HAIGHT SPEECH

There’s a lot of commotion in the news lately about the case of Nathaniel Jones. This man became violent outside of a fast food restaurant in Cincinnati, and when police were called, he attacked them. Police subdued him, but he later died in custody. He was found to have an enlarged heart, and was high on PCP and cocaine at the time.

Jones happened to be black, and all but one of the responding police appear to be white (one of the cops was black). Naturally various liberal activists are calling this a “police brutality death”. But I invite you to watch the incident yourself and decide based on the available evidence. The sound level is not too great, but if you turn it way up you can make out some of the verbal exchanges.

You can see a much longer version of the video (although still missing some of the beginning footage that would better illustrate the man’s attack) at the WXIX news page.

Fat guy is passed out on the lawn at the fast food place. EMTs are called, and when he wakes up he becomes combative. Police arrive. Fat guy attacks cops, calling out racist epithets against whites, cops beat him down.

People high on PCP have been known to jump off buildings and keep going even after sustaining significant injuries. Pain doesn’t stop them. Broken bones don’t stop them. If this guy was on PCP and cocaine, and being that he weighed 350 lbs., the cops might as well have tried to handcuff a moving freight train.

Even after they get him down on the ground he is still fighting them. They have to use their weight to keep him pinned and prevent him from getting any leverage to get up and attack them. The batons are used to incapacitate his legs. Reportedly, his physical injuries from the confrontation amounted to bruises on the buttocks, thighs, and calves. He was not struck in the head, or anywhere else inappropriate.

One of the officers who arrives after the fat guy is down sprays him in the face with pepper spray (you can hear this in the conversation as well as see it occurring in the tape). After that the fat guy starts going “ow, ow” because that shit hurts even when you’re on PCP and cocaine. He pretty much stops fighting then, and the cops get up after handcuffing him.

Then at some point it becomes apparent he isn’t breathing, although still has a pulse. Even an otherwise-healthy person will have trouble breathing if they are on their stomach and weigh 350 lbs. Two cops roll him onto his side to help him breathe, and eventually begin administering CPR. The others are standing around because there’s nothing else they can do. It doesn’t take a dozen cops to give CPR (and gets in the way, really).

The EMTs who were originally called to the scene had left, which is what the cops are wondering when they are yelling “where’d he go, where’d they go?”

Then somebody remembers the cruiser camera is still recording, and turns it off since there’s no longer any crime in progress and the suspect has been subdued.

The cops did what they had to do to protect themselves and subdue a violent person who could pose a threat to others if he escaped. I see nothing improper in the cops’ behavior. They had no way of knowing for sure if the guy was high, nor could they know about his enlarged heart or any other health problems he might have. All they knew was that a huge guy was physically assaulting them and refused to obey commands to stay away, and later refused to put his hands behind his back when ordered to do so repeatedly.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2003 at 4:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.