Chicago cop tasered unconscious diabetic 11 times

[slackjawed]

Once, about 4 years ago, I went to UC Davis in Roseville Ca for testing. I have a tumor in my pancreas that causes diabetic symptoms. I didn't know it then.
I walked to the medical center, it was only about a mile and a half from my home. The testing didn't go well, I passed ouyt from hypoglycemia. Being the stubborn guy I am, I refused to be transported to the hospital once I regained conciousness. I was walking home and it hit me again, laid me out right on the sidewalk. A city cop came by, and not knowing what was up, started to slap me and poke me, trying to wake me up. Whether he checked my pockets, or whether it just fell out, I don't know, but once he saw my glucose meter and glucago pen he jabbed me and woke me up. He then tried to take me to the hospital, but I wouldn't go. Since I would not go to the hospital, he took me to a restaurant and made sure I ate. We had lunch together.
It didn't make the news, but that police officer helped me out. Yeah, he left a few red slap marks and one bruise, but hey, it's better than being permanently dead. I thanked him. I even went to the station and told the chief about it. He thought I was complaining, I had to correct him-I wasn't complaining.
Cops have a tough job. I am willing to cut this one some slack, even though it could have happened to me. I didn't get tasered, but I could see it happening if I had hit him, even accidently. Those guys never know what they are facing, and it's really easy to judge someone based on hindsight.
BTW- I am not fat either, I have trouble keeping maintaining weight.

 

[xotoxi]

This should be illegal.

 

[Father Time]

Once, about 4 years ago, I went to UC Davis in Roseville Ca for testing. I have a tumor in my pancreas that causes diabetic symptoms. I didn't know it then.
I walked to the medical center, it was only about a mile and a half from my home. The testing didn't go well, I passed ouyt from hypoglycemia. Being the stubborn guy I am, I refused to be transported to the hospital once I regained conciousness. I was walking home and it hit me again, laid me out right on the sidewalk. A city cop came by, and not knowing what was up, started to slap me and poke me, trying to wake me up. Whether he checked my pockets, or whether it just fell out, I don't know, but once he saw my glucose meter and glucago pen he jabbed me and woke me up. He then tried to take me to the hospital, but I wouldn't go. Since I would not go to the hospital, he took me to a restaurant and made sure I ate. We had lunch together.
It didn't make the news, but that police officer helped me out. Yeah, he left a few red slap marks and one bruise, but hey, it's better than being permanently dead. I thanked him. I even went to the station and told the chief about it. He thought I was complaining, I had to correct him-I wasn't complaining.
Cops have a tough job. I am willing to cut this one some slack, even though it could have happened to me. I didn't get tasered, but I could see it happening if I had hit him, even accidently. Those guys never know what they are facing, and it's really easy to judge someone based on hindsight.
BTW- I am not fat either, I have trouble keeping maintaining weight.

Thank you for sharing that story.

I'll cut him some slack, but still 11 times? I can't think of a scenario where it would be necessary to taze someone that much.

 

[slackjawed]

I think 11 times is excessive myself, but......I know when I have been in that shape what happens doesn't make sense. One other time I was in a hypo mode I woke up with my hand through the bedroom wall. I must have done it, but have no memory of punching the wall, just repairing the hole. If the cop could not figure out what was happening it could have scared the shit out of him. One has to factor that into it. Analyzing what happened at the time is easy to do without the 'stress of the moment'.
There are no winners in this story.

 

[Diuretic]

There are a couple of issues here and the thread has canvassed them but slackjawed's points dredged up an old memory of mine.

I was a very young copper, this was in my first year in the job and I was partnered with a friend of mine who was only a couple of months junior to me.

We were on night shift (2300-0730) it was about 2 am or something like that, downtown in a bit of a seedy area that used to be quite pleasant many years before but which was run down (now been revitalised – as I said, this was nearly forty years ago).

We got a job to attend a street corner in the city where a homeless man was waiting for us.

Now the practice in those days was to – if the homeless person was sober – to lock them up for vagrancy so they could get food and a bath and care if necessary, primitive but effective. Anyway we found this bloke by a phone box and he was babbling about his mate dying. As luck would have it neither my partner nor I had a torch! I know, I know, but things were a bit amateurish back then.

The bloke takes us for a walk down the street and through some ruined houses that were once quite lovely, big houses. We're stumbling around in the darkness (no torch – sorry, “flashlight&#8221 and the bloke who met us is walking in front of us trying to find his mate.

We go into some old stables at the back of one of these big houses and we can hear this bloke squawking in the darkness. Neither my partner nor I smoked so we didn't even have a box of matches to try and see what was happening. In the gloom I could see this poor bastard lying on his back on an old mattress, groaning and moaning and shaking like he has St Vitus Dance or something.

Me and my partner just about crapped our pants.

Here was this poor bastard dying and there was nothing this pair of twenty-year old coppers could do for him.

I volunteered (being the senior bloke) to go back to the car and call for an ambulance. I just about broke my bloody neck several times but I got to the car and called for an ambulance.

I waited by the police car to meet the ambulance officers who in those days were volunteers who worked nights when the regular officers only worked days. The ambulance rocked up and I briefed the two ambulance blokes and walked with them back through the building to the stables. They had a torch/flashlight so it was easier to get back.

Anyway the three of us find the dying bloke with my partner and the dying bloke's mate and the two of them were kneeling beside the dying bloke trying to comfort him.

As I said before, at this stage I am just about crapping myself. To my horror the two ambulance blokes start pissing themselves laughing!

I round on them and ask what's so fucking funny?

One of the ambulance blokes pauses just long enough to ask if I'd ever seen someone suffering an epileptic fit. As a matter of fact, I told him, trying desperately to save face, I hadn't.

The two ambulance blokes go off and get a stretcher, still laughing their guts out, and take the epileptic homeless man to hospital.

Meanwhile me and my partner are stuck with the homeless bloke.

The three of us looked at each other. We decided the homeless bloke couldn't camp there by himself so we locked him up for vagrancy. Poor bastard hadn't eaten all day and the city watchhouse (city jail) wasn't going to feed him at 0200 so we slid by the pie cart on the way in and got him some food. We had to wait outside the watchhouse while he finished his dinner and we could take him in to be lodged in the cells.

What's my point? Well, there's a couple.

One is that, believe it or not, some cops aren't well trained in identifying people suffering from common diseases. I bet this copper who went postal with the ECD hasn't been trained to identify a diabetic suffering from hypoglycaemia (it can look like a heart attack and people can and do lose consciousness and die). Given the physical danger that cops in North America are in most of the time they're at work and I reckon he panicked, completely misread the situation and went for the ECD instead of using normal hands on methods.

That's my second point.

Too many cops are going for the ECD when it's not necessary. I'll get criticised for that from other cops who can show good reasons why I'm wrong but I don't give a toss. This dinosaur is entitled to his roar.