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.