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

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.

  • @samus12345
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    9 months ago

    at least 22 Californians have died while been killed by being held face down by police since 2016

  • Xariphon
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    199 months ago

    So why do so many keep dying?

    Because these deaths are caused by murderous assholes with over-inflated egos and immunity to consequences. ACAB.

  • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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    179 months ago

    Somewhere, a police station has this graph and are celebrating because “yay look y’all, we haven’t killed that many people with our abuse this year! High fives!”

    • @samus12345
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      59 months ago

      I imagine it more like “22?? We need to get those numbers up, people!”

  • @mods_are_assholes
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    29 months ago

    And I can guarantee at least a few of those pigs got erections as they felt the life drain out of their victim.

    Cop darkweb hangouts are just FUCKED

    • @[email protected]
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      39 months ago

      Sorry, what? Gosh. We’re talking regular old cops downloading Tor and heading to something like blueline.onion?

      • @mods_are_assholes
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        9 months ago

        No most of them use clearweb proxies. I mean I understand not everyone understands how the darkweb works but maybe be a little less patronizing on things you don’t know shit about?

        • @[email protected]
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          19 months ago

          Patronizing? Sorry if that’s how I came across. I just haven’t touched anything dark-web related in over a decade and that’s the mental image I get when people bring it up. And it’s hard to get most people that aren’t really into tech to use anything other than Chrome or the preinstalled browser.

          • @[email protected]
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            19 months ago

            Of course, people who make a whole career of “fighting crime” have no idea how to commit crime effectively. /s

            • @[email protected]
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              39 months ago

              I mean, if they’re using web-based proxies which could help a three letter agency get to them… Yeah? Assuming they’re discussing and sharing crap that’s illegal enough to warrant using the TOR network. Why did that first guy get so damn offended? We basically get a weekly video of cops doing stupid shit with their guns, breaking the law left and right and… I’m supposed to think that an organisation which goes out of its way to hire and undertrain dumb bullies is filled with people who would understand and follow the best network security practices?

              There’s obviously going to be a damn difference in technical knowledge between your average “beat up the brown guy” crooked cops and your average cyber crime cops. I’m sure they all saw some “online training” powerpoint presentation telling them to not stick random flash drives in their computers and to not use public wifi hotspots, but beyond that?..

              So yes, I’m still surprised to learn that there’s apparently some actual .onion forum for regular crooked cops out there. I would’ve figured that at most they’d use some signal group chat along with a VPN. Not that I ever gave it a thought, honestly. It’s literally worse than would’ve ever thought. Crooked cops are that self-aware and cover their tracks better than I would’ve thought.

              • prole
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                39 months ago

                Yeah but they’re the cops. They don’t police themselves, and the feds won’t ever do anything.

                • @[email protected]
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                  19 months ago

                  Yeah, probably never. Which does make it weird that they’re taking the trouble to use the TOR network at all… But hey. I’ll always appreciate any thorn in the way of fascists.

          • @mods_are_assholes
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            -59 months ago

            There are other options nowadays that weren’t available a decade ago.

            You can be on TOR within 40 seconds of download and on mobile its even easier.

            And again, clearweb proxies.

            You YOURSELF admit you are a decade out of date yet still arrogant in your ignorance.

                • @[email protected]
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                  59 months ago

                  My dude, you just seemed awfully angry that I implied most cops are too fucking dumb to know their way around a computer… In a thread about police brutality so widespread we’re taking count of how many times cops kill people in specific ways. I really didn’t mean to insult you. I did mean the first part of my last comment, though. Have a good day. And chill a little.

            • prole
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              9 months ago

              You would have to be pretty stupid to use TOR on a phone imo. Not sure how much it matters where the computer is telling them you’re accessing from, when they can use 3 cell phone towers to locate you within a foot or two.

              Unless maybe you’re the hacker girl from Criminal Minds or some shit.

            • @Woht24
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              -19 months ago

              Stop running your mouth and put up a link

              • @mods_are_assholes
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                -49 months ago

                I’m not being complicit in amping their SEO, there are literally a dozen tor search engines that will get you there in 2 mins.

  • crossmr
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    -649 months ago

    It’s interesting how much attention an average of about 2.5 deaths per year is getting.

    https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-106shrg57118/html/CHRG-106shrg57118.htm

    Last year, NAMI members in Connecticut played a critical role in
    getting the Hartford Courant to investigate the use of restraint in
    psychiatric facilities–which led to publication of the series that
    documented 142 actual deaths around the country over a decade and that
    commissioned a Harvard University report that estimated between 50 and
    150 deaths annually as a result of restraint.

    https://www.agendaalliance.org/news/32-women-die-after-being-restrained/

    Thirty two women died after experiencing restraint over a five year period

    Reality is that medical ‘professionals’ kill more people a year via restraints than any accounting of unjustified police shootings do. I wonder why we don’t see any protests there.

    • @Potatos_are_not_friends
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      399 months ago
      1. Whataboutism

      2. The amount of people who should be dead from this is zero. Full stop.

    • @Odelay42
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      399 months ago

      You could have said, “that’s unjustifiable. It’s also reprehensible how many so-called medical professionals kill people with dangerous and negligent restraint practices too.”

      • @[email protected]
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        -209 months ago

        I think his point is that there’s a lot of protest against the police for this practice, while apparently they’re relatively careful with it.

        There’s talk about some calls being answered by other jobs than the cops but these numbers suggest that could result in more deaths

        And yes if you need to hear it on repeat people being killed is bad

        • @Odelay42
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          9 months ago

          Fuck the police. They are not careful. Any number of murders by the police is too many. Any number of murders by healthcare workers is too many. We do not have to tolerate one to condemn the other.

          • @[email protected]
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            -39 months ago

            Can you name a job that is more careful when restraining adults? That’s the point this poster was making.

            Try launching the slogan Fuck healthcare workers and see how much support you get

          • crossmr
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            -39 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
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              49 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
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                -39 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.

            • prole
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              19 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.

    • Flying Squid
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      249 months ago

      How many deaths per year would be unacceptable to you? Can you give us a number?

    • the post of tom joad
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      119 months ago

      i know i’m probably wasting my breath, but is there something the police could do that you wouldn’t defend?

    • GladiusB
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      59 months ago

      Medical professionals have the risk of keeping them alive. Not just detaining them.

      • @Woht24
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        09 months ago

        This entire thread is. There hasn’t been a reasonable thought on the internet about the police that hasn’t been blasted by both extremes for the last 5 years or more.

        I genuinely think the people who can’t shut the fuck up about hating the police are the ones who want and need them the most, they are like abused spouses.