The Los Angeles Police Department is under fire for its treatment of a suspect in custody after Jorge Azucena died from an asthma attack. Azucena repeatedly told the officers that “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” . . . I have asthma, I have asthma.” However, LAPD officers refused to help him with one sergeant telling him “You can breathe just fine. You can talk, so you can breathe.” He died after being left lying face down on his cell floor. Roughly a year has passed but there is no reported discipline in the case.
Azucena reportedly could not even walk by the time that he was brought to a South Los Angeles police station and was carried to his cell. The evidence in the case was derived from recordings from cameras on police cars that responded to the scene on September 6, 2013 near midnight. Azucena led police on a brief car chase after running a red light. He and two companions ditched their car and ran off into a park but Azucena was quickly found at a nearby apartment complex. When he surrendered, he is heard complaining that he could not breathe. He continues to plead that he could not breathe as he was left on the ground handcuffed. One officer noted that he was “walking wobbly” and seemed “fatigued.” Another thought he might be having a seizure. Azucena became increasing alarmed and began yelling “Help me, help me, help me. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. Help me, please.” A sergeant dismissed the pleas as just trying to incite the crowd. He was told “You can breathe just fine. You can talk, so you can breathe.”
He kept begging officers to help but the most that they would do is slightly lower a window in the cruiser. According to the Inspector General’s report, when he was unable to walk, an officer told him “that he needed to act like a man and walk.” Notably, following protocol, a supervisor insisted that he did ask Azucena if he was sick or injured and recorded his answer as “not responsive” on the form. That would seem a problem when someone is not responsive and unable to walk. However, Azucena was carried to a holding cell and placed face down on the concrete floor. Some 40 minutes later, paramedics arrived after officers could tell that he was not breathing. He was later declared dead.
The inspector general’s report shows a shocking lack of response by various officers. Yet, no action has been reportedly taken in the case. That lack of accountability may explain how such violations occur in the LAPD in a case of this kind. I fail to see why it was such a difficult decision to take a prisoner to a hospital if he was sweating, having trouble walking, and claiming to have asthma. While there are medical conditions that are less urgent, a difficulty breathing is a medical condition warranting immediate action. Prisoners are routinely taken to hospitals for any number of reasons. This was not a tough call. It has been a year since Azucena died and it would seem that his family deserves from some real action and some real answers from the LAPD. Unfortunately, it sounds like a torts lawsuit may be the only way to force such answers through the litigation process.
Source: LA Times
Oxa,
And I would not be surprised the procedures are being reviewed right now to account for this in the future. And I would also not be surprised this happens again there or somewhere else. Is it preventable? I don’t know, but if I had a medical condition that put my life at risk when a ran then I might have to consider that in my daily routine.
I would think that an outfit as big as the LAPD would have some sort of medical staff on hand at the facility. Probably cheaper than running people back and forth to the hospital. At least a nurse practitioner.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
anonymous, excellent link on police brutality.
Paul,
The cops have a duty to protect that prisoner. If he is showing signs of distress or even claims it, they have a duty to make sure he is ok. I have asthma and I carry an inhaler in my car, but rarely in my pocket. The only exception would that I would carry it in my camelback when riding.
It is not a hard call at all. What harm is done in taking the guy to the hospital to receive medical care? None whatsoever. What harm is done in refusing him medical care? Potentially death.
Jack, LOL! You don’t have to prove they’re smart, just that they’re guilty.
“If the guy was bleeding from the head I am sure they would have taken him to the hospital.”
Are we talking about the same LAPD here?
Bailers – you are right about the LAPD. They could just be systemically incompetent.
That’s awesome, Jack!
In other news:
Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn’t control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words, “Give me all your money or I’ll shoot,” the man shouted, “That’s not what I said!”
One in 12 people in the US now suffer from asthma, thanks to the plague and petulance of the corporate farming, frankenfood industry, not to mention the criminal whores in Washington who enabel it, along with the consumers who recklessly continue to buy contaminated food for their children, and eat in fast food and family restaurants. It would not be this way if more of us were conscientious, cared a bit more about our health and the health of children.
It’s likely 1 and 12 detainees also have asthma, so police should at least be aware of these numbers, as difficult as it would be to get through to the mush heads on patrol. You vote for violence, you get violence.
Here we go, right on time.
The guy has an asthma attack in the custody of police. He doesn’t get the treatment he needs and dies. Guy shouldn’t be putting his own health at risk and the cops should be prepared for it and they weren’t.
What else is to be gleaned from this story?
Oxa,
He’s good at “self-righteous.”
Paul C. Schulte – People without insurance may not have inhalers. Others may keep their inhaler in the glove compartment of the car, a drawer, or other easily reachable locations. Don’t be so self-righteous.
Paul C. Schulte – So you think that someone saying “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” . . . “I have asthma, I have asthma.” is not a sign of an asthma attack and anyone who ignores such utterances should be given the benefit of the doubt?
Oxa – I know that some asthmatics will game the system using their asthma as an excuse. As a teacher I used to see it all the time. Johnny has asthma so he cannot run labs, but still Johnny was just out playing kickball during recess.
It is a hard call. It takes training and I am giving them a break. If the guy was bleeding from the head I am sure they would have taken him to the hospital. And I know they did not make the right call. However, I am not sure they were trained enough to make the right call. As I said, it is an invisible disability. They probably would have handled him the same way if he had a heart attack.
” I am not sure they were trained enough to make the right call.”
There is no necessity that they be able to diagnose the condition.
All that is necessary is that they have reasonable belief the person is in distress.
So what if they are occasionally wrong because some prisoner wants to game the system.
The down side of ignoring the condition is that someone dies. That is a big cost because, as a society, we have already decided that human life is precious and the actuarial cost of a bad decision is huge.
The cost of sending someone to medical care, unnecessarily, is relatively small. If the person is a faker that can be dealt with administrative punishment, charging the person with the cost of medical care, or perhaps with charges similar to filing a false report.
There is simply no excuse for this.
But I do blame management and administrators far more than the individual officers.
Paul,
You’re right that some conditions can be difficult to diagnose or even see symptoms of. Which is why police, who are completely untrained in medical care, should be calling for professionals instead of heaping additional verbal abuse on someone who’s claiming they are suffering from one.
I’m well aware that some people will use it to delay jail. But when police arrest someone, they have to assume complete liability for the care that person receives while in custody.
P. Schulte, an officer wil take anyone’s statement that he has a gun seriously. The officer should be expected to take someone’s statement that he can’t breathe just as seriously. Certainly, either statement may be untrue. However, law enforcement should treat the risk reflected in the second statement just as seriously as the risk reflected in the first.
Richard – I carry my inhaler with me at all times. This guy should have as well. It is easy to check if the guy has a gun. Not so easy to check that he is not breathing.
If this situation happens to me, my wife will be a rich widow. 🙂
Bailers, so right@12:30. There is a protest coming up in Milwaukee regarding a shooting of an unarmed man in a park last fall. So many of these cases now coming to everyone’s attention across the country, it’s about time.
Oxa (and others),
Here’s another:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cases_of_police_brutality_in_the_United_States
““I Can’t Breathe”: NYC March over Chokehold Death of Eric Garner Protests Police Violence Nationwide”
http://youtu.be/PVEQ6utl1eI
Professor Turley, or someone more knowledgeable than myself. I realise this is off the topic, but can someone chime in on two recent cases for me? The first is out of Alpine, TX. As a condition of bail being given to a defendant. The presiding Judge ordered a woman to say that she lied about allegations of police abuse. Demanded that she write out a formal statement declaring that she lied, and retract said allegations. The judge even went so far as to order another individual not immediately associated with the raid on the woman’s business to take down pictures that he took, and posted on Facebook, that backed up the woman’s claims. http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/strange-things-have-happened-recently-alpine-smoke-shop The second case involves a young man in Woodscross, UT. who was filming police activity in his neighborhood. The police ended up arresting him, and the presiding judge demanded that he alter the video of the encounter he posted on Youtube to include that he must edit the video and admit that he is a felon. Admit that he should not have been filming the police. Admit that he was disrupting the officer, placing their safety in jeopardy. Also that he must meet with the county prosecutor to address what he must edit and say. http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2014/08/12/utah-cops-arrest-teen-recording-judge-orders-teen-admit-guilt-trial/ In both of these cases it certainly seems like these two Judges are essentially demanding guilty verdicts of the defendants as a condition of bail, and before the evidence is even taken to trial. Not to mention in the case of the last Judge that citizens are not allowed to film police which is clearly a violation of established First amendment rights. Any replies would be greatly appreciated.