Thread: Suspect puts drugs in his mouth; cop breaks his neck

Originally Posted by djwolford

Well it's not like he intently broke the guy's neck. It's still his job to protect the guy to the best of his ability, so yeah he failed to do that but it could be argued that he should at least try to keep him from swallowing whatever he had. The same could be said if the cop knew that it was drugs, the dude could have easily swallowed a greater than lethal amount and died.

so officers should use potentially lethal force to prevent the unconfirmed suspicion that someone might try to hurt themselves. lol.

Originally Posted by djwolford

Edit - As far as a razor in the mouth goes, the cop still didn't have his hands so there was still the possibility that the guy would reach for it and then it becomes a threat again. Like I've been saying I don't blame him for not taking chances with a strung out guy who is acting crazy. I see stories on the news on an almost daily basis about some drugged up idiot killing a cop, and I'm glad that this didn't wind up being another one.

if the cop thought he was in danger because of what was in the meth user's hand, he could have pulled a gun on him and commanded him out of the car and on to the ground until backup arrived. it's that simple. his actions had nothing to do with "not wanting to risk injury/take chances" as the choke hold was performed to extract the drugs from his mouth, not to prevent injury (which choke holds fail marvelously at assuming blades are present, as i'm certain syme would agree)

my PoV on this issue is consistent with the majority of law enforcement's on speeding bikes in that if you stop the driver, you'll kill him. and unless he's putting other people in direct danger, his breaking the law does not warrant death by the government's hand.

the same applies to this--the drugs in his mouth did not warrant life threatening action as he was not putting anybody in direct danger. if he did indeed have a razor, like i said before, the cop should've taken a more intelligent course of action.

edit: still didnt watch the video suck it