Re: No Indictment in Chokehold Death
Finally saw the video...
It...it made no sense to me. It only makes sense if the one I watched was some how out of sync with the video and audio.
I see cop in a shirt with "99" on it get the guy in a choke hold and bring him to the ground.
On the ground I hear Garner saying "I can't breath" (which is an indication he CAN breath, but definitely sounds like his breathing intake is significantly impaired)
I see number 99 now STANDING UP, with both hands on the guys head, as the guy is saying the above statement.
I haven't been following this really closely, but I was under the impression from everything I heard people say that the guy was dropped unconscious and eventually died from a choke hold, but he was clearly still conscious and breathing after the choke had been released.
Was the issue actually that the trachea was significantly damaged, impairing his ability to significantly intake breath and that compounded with his asthma led to eventual unconsciousness and death? Did the autopsy show damage to the trachea or some other portion of the body relevant to the intake of breath? Because right now I"m exceedingly confused.
Damage to the trachea is about the only thing that would make sense. That + four people putting significant pressure on the guy on the ground + asthma + being out of shape would explain the eventual unconsciousness and death. But I just kept getting the impression he actually went unconscious and died while IN the choke. But I may just have misunderstood having not followed this closely.
How a chokehold works has been posted a number of times. Here's a short version.
A chockhold does NOT cut off breathing to the lungs. It significantly reduces blood flow to the brain (but not entirely). The brain for its size uses more oxygen (by far) than any other organ - and is most quickly damaged (permanently) without oxygen.
It is within our DNA/design that if blood flow
(meaning oxygen flow) to the brain is reduced the brain will immediately start shutting down other organs and the rest of the body. It will turn down muscles (which use a lot of oxygen) - which is why the person goes limp. But the lungs and heart also are muscles. So the heart rate is dramatically cut as is breathing.
Adding he was on his stomach - so his own weight making breathing difficult - and someone on his back too - the result would be his "I can't breathe, I can't breathe." NOT because he couldn't get air to his lungs, but because his brain was turning off his lungs and heart, plus the weight strain. With his breathing cut as much as 75% and heart pumping 1/4th as much blood (oxygen), he literally was coming to be unable to breath.
Breathing was becoming difficult to impossible because his brain was saving it self. Muscles can go a quarter hour or more with zero oxygen. The heart can go quite a while too and still be revived, but the brain can't.
Now here is what killed him - exactly. When the officer released his hold and blood flow restored? His brain then would tell the heart and lungs to go into hyper-drive to get that oxygen. His blood pressure and heart rate would have gone off the charts - and that's why he had a heart attack. The effect of the release would have been similar to sticking a taser in the center of his heart. An comparison is sometimes and old shopkeeper will chase after a shoplifter and drop dead of a heart attack as his heart is just too weak.
It is unfortunate EMS didn't try to do CPR because in that situation it likely would have saved him. As an analogy, his heart had a "charley horse" and froze up. If it had manually been pumped (CPS) it likely would have relaxed and started going again.
Anyway, when people say he couldn't be unable to breathe because he could speak that simply isn't how it works. The chocking was of blood to his brain, not air to his lungs, and for this his brain was shutting down his heart and lungs to save the brain. The chockhold in this way also has the brain shut down the person's muscles
(why the person quickly can't struggle - why police used to like it much - until it known it was killing people), but that also is why it is so dangerous - particularly to children, older folks, overweight people and people in poor physical condition.
That also is why it has been banned to law enforcement for quite some time. It will kill people with health weakness or issues - regardless of intentions. It also will if held too long and until advances in autopsies was a way to murder someone making it look like heart attack. For his weight, age and overall size, plus on his chest with someone on his back, his death if put into a chockhold all but a certainty.
(I guess this wasn't so short, but his able to speak therefore was not being "chocked" is misinformation about this - though out of lack of knowledge).