Police have long known the dangers of holding people in prone restraint. So why do so many keep dying?

Police have long known the dangers of holding people in prone restraint. So why do so many keep dying?

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As far back as the 1990s, medical experts and law enforcement officials have been aware of the dangers of prone restraint. A number of organizations and law enforcement agencies, including the US Department of Justice, the Chicago police department and the New Orleans police department, warned officers of these dangers and advised them on how to minimize risks.

Many training manuals have since been updated to address the risks of prone restraint and the importance of using the recovery position. Ohio state police officers are forbidden from using prone restraint. A Nevada law forbids the practice. In California, a law that became effective in 2022, AB 490, bans any maneuvers that put people at risk of being unable to breathe due to the position of their body, or positional asphyxia, a common cause of death in prone restraint cases.

But a new review of law enforcement data shows that, despite growing awareness of the dangers of prone restraint, in California the problem is pervasive. After the passage of AB 71, in 2015, California began tracking data about when people died after police use of force. Between 2016 and 2022, at least 22 people have died in the state after being restrained stomach-down by law enforcement officers, according to a new analysis of currently available state use-of-force data by the California Reporting Project, the California Newsroom and the Guardian. Our examination also included police reports, death investigations, district attorney reviews, body-worn camera footage, 911 calls and lawsuits.

  • crossmr@kbin.social
    36·
    10 months ago

    and yet we do. This is like yelling at a kid for throwing a candy bar wrapper out the window while ignoring the factory around the bend spewing sewage into the river. Fact of the matter is health care workers have been killing people far in excess of any unjustified killings by police for years/decades and there has never been a peep out of people about it. The fact that you take the time to say ‘fuck the police’ over the healthcare workers who are killing them in an order of magnitude higher speaks volumes about you.

    Do keep in mind at no point have I said that what the police have done is acceptable or okay. That’s your own narrative.

    • Odelay42@lemmy.world
      4·
      10 months ago

      I never said fuck the police over the healthcare workers. I said any number of murders by police is too many. Any number of murders by healthcare workers is too many.

      My point is the police shouldn’t get a pass because there’s another group that’s worse. Both groups should be scrutinized and deeply reformed.

      • crossmr@kbin.social
        14·
        10 months ago

        You literally took the time to say ‘fuck the police’ and didn’t say anything similar about the healthcare workers after seeing the stats that show that healthcare workers are more dangerous than police.

    • proleEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      This has to be one of the dumbest arguments I’ve seen… Did you know that the death rate at hospice is 100%? HOW HAVE WE LET THESE MURDER CAMPS GO ON FOR SO LONG?

      It’s almost as if one of the things exists to care for people who are already sick and/or dying, so naturally they will handle more dead people.

      And the other exists to protect capital. Not human life, capital. Often at the expense of human life.

      So yeah, the comparison is fucking stupid.