Overweight Asthmatic Tased to Death in Home Raid by Cops Looking for Cocaine (That They Don't Seem to Find)

It's another dangerous day at life for American citizens as they encounter our hard-working police, from a Dallas-Fort Worth CBS Local report:

Relatives of a man who was killed after police entered his home and tased him are struggling to come to terms with how he died.

"They physically pulled him off the couch because, like I said, he was asleep. They pulled him off the couch and they tried to put him on his stomach. He can't breathe on his stomach. He don't even lie on the bed on his stomach," said Donna Randle, the mother of victim Jarmaine Darden, 34.

Zero tolerance officers were executing a search warrant at his southeast Fort Worth house on May 16, searching for cocaine, when according to police reports the incident happened. The same report states that Darden resisted arrest.

But family members said the 350 pound father of two was a chronic asthmatic and had to sleep sitting up.

"He had his hands behind his back the whole time. But me and about five other people were hollering the whole time, 'He cannot breathe like that. Please handcuff him on his side,'" said Randle.

Darden's brother said the officer warned his brother that if he didn't get on his stomach, they were going to to taze him… and then they did. That's when Darden started having trouble breathing, according to his brother Eric.

Witnesses said Darden was shocked with a taser at least twice; then stopped breathing and died.

Police records show five arrests were made but there isn't any mention of police finding cocaine.

Darden was the father of two teenage sons. Was.

Reason TV on the lethality of tasers:

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

It sounds like no officers were hurt, so all’s well that ends well.

[WTF]

Well, officer safety is the most important thing. The King’s Men need to go home to their families at night, regardless of the danger to the peasants.

[CE]

How many arrests were made for murdering an unarmed man who wasn’t resisting arrest?

[robc]

Tasers should only be used in situations in which shooting the perp would be acceptable.

Period. End of story.

Any police department with different allowable standards is wrong.

[Fist of Etiquette]

It’s a compliance tool for a good many if not most departments.

[robc]

It was sold as a slightly less lethal replacement for close distance shooting.

It should still be that.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Have you seen the level of physical fitness of your average law enforcement officer? Before the taser if they could have gotten away with putting bullets in people rather than having to overly exert themselves, they would have.

I’ve talk to law enforcement people and while some of them don’t like it, the claim is that the taser is better than the nightstick.

[Auric Demonocles]

Succinct but perfect.

[Jerryskids]

Funny, but years ago I seem to recall that was the justification for tasers. A less-lethal use of force where lethal use of force was justified.

[robc]

Exactly, that is why I think they should stick to that standard.

Because, as has been made clear, its only a less-lethal weapon, not a non-lethal one.

[sarcasmic]

It is a torture device to be used whenever an officer feels disrespected.

[sarcasmic]

Until the cops discovered how much fun it is to make people kibby out on the floor.

[LTC(ret) John]

RIDE THE LIGHTNING!

[Rrabbit]

Works like this:

Somebody does not follow an officer’s orders. The officer then “feels threatened”.

Apparently LEOs are not required to understand the difference between “I feel threatened because I am a coward”
and really being threatened.

[sloopyinca]

Apparently LEOs are not required to understand the difference between “I feel threatened because I am a coward”
and really being threatened.

When you are able to contractually negotiate away common sense and decency, you can get away with anything.

[Duke]

Don’t taunt Tulpa Rrabbit!

[sarcasmic]

Procedures were followed. Nothing else happened.

[WTF]

Waiting for dunphy to educate us about force continuum, totality of the circs, etc.

[Lord Humungus]

The tasers that shoot out the wires – can they actually get through a thick layer of clothing? If so, isn’t it potentially dangerous to be firing high velocity needles at people? – electricity aside. Just thinking potential eye damage or any other *ahem* delicate body part.

[niobiumstudio]

Yeah – they go through thick clothing. They also have barbs on the needles to hold them in while you are writhing around on the floor. A lot of people end up at the hospital having the barbs removed surgically. Just google a picture of the x26 barbs.

[Anders]

Was Jarmaine actually just a 350 lb morbidly obese fatbody? Just a victim of the evil predators who force people to eat 10,000 calories a day with their Big Gulps and their Supersized hamburgers?

Or a more powerful 350lb lineman gone to seed?

[RBS]

I see, just another “incident” that “happened.”

[RBS]

I can’t think of quicker way to piss off some authoritarian fuck stain than sleeping through his orders.

[some guy]

At least they aren’t trying to claim that he was already dead when they arrived.

[sloopyinca]

i love the bigorati jumping to conclusions. none of you know the totality of the circumstances or what the officers were going through. they have to make snap decisions in hostile and often volatile situations and have a right to go home to their families. they were legally executing a warrant, and it is up to the pos to comply or be subject to the force continuum that has been codified or set by departmental policy.

you people ought to just do the job for one day that these officers have to do every day. you would undoubtedly have a greater respect for them and would most likely become advocates for a stronger police force. but instead all you do is complain when a cop, likely fearing for his life, has to make an immobile 350 lb man ride the lightning. for all the cop knew, he could have had a tec-9 hiding in his fat rolls.

fortunately, these cops have the support of their sheriff, their community and a strong union to defend their perfectly legal, nay righteous, actions against narrow-minded bigots like you.

hth

[RBS]

+15 working class heroes.

[Mainer2]

yawn!

Troll-o-meter -.01

smooches

[WTF]

Well done, sir, well done.

[Auric Demonocles]

Just needs one more random acronym in the middle, and a single word mysteriously capitalized (but not at the start of a sentence) and I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

[Duke]

I almost panicked until I got to the very end. Crisis averted.

[LTC(ret) John]

sloopy, how is our bet going on the Western Conference? I forgot the finalists you had proposed. All I can remember is if the Blackhawks make it, you give $10 to Reason Foundation, if it was ? and ?? I do.

[sloopyinca]

Well, I had said it would be Detroit vs San Jose. I guess we’ll all know in 33 hours.

Although in retrospect, I should have gotten long odds on that since they were the 6 and 7 seeds.

[croaker]

Obvious coptroll is obvious.

I couldn’t be a police officer: I score too high on the intelligence test.

[The Late P Brooks]

Zero tolerance officers were executing a search warrant at his southeast Fort Worth house on May 16

What

the

fuck?

[sloopyinca]

Why do you want the drug dealers to win, Mr Brooks?

[UnCivilServant]

The drug dealers are nicer than the cops.

[sarcasmic]

Obey or die.

[JW]

They have zero tolerance for failure to immediately obey every fucking order.

They just won’t stand for it.

[some guy]

Can’t obey because you’re asleep, incoherent or in the middle of a cardiac arrest? That’s your problem.

[Michael]

I was about to comment with this exact question when I saw yours. What the fuck, indeed.

[The Late P Brooks]

Banana republic death squads.

WE HAZ DEM.

[Anders]

The poor man who was tortured to death will be the new Abu Mumia.

The Dead Version.

[SugarFree]

Well, he probably smoked marijuana at some point and talked about it on Facebook, so good thing the officers put that rabid animal down.

[Duke]

Title of article is “Man Dies After Police Tase Him; Family Puzzled.” I’d venture that the family was a bit more than puzzled.

I lived in Ft. Worth once. I’ll never forget the cop standing around the patio bar at some place downtown literally waiting with baited breath for 2 am to come around. Once the clock struck 1:55, the cop started yelling “everyone put the alcohol down bar’s closed!” Being from Louisiana, I was aghast.

[some guy]

At 1:55 he should have been yelling “Chug, Chug, Chug!”

[anarch]

bated breath

[Paul.]

Procedures were followed…

[Zeb]

Everyone who is not opposed to drug prohibition is complicit in this guy’s murder. And millions of others. That’s my new line on the WOD and I’m sticking with it. You think legalizing pot is OK, but cocaine goes a bit too far? You are a fucking murderer.

[Paul.]

Be careful, the gun controllers have used this strategy for years and as of late, they’re losing.

[some guy]

The difference is that the gun controllers are wrong, but Zeb is right. And good always prevails, doesn’t it?

[sloopyinca]

And good always prevails, doesn’t it?

Not according to Dark Helmet

[ant1sthenes]

Eh, if you end the WOD, the cops will find another excuse to go into people’s houses and execute them. Evildoers gonna do evil.

[sarcasmic]

I’m not so sure. There really isn’t that much real crime (as in crime with actual victims and stuff) to justify the police state that we live under. Absent the war on drug users, I think most police departments could safely cut their staff by fifty percent.

[Zeb]

That’s my thinking. And why I tell people who think that the drug war is a minor issue that only drug users woudl care about to fuck off.

And it’s not just the police killings, it’s all the drug war related killing, which properly includes all the gang and drug cartel murders related to drug trafficking.

[sarcasmic]

“Oh my God! Drugs are bad! What do you mean legalize them? You want everyone to do drugs! You’re fucking crazy!”

“Er, uh, no? Remember that thing called Prohibition, and the violence and corruption it created?”

“Yeah, but, but, but… Drugs are bad!”

There’s just no getting through to some people.

[Hyperion]

Drugs kill! This is just more proof. Add another death to the drug related death statistics.

If not for those brave officers, that guy could have hurt himself with drugs!

[ToiletsonIce]

They were clearly there to protect and serve.

[JeremyR]

So how come cops never use tasers on dogs? They always have to shoot them.

[ToiletsonIce]

They always come into contact with dogs actively barking at them. Now, if they encountered a sleeping, obese, asthmatic dog…ooh, what fun!