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
Been working all day till later…
… I’ve read three different articles about citizens being shot.
The awareness is coming to the surface.
Police that put their lives on the line act heroically when doing so…
… Police that put citizens lives on the line are acting cowardly.
There IS a difference here. Anyone paying attention to the current state of affairs knows this. Distracting away from the bad cops is a cover to allow bad cops to remain in place. Good cops out the bad cops and anyone who hails the proverbial “good cop” needs to understand silence in not calling out bad cops is a cover for that bad cop and is acting for that bad cop.
Watch the DemocracyNow clip above.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uvtOdf-oM5k/SB8evZjjJcI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/2vV_1hgRIp8/s320/IMG_1422.JPG
This cute little guy is making marinara.
Cop haters? Stir, stir, stir, hey where is my pic of my cute little pot stirrer? Is Professor Turley a cop hater Spinelli? My brother a Milwaukee cop of 30 years knows I’m not a cop hater, but I represent only myself.
Annie – referring to your brother the cop is like referring to your one black friend. I cannot hate cops because I love my brother and he is a cop. I cannot be racist because I have a black friend.
We commenters need to provide the balance, Haz. And you are an excellent person to help w/ that.
“We commenters need to provide the balance,”
Sorry Nick. I don’t see your point. One reason we don’t discuss shooting of LE is that it is not controversial. Nobody that I am aware of is claiming we ought to shoot more police. Everyone that I am aware of wants officers to be safe. But we also want them to be professional.
The reason we discuss situations like the story that started this thread is that some commentators and some officers act as though it is not such a big deal, or claim the officers did not do anything wrong.
Officers have an obligation to perform their duties in a professional and non discriminatory manner regardless of the character or the past of the individual.
I also do not think there is anything hateful about demanding that officers perform in accordance with the rules, regulations and training that apply to their position. Again some commemorators and some officers seem to thing officers should get a pass.
How about you Nick? Do you think officers should get a pass when they break the rules or do you think we should hold them accountable? What about when their negligence leads to the death of someone in their care. Should we ignore that or should we treat that as a serious offense?
“Here’s what I know, when they’re in a bind. When they wander into a neighborhood unlike their lily white ones they live, they’re going to want a tough cop to help them. And, they won’t care if they rough up a bad guy a little.”
Your argument seems to be that we should cut LE some slack and ignore illegal conduct because good officers limited to legal methods can’t get the job done. It is only when good officers apply that ‘extra’ in the form of illegal abuse that we can protect ourselves.
And how does that line of reasoning apply here in this case where the subject was under control and posed no threat.
Haz, Lot’s of cop haters here. But, Darren Smith is a former cop and a straight shooter. You’ll figure it out. There are too many cop abuse posts but that’s one of Jonathan’s things. It’s his blog.
so samantha how do you change the laws? please do tell. especially since these arent plans that were put into place over night. they have had these plans in place for a couple hundred years now. ever wonder how they manage to remain billionairs while everyone else goes broke? if you need a starter i would suggest you research myron fagan and from there you might try the three stooges go to washington along with the franklin coverup,the boystown scandal, the clinton chronicles oh i could go on but its the people who think like you that have allowed the elites to get so far that they no longer even pretend to be a government. oh wait dont forget to research the real truth behind birth certificates. the truth is out there but like you there are many who think its a simple thing of changing this and that. you think your vote counts? hahaha the peoples votes havent counted since eisenhower was put into office and the only way your going to break them isnt thru votes. its thru their pockets but they have taken every step possible to keep that from happening from taxes, to banks, moving jobs overseas, bringing in illegal immigrants happy to take a 1/3 rd of the pay americans want. thru taxes you pay them for the right to live. but hey keep living in the bubble it will soon be burst with a very sharp pin!!!!! remember this you dont even own the house and car you pay for. dont pay your taxes on it and see how fast they snatch it from you
Haz, most of the time on this blog Professor Turley posts articles on police abuse and overreach, violations of civil liberties.
Anyone get all upset about this? Nice police officer shot in the back five times while attempting to arrest a suspect. Or do we only discuss actions by the police, not actions taken against the police? Balance is important.
http://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/2014/06/01/in-memoriam-officer-kevin-jordan/
Haz, You’re fortunate you weren’t here when the Bergdahl fiasco went down. The Obama cult followers were swooning and they wanted to give the deserter medals for enduring his “captivity.” I don’t know if the MSM is burying the Bergdahl story now, or if there is just so much incompetence and lawlessness to cover happening every day. Probably a combo.
Haz, you didn’t get your memo yet that KarenS is a conservative? Are you sure you want to speak so harshly to her? Someone is falling down on the job, lol.
Karen S: The violation here was absolutely clear as he was going through intake. California regulations require an initial screening by either qualified medical personnel or trained detention staff at intake. This wasn’t a situation where any officer happened to come upon him–he was going through a mandated process intended to identify medical issues requiring immediate attention.
“Can we please have a national day of educating the police”
How about a national day of educating aggrieved urban residents to not break the laws? Let’s start with that. And then let’s all take a field trip to the National peace Officer’s Memorial in DC, or the one in your state. And for laughs, let’s tune in to the Chicago PD scanners tonight. Last night was a hoot – several cops got shot by bad guys trying to ambush them. (Or you can tune in the the scanners for the big city near you. The internet has everything.)
As for the dead guy, he should have received better care while in custody. But his death does not call for a national bitching session about “militarized police”, whatever that is.
I recall in the Kelly Thomas beating he kept saying, in a panic, “I can’t breathe!” The officers thought the exact same thing as these did: “If you can talk you can breathe.”
Can we please have a national day of educating the police that a prisoner who says he can’t breathe needs urgent medical attention? And while we’re at it, let’s also come up with a better strategy to help cops control and maintain the calm of the mentally ill, or those irrational on drugs.
Millions of people in the US alone have asthma, so it is shocking how often schools and police departments are completely unprepared.
I have asthma. It is a common misconception that “if you can talk, you can breathe.” People being strangled to death still make noises up until they pass away. The tiniest puff of air can still allow your vocal cords to vibrate. The anxiety of an asthma attack creates further inflammation and narrowing of the airways. Frantic for help, an asthmatic often forcibly uses what little wind he has to make himself heard. Which creates a negative loop.
Police departments are not alone. It is illegal for a child to carry and self-administer asthma medication. I went to high school with a girl who had to walk all the way to the nurse’s office to get her inhaler. I don’t know how long any of you can hold your breath, but that’s a long way.
This should be obvious, but it’s best to err on the side of caution when a prisoner claims he has a medical problem. These are police officers, not doctors. All they had to do was put their ear (or a stethoscope) to his back and they would have heard him wheezing.They should have a protocol in place for med evals. They were negligent in this man’s death because they did not take any steps at all to address one of the most common, life-threatening medical conditions.
mcwilliams posted: Sutton’s Theory of Elite Action
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/08/suttons-
theory-elite-action.html
I can’t give a lot of weight to Sutton’s Theory, mainly because elites are individualists, each driven by an addiction to money. That is all. Put a bunch in a room, and they will never agree on a single thing. To say that they are a cohesive group with predictable or planned objective, is to say that one can predict the profile of bird-flock behavior. Or that a butterfly flapping its wings here makes weather predictable on the other side of the earth.
It is laws that give elites power and monopoly to control and exploit the masses. You change the laws, you chang the behavior of elites and outcomes. That is all.
A lot of this abstract analysis is nothing more than mumbo jumbo.
Squeeky, thanks.
Annie,
Double Ouch!
Ah phooey, a urinary catheter isn’t all that large. I can insert one in even the most narrowed urethra ( often seen in older men from enlarged prostates). 😉
Annie – practice makes perfect. I do have a funny (peculiar) story about catheters, ICU and my mother. For those of you who have had relatives in ICU, if they are there long enough, they start going a little bonkers as you know. My mother had been in ICU (a ward then) and see decided that the nurses were having sex orgies with the patients. So, she bided her time until the nurses were not looking and escaped from ICU dragging her IV bottles along with her. They caught her on the main floor coming out of the elevator.
We later figured out that they probably had been inserting a catheter in the male patient across from her and in her drugged and unstable mind, decided that an orgy was going on. They decided if she was well-enough to escape, she was well-enough to put in a regular room.
She also told us that while in there the Blessed Virgin had explained the Immaculate Conception to her. But she could not tell us, since she was sworn to secrecy. She took the secret to her grave.
Paul:
If you’re truly interested in the law governing protection of pre-trial detainees, here a primer for you:
http://www.lacba.org/Files/LAL/Vol34No1/2792.pdf
mespo – thanks for the article it was very educational. Not sure this fit the two-prong attack required by the SC.