groups that I’ll call “hostile” here for lack of a better term, even their job interview records. If what we find is that they are part of what is mostly toxic masculinity on display in any of those things, we need to get them out.
8All of the murder saddened, angered, frustrated me but wish prosecution would mention just once the cruelty of the other cops to yelling at Mr. Floyd to get up and get in the car — you are kneeling on his back, his hands are cuffed behind his back and you are ticked off that he doesn’t obey your commands. The man was dying and they were stupid. Also…IF the police believed he was under the influence their obligation to watch him even closer was greater. The minute they put cuffs on him they were responsible for his life and they killed him without an ounce of compassion or understanding of THEIR responsibility.
9The DNA of policing needs consideration. How did the police culture evolve?
“How the U.S. Got Its Police Force”
“The first publicly funded, organized police force with officers on duty full-time was created in Boston in 1838….These [Boston] merchants came up with a way to save money by transferring to the cost of maintaining a police force to citizens by arguing that it was for the ‘collective good.’
In the South, however, the economics that drove the creation of police forces were centered not on the protection of shipping interests but on the preservation of the slavery system.”
https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/
Also: “The Invention of the Police”
“Why did American policing get so big, so fast? The answer, mainly, is slavery.”
(This article may be hid behind a paywall.)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/the-invention-of-the-police
10EM: as I recall from my limited emergency medical “knowledge”, another aspect of that form of asphyxiation is extreme pain in the arms and legs. As well as involuntary convulsive movement, from the body trying to move to restore the cut-off oxygen to the extremities.
So not only does the victim have involuntary whole-body movements, he’s in extreme pain at the same time. Sorta like the cramps us old and out of shape people get if we try to run a quarter mile. Is this also in the info you have offered to email? My ad hoc knowledge comes from when I was a steel mill crane operator. A paramedic told us what to do and expect if we had to lift a heavy object off someone who had been foolish enough to allow a heavy object to get on top of them.
11Agree that a simple psych eval is not enough to screen law enforcement officers. They need screening for presently-socially-acceptable behaviors that are particularly dangerous in persons granted extra powers. And yes, that includes looking at their social media presence, their tats (skin art), and a close history of their entire employment history, as well as relationship history. Cops’ girlsfriends and wives are known to suffer a higher than average amount of domestic violence. A cop who beats up on his girlfriend or wife will beat up on other citizens too.
Following that, training needs to change, including community college (as well as police academy) courses in law enforcement. That training was changed (funded in part by NRA) to increase the speed and lethality of decisions made in every citizen contact. Training should emphasize the many things citizens do that are NOT crimes and cannot be used to excuse arrest or “roughing them up” as 45 actually endorsed and approved. Interfering with the press is not OK (see recent court decision that police cannot arrest reporters at a demonstration for reporting on it.) The attitude I heard from off-duty LEOs at a convention in Austin–that everyone is guilty and that presumption of guilt excuses whatever LEOs do–should be stamped out in education. There’s a world of difference between “Nobody’s perfect” and thus everyone has probably not noticed a broken taillight or run a stop sign at least once, and “They’re all criminals, really, we just haven’t figured out yet what they’ve done…” and thus anything done to anyone is justified.
No one should fear that being stopped for a broken taillight, a new-car license taped to the vehicle, an air-freshener hanging from a rear-view mirror, is a prelude to being thrown on the ground, kicked, punched, or shot. No one should fear that police will crash their hand and wrist (happened to a musician in Austin) and their cry of pain being reported as “resisted arrest.” (Career ending injury for a guitarist who couldn’t afford a specialist surgeon.) No student should fear being dragged out of a chair by her hair and thrown on the floor for using a cellphone to check with the hospital to see if her mother had survived surgery (teachers…do not call a cop into the classroom…find out WHY your student is using her cellphone.) Or be picked up and thrown hard to the floor by a school cop, or tased repeatedly and have a permanent brain injury from falling backward onto the sidewalk. Or be forced to endure repeated forceful enemas because a cop was sure there had to be drugs *somewhere* in his rectum. (Medically speaking, this is dangerous: not only is it humiliating and uncomfortable, too many enemas too fast screw with electrolyte balance, as well as stressing the lining, and–in persons with various conditions–can cause a tear that then results in peritonitis. Socially speaking, it’s torture by anal rape, since feeling around inside by police and medical personnel both occurred.)
But preceding that, laws need to be changed to eliminate qualified immunity, the right of LEOs to lie to citizens, the new laws (some states) making it illegal to say anything toi police that upsets them (since clearly *anything* can upset them, removing “I was scared” as an acceptable defense for police violence, demilitarize PDs. Local governments should be empowered to require (not just request) complete records of officers they hire from PDs they worked for before, and those PDs required to include all incidents of excessive force complaints and the response. Bodycams and dashcams “not working” should be considered evidence of bad behavior, with immediate suspension without pay.
12In order to determine whether or not a person should be trusted with a badge and a gun, interview his/her school teachers. Reliable evaluation? Bet the farm on it.
13Good analysis. EM, especially the list of needed reforms.
14Ms. Moon, IMHO based on the above post and comment, and what’s available on Wikipedia (therefore to everyone) regarding your experience, the prosecutors in the Chauvin case shoulda put you on the stand.
Speaking for myself, I’m grateful for your insights in this joint.
The abuse of power by police issue is not just a racial one.
It affects our entire society. It’s just that folks of color have been the easiest targets.
I believe the ranks of racists have been bolstered by the push for authoritianism.
Authoritarianism has been pushed by the people who’s belief system of white male christian dominance has been under attack for decades.
Cause that’s all they’ve got left.
Reasonable conversation, debate, comparing established scientific, or moral concepts just
dudn
go
their
way.
So fuck it.
Whatever works, amiright?
High school tribalism works wonders in the age of Facebook.
After Rush Limbaugh spent decades convincing “real” americans that liberals are evil scum.
And people like the Kochs Mercers and Princes have embraced anything that furthers their interests.
Whether they’re personally racist or not.
Authoritarianism serves their purpose.
Which is to have all of us pay for the privilege of..
their privilege.
15I guess my point is that law enforcement for decades has attracted People who will enjoy abusing their power.
And in today’s america, it’s easiest to abuse black
Americans.
But along the same lines, and I apologize for the long windedness, it reminds me a lot of the massive voter suppression tactics repugnantcans have pushed for decades. I said in an earlier comment that they’ve given up on claiming they weren’t racially motivated and just moved on to justifying them.
And that’s true.
But what’s more and also true is that their voter suppression tactics target Black Americans because that’s the most bang for their buck. The easiest.
If they could identity every patron of The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon on sight, none of us would get within spittin distance of a voting booth in any locale
16currently overseen by trump supporters.
White, Black, or anywhere in between.
But that’s just my opinion and I’m just as full of shit as anybody else.
And after re-reading the above, I have to say that I in no way shape fashion or form claim to know how Black Americans feel on this subject or any other.
17Apologies if it seemed otherwise.
P.P., as to your feces load-out, maybe not. The logic looks clear enough.
Chauvin needs the death penalty; he murdered that man.
18I think most people forget that, since police have law enforcement powers far beyond what Joe Average Citizen has, they also have far greater responsibility to use those powers wisely and without prejudice. That when they deprive people of their rights, it is the worst sort of offense to our liberty, and taking a life either capriciously or maliciously is the worse civil rights violation in a long list. I have no sympathy for any of them, and they can’t be trusted not to lie to save their own skins or to fabricate a case where none exists.
After all, SCOTUS says so.
19CU in Tenn @ 13: Exactly. I have to wonder how many people currently in law enforcement were their class bullies when they were in high school.
20Late to the party, and just a nit-pick, but the body really has no sensors for oxygen that tell you to breathe.
What it has is sensory cells for carbon dioxide; when those kick up you breathe to dump more carbon dioxide out of the blood. This is what makes things like nitrogen-filled tanks and depressurization in aircraft incredibly dangerous; people keep right on going, breathing normally and feeling fine right up to the instant they pass out.
As for Mr. Chauvin, it’s reported locally that both he and Mr. Floyd were concurrently bouncers at the same (now closed) bar in Minneapolis a decade ago. Whether they knew each other there or not is unknown, but sources note that George Floyd was part of the ‘inside crew’, while Derek Chauvin was part of the ‘outside crew’ because he liked/tended to ‘mix it up’ with bar patrons.
21This told me everything I need to know about their relative temperaments.