Anatomy of a death: So little known, so much misunderstood
My first "love letter" on my blogging on the Martin Gaspar Pablo situation is here and as usual, is unsigned. My response is at Craigslist as well. It actually took a longer time to receive one than I thought it would have, given the volume of visits to this site since the news came out on the Pablo incident.
The RPD's press release on Pablo incident
Another blogger wrote that "law-abiding citizens" never have problems with the police and if someone does, then they must not be law-abiding. But that's not always the case and many notable exceptions to that person's tenet include individuals who are mentally ill, medically ill or physically, cognitively or mentally disabled. Schizophrenia (especially its paranoid form), Epilepsy, Autism, deafness, severe clinical depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (especially common in cases involving military veterans), insulin shock, senile dementia and other conditions are only a few of those that can cause people to have negative interactions with the police in part because many law enforcement agencies don't have the best training for officers to interface with these individuals and some of the training they do receive can actually do more harm than good in these types of situations because these individuals either can't respond or even understand or hear or they feel that the officers (if they recognize them as such) are being hostile even when they're not.
What if you are parenting an autistic child who grows into a teenager and this teenager decides to lie in the middle of a street endangering themselves and others without really being aware of that? How will that teenager respond if police try to remove him or her? The teenager may not be intoxicated, they probably aren't a criminal (even if blocking the street itself is illegal) but they may have force used against them to remove them from the street which could cause injuries particularly if they're not aware or cognizant of what is being done to them and by who. Criminals including violent criminals might physically resist police officers, but so might mentally and medically ill individuals because they don't realize completely or at all what's going on and they feel disoriented or even threatened by actions taken by police officers especially if they involve the use of aggressive tactics or force.
If a Schizophrenic person is hearing voices which sound real to him or her, can this person even hear police officers issuing him or her orders and if they can't, how can they respond? And if a Schizophrenic person's actions are to withdraw from that officer, and that officer or officers corner him or her, how will this individual respond? If a Schizophrenic individual experiences delusions of persecution where law enforcement officers are the focus of those delusions, how does an officer's actions impact what happens in that situation especially if the officer doesn't know that he or she by their appearance is the focus of those delusions?
One out of every nine hospital beds is filled by Schizophrenics. One out of every nine contacts an officer has is with someone who's mentally ill and in future years, that could become one out of every five especially if there's a loss of beds at mental health facilities due to budget cuts especially at the county and state level. People in the mental health profession have told me that when these budgets are cut, mental health facilities, programs and staffing is among the first services cut. This places a greater burden on the public systems including public safety and the greater the burden, the greater number of incidents there will be. It's also very difficult on mentally ill individuals and their families who might be their primary caregivers.
Often mentally ill individuals who can't afford medications or get medical treatment for their conditions self-medicate with alcohol, legal or illegal drugs, which complicates their medical conditions even further as it does their behavior. If you talk to individuals who are mentally ill or you've listened to mental health panels including those produced by NAMI (National Alliance on Mentally Ill) or the Jefferson Wellness Center (which provides such a panel for the Riverside Police Department's own training sessions), this aspect of dealing with mental illness really comes to light and the lines between mental illnesses and alcohol and drug use start to blur.
Pablo was assumed to be two things by one blogger, a criminal and a drug addict under the influence of a substance. What is known about Pablo's criminal record is that in 1996, he had a traffic misdemeanor for being an unlicensed driver and he was charged with public intoxication. Except for an outstanding warrant on the latter case, there's been no other criminal charges filed either in Riverside or San Bernardino County according to online records. His known criminal record including his intoxication charge is 12 years old. It's very easy to assume that because a person once had a public intoxication charge that this automatically means that they must be intoxicated now. But that's not always a correct assumption.
Not too long ago, there was a Riverside Police Department officer who had a blood alcohol level of above .20 (according to a Corona Police Departement sergeant) and crashed into two vehicles in 2004 while offduty and was arrested by Corona Police Department officers. That was four years ago and yet how many people would assume that this individual was still getting intoxicated and driving that way? Would that automatically be true? No, of course not. It would depend on other factors related to the intoxication or the DUI that like in the case of Pablo, not much is known about. Does it mean in the case of Pablo that he wasn't intoxicated? No, what it does mean is that it's too early to assume that because he was in 1996, he was on the last day of his life.
And why was he knocking on someone's back door? It could have been for a variety of reasons including that he might have been looking for help if he was in distress. I had the experience of waking up one night and having a drunken college student banging on my door because he thought he was someone else. He actually claimed to be a police officer and when I asked him for I.D. to show, he displayed his driver's license and started chanting something about "hell and damnation" for me and that I needed to surrender my soul to God. He had wandered off and away by the time police officers arrived.
On the other hand I've also woken up and seen people trying to get in my window and I doubt they tried to knock or bang on the door first to alert me as to what they were doing because they most likely wanted the element of surprise. Whoever called the police was justifiably frightened by Pablo's behavior and according to the department's press release, nine minutes later, the police arrived and found him sitting near a residence. It's not known how the handcuffing took place or how much force was used, particularly if any restraints including the carotid restraint or arm bar take down in particular were attempted or done. In the Terry Rabb case below, officers had attempted a carotid restraint with him, information not disclosed publicly early on in that case.
As far as Pablo being out there "looking for trouble", information provided through the department's own press release linked earlier in this posting indicates that police officers on the scene had determined that he wasn't committing any serious crimes if any crimes at all and that instead he was suffering medical distress. It's possible that if he was very disoriented, didn't know where he was and he could have been summoning help if he were desperately ill and his illness could have impacted his mental or cognitive state and reduced his ability to summon assistance in a more easily understood and less frightning way.
So as stated, the officers called for medical assistance for Pablo and he was unhandcuffed when paramedics arrived. But died within one hour of being transported to the hospital.
The Terry Rabb incustody death case is a good example of how a person who's not knowingly committing a crime can still have a negative experience with police officers who were sent out to his home after a 911 call had been made that he was acting crazy, disoriented and tearing things up in his apartment.
Yet, Rabb was not committing a crime when police were dispatched to his home. He was suffering from what's called hypoglycemic unawareness , which happens in diabetics either when their insulin levels are too high or their glucose levels in their blood stream is too low. In Rabb, he had a glucose level of about 20, which diabetics have told me is extremely low. This cause people to be very confused, disoriented and unable to determine what their blood sugar levels are in order to make the proper adjustments (i.e. ingesting fruit juice or corn syrup to counteract an insulin overdose). They become agitated because of this confusion and sometimes act out in emotional and physical ways. Having known diabetics, I've seen the confusion that comes with this condition and on several occasions, had to assist them as they had taught me to do if they were going into insulin shock. People who are experiencing this may act like they are mentally ill and might be believed to be so for people not familiar with them or their medical condition.
Diabetics describe "hypoglycemic unawareness" as being confusing, disorienting and sometimes causing them to feel disassociated or detached from what they are doing and what's going on around them.
Rabb's friends called 9-11 for medical help and it was dispatched as a diabetic and medical crisis to both EMTs and police officers. The police officers drove to the scene to assist the EMTs with a potentially physically combative individual, in part due to policies practiced by paramedics that they are limited in restraining patients.
Terry Rabb died at a hospital after going into cardiac arrest in his own home. Before he went into his fatal cardiac arrest while seated handcuffed on the floor with his back resting against his sofa,
an officer had used a carotid restraint on Rabb, his body on top of Rabb's back while his face was pushed into the sofa cushions on the couch. Some medical experts have serious reservations of whether or not the carotid restraint is safe to use on individuals who are diabetic, have severe hypertension or severe coronary artery disease.
But despite the fact that the call had been broadcast to the officers as a medical distress call (and the CAD sheet for the incident clearly stated this) and the paramedics believed Rabb to be suffering from "hypoglycemic unawareness", one officer was alleged (by Rabb's friend who made the 911 call) to had made statements when he arrived that Rabb was actually on drugs and specifically mentioned crack cocaine and heroin. Rabb tested negative for both substances in his toxicology panels.
Despite the fact that these allegations were made, there's no indication in the officers' interview statements to the Officer-Involved Death Team that they were asked whether or not they made or heard made these alleged statements.
Further information on Rabb:
Terry Rabb public report
Oct. 12, 2005 RPD briefing on Terry Rabb
The police department was well aware that it was having problems with how its police officers were interfacing with the mentally ill and medically ill in Riverside and that some of these problems interlinked with how the officers used force including in an incident that took place in 2004 that was detailed by an anonymous individual on this blog. The monitor who oversaw the implementation of the stipulated judgment's mandated reforms knew this and recommended that they implement a crisis intervention program to address this issue. It is an action being taken by more and more city and county law enforcement agencies across the country since Memphis Police Department pioneered its program in 1988.
Chief Russ Leach told community leaders at different forums including a meeting of the Group not long after the fatal shooting death of Lee Deante Brown (who was paranoid Schizophrenic) in April 2006 that the department needed this program and training and he asked for the community's support in that endeavor.
The department implemented this training and mobile unit program and had it certified through Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) by summer 2007. It began its 30 hour training classes just before that and will have every police officer, dispatcher and "front-line" employee in the department trained by December 2008. The agency realized that this was important, embraced it for the most part and are now inviting other agencies to check out the program so they can take it back to their own departments. The pilot mobile unit program was to start July 1 and be fully funded by a "starter's" grant for one fiscal year.
Having audited the 30 hour training program earlier this year, it was interesting what experts from both mental health, working with homeless and police officers had to say about interfacing with the mentally ill. There were also explanations by various instructors including those who were mentally ill and had been treated themselves about why various police tactics that are often used can be counterproductive or even dangerous when used with mentally or medically ill individuals.
It seems to have gotten a positive response from officers and county mental health people and the department has said that the relationship between the two agencies has greatly improved. Hopefully, more growth in this process can continue to take place. It's important for this to happen as the interactions between the mentally and medically ill and law enforcement officers will most likely increase in the future.
Will Riverside's assistant city manager Michael Beck leave this town to take a job in Pasadena? Everyone will have to wait and see.
Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco resurfaced from the blistering criticism he received from the Press Enterprise Editorial Board and responds. Even though after issuing a press release through his public information division, he hadn't responded to phone calls from the newspaper's reporters asking him to elaborate further on the issue of the Riverside Police Department's enforcement of the permanent gang injunction against Eastside Riva and apparently he had not communicated with Leach on this issue. But he's come forward in writing on this date.
(excerpt)
While some progress is being made, this is not the kind of "balance" that I, or the men and women of the district attorney's office, can accept.
We have a long history of working with local, state and federal law enforcement, but we are prepared to go it alone if necessary. The stakes are too high to ignore our duty.
We will never be content with this level of violence, even if the fulfillment of our responsibility brings unfair criticism. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, "The true measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
I would rather be at the center of controversy protecting people from being victimized by gang members than be comfortable while they are terrorized. It is a simple choice.
It's unfortunate that Pacheco invoked the name of Anthony Sweat because the D.A.'s office sat on DNA samples in connection with that case for 18 months and even after it was known these tests exonerated the two men arrested in connection with that murder. They were in jail for four years and it wasn't until the eve of trial that the DNA results were released and so were these two men because there was no match to DNA samples extracted from evidence gathered. Two other unidentified individuals who were tested in a group of suspected gang members yielded positive results, according to their defense attorneys. But have any criminal charges been filed by the D.A.'s office in connection with these two individuals who allegedly yielded positive DNA test results? Will Sweat's killers ever be found and prosecuted by Pacheco's office? And did the D.A.'s office take the time to really explain to Sweat's family including his mother why charges had to be dismissed against the two defendants? Not really, because that explanation was left for other people to provide for them.
Here are the court minutes taken the day the case was dropped and there's more information about what happened here.
Case RIF104782 Defendant 785806 ELLIOTT, CASTANEDA FRANCO
Action: Jury Trial In-Progress Date: 05/31/2006 Time: 9:00 AM
Division: 54 Hearing Status: DISPOSED
HONORABLE RICHARD T. FIELDS PRESIDING.
COURTROOM ASSISTANT: TK-T. KOENIG
COURT REPORTER: TC-T. CASAL
PEOPLE REPRESENTED BY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY J. MOLLOY.
DEFENDANT REPRESENTED BY DPD-A. VIERRA.
DEFENDANT PRESENT.
12TH DAY OF TRIAL
AT 10:23, THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDINGS WERE HELD:
**************NOTICE TO JAIL******************
WITNESSES HECTOR PEREZ/TONNELL LOVE/MARIO SANCHEZ
AND RICARDO BARBARIN ARE ORDERED TRANSPORTED
BACK TO STATE PRISON TO COMPLETE THEIR
PROSPECTIVE SENTENCES
ORAL MOTION BY PEOPLE REGARDING DISMISS PURSUANT TO 1385 PC IS CALLED FOR HEARING.
MOTION GRANTED
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) 1H IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 6 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 5 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 4 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 3 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 2 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SR IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 1 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
DEFENDANT RELEASED.
ALL EXHIBIT(S) ARE RETURNED TO PEOPLE/DEFENSE.
******************NOTICE TO JAIL******************
ORDER COMMANDING THE SHERIFF TO HOLD WITNESS
MARIO SANCHEZ IS RELEASED
ORDER COMMANDING THE SHERIFF TO HOLD WITNESS
TONNELL LOVE IS RELEASED
CLOSE CASE.
CLOSE CASE.
AT 11:15, THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDINGS WERE HELD:
****************AMENDED ORDER TO JAIL************
PLEASE DONT TRANSPORT MARIO SANCHEZ BACK TO
STATE PRISON UNTIL FURTHER ORDER OF THE COURT
CLOSE CASE.
Castaneda's arrest records were sealed and destroyed after a hearing in July 2008.
A claim has been filed in connection with the death of a tribal member of Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians who was shot by Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies.
In Los Angeles, a park was dedicated that will be named after LAPD SWAT officer, Randal D. Simmons who was killed in the line of duty earlier this year. When he was alive, Simmons was involved in neighborhood youth programs through his church in Los Angeles and was fairly well-known for his activism.
People in Inglewood are upset at language that would establish civilian oversight there.
INGLEWOOD NEEDS AN ELECTED CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARD
The current Inglewood City Ordinance establishing a "Citizen Police Oversight Commission" is a sham, a hoax and an attempt to deceive and defraud the people of Inglewood.
The Ordinance claims to establish an "Independent Investigator" but examination of the Ordinance reveals that the so called "Independent Investigator" is required to be a Captain in the Inglewood Police Department and that he (or she) reports to and is supervised by the City Administrative Officer.
The "Oversight Commission" can recommend prosecution of problem police officers but only if the Inglewood City Attorney approves such recommendations.
The "Oversight Commission" can recommend disciplinary action against problem police officers but again only if the City Administrative Office agrees and the City Administrative Office "shall have final disciplinary authority"
In short the "Citizen" Oversight Commission is really only the same old story of the police and the city officials policing themselves
Unless an ELECTED Civilian Police Review Board is established we will not have a trustworthy mechanism to assure that the recent atrocities of police abuse resulting in the killing of three people by the Inglewood Police in the last three month will be stopped.
WE NEED A POLICE REVIEW BOARD THAT IS DIRECTLY ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF INGLEWOOD AND THAT IS RESPONSIBLE ONLY TO THE PEOPLE OF INGLEWOOD THROUGH ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE AND RECALL BY THE PEOPLE.
Any other type of police review board or commission is ultimately a servant of the political establishment and not a real solution to the problem of police abuse.
We need an Elected Civilian Police Review Board that is the actual boss of the police rather than a police "Oversight Commission" that is, in the final analysis, really just a powerless advisor to the police chief, the city manager or to the mayor and city council.
In order to establish such an ELECTED CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARD it must be approved by the citizens of Inglewood through a Charter Amendment. We need to propose such a Charter Amendment and begin the campaign to establish such an ELECTED CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARD immediately. Our lives and the lives of our neighbors and our children depend on a real and significant change in the powers that control the Inglewood Police Department. The Inglewood Police Department absolutely must be controlled directly by the people of Inglewood.
DEMAND AN ELECTED POLICE REVIEW BOARD IN INGLEWOOD!
[Committee to Establish an Elected Civilian Police Review Board]
The Eugene auditor resigned
The wife of a former police officer who died in a shootout with New York City Police Department officers asked if the correct information had been given out.
The RPD's press release on Pablo incident
Another blogger wrote that "law-abiding citizens" never have problems with the police and if someone does, then they must not be law-abiding. But that's not always the case and many notable exceptions to that person's tenet include individuals who are mentally ill, medically ill or physically, cognitively or mentally disabled. Schizophrenia (especially its paranoid form), Epilepsy, Autism, deafness, severe clinical depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (especially common in cases involving military veterans), insulin shock, senile dementia and other conditions are only a few of those that can cause people to have negative interactions with the police in part because many law enforcement agencies don't have the best training for officers to interface with these individuals and some of the training they do receive can actually do more harm than good in these types of situations because these individuals either can't respond or even understand or hear or they feel that the officers (if they recognize them as such) are being hostile even when they're not.
What if you are parenting an autistic child who grows into a teenager and this teenager decides to lie in the middle of a street endangering themselves and others without really being aware of that? How will that teenager respond if police try to remove him or her? The teenager may not be intoxicated, they probably aren't a criminal (even if blocking the street itself is illegal) but they may have force used against them to remove them from the street which could cause injuries particularly if they're not aware or cognizant of what is being done to them and by who. Criminals including violent criminals might physically resist police officers, but so might mentally and medically ill individuals because they don't realize completely or at all what's going on and they feel disoriented or even threatened by actions taken by police officers especially if they involve the use of aggressive tactics or force.
If a Schizophrenic person is hearing voices which sound real to him or her, can this person even hear police officers issuing him or her orders and if they can't, how can they respond? And if a Schizophrenic person's actions are to withdraw from that officer, and that officer or officers corner him or her, how will this individual respond? If a Schizophrenic individual experiences delusions of persecution where law enforcement officers are the focus of those delusions, how does an officer's actions impact what happens in that situation especially if the officer doesn't know that he or she by their appearance is the focus of those delusions?
One out of every nine hospital beds is filled by Schizophrenics. One out of every nine contacts an officer has is with someone who's mentally ill and in future years, that could become one out of every five especially if there's a loss of beds at mental health facilities due to budget cuts especially at the county and state level. People in the mental health profession have told me that when these budgets are cut, mental health facilities, programs and staffing is among the first services cut. This places a greater burden on the public systems including public safety and the greater the burden, the greater number of incidents there will be. It's also very difficult on mentally ill individuals and their families who might be their primary caregivers.
Often mentally ill individuals who can't afford medications or get medical treatment for their conditions self-medicate with alcohol, legal or illegal drugs, which complicates their medical conditions even further as it does their behavior. If you talk to individuals who are mentally ill or you've listened to mental health panels including those produced by NAMI (National Alliance on Mentally Ill) or the Jefferson Wellness Center (which provides such a panel for the Riverside Police Department's own training sessions), this aspect of dealing with mental illness really comes to light and the lines between mental illnesses and alcohol and drug use start to blur.
Pablo was assumed to be two things by one blogger, a criminal and a drug addict under the influence of a substance. What is known about Pablo's criminal record is that in 1996, he had a traffic misdemeanor for being an unlicensed driver and he was charged with public intoxication. Except for an outstanding warrant on the latter case, there's been no other criminal charges filed either in Riverside or San Bernardino County according to online records. His known criminal record including his intoxication charge is 12 years old. It's very easy to assume that because a person once had a public intoxication charge that this automatically means that they must be intoxicated now. But that's not always a correct assumption.
Not too long ago, there was a Riverside Police Department officer who had a blood alcohol level of above .20 (according to a Corona Police Departement sergeant) and crashed into two vehicles in 2004 while offduty and was arrested by Corona Police Department officers. That was four years ago and yet how many people would assume that this individual was still getting intoxicated and driving that way? Would that automatically be true? No, of course not. It would depend on other factors related to the intoxication or the DUI that like in the case of Pablo, not much is known about. Does it mean in the case of Pablo that he wasn't intoxicated? No, what it does mean is that it's too early to assume that because he was in 1996, he was on the last day of his life.
And why was he knocking on someone's back door? It could have been for a variety of reasons including that he might have been looking for help if he was in distress. I had the experience of waking up one night and having a drunken college student banging on my door because he thought he was someone else. He actually claimed to be a police officer and when I asked him for I.D. to show, he displayed his driver's license and started chanting something about "hell and damnation" for me and that I needed to surrender my soul to God. He had wandered off and away by the time police officers arrived.
On the other hand I've also woken up and seen people trying to get in my window and I doubt they tried to knock or bang on the door first to alert me as to what they were doing because they most likely wanted the element of surprise. Whoever called the police was justifiably frightened by Pablo's behavior and according to the department's press release, nine minutes later, the police arrived and found him sitting near a residence. It's not known how the handcuffing took place or how much force was used, particularly if any restraints including the carotid restraint or arm bar take down in particular were attempted or done. In the Terry Rabb case below, officers had attempted a carotid restraint with him, information not disclosed publicly early on in that case.
As far as Pablo being out there "looking for trouble", information provided through the department's own press release linked earlier in this posting indicates that police officers on the scene had determined that he wasn't committing any serious crimes if any crimes at all and that instead he was suffering medical distress. It's possible that if he was very disoriented, didn't know where he was and he could have been summoning help if he were desperately ill and his illness could have impacted his mental or cognitive state and reduced his ability to summon assistance in a more easily understood and less frightning way.
So as stated, the officers called for medical assistance for Pablo and he was unhandcuffed when paramedics arrived. But died within one hour of being transported to the hospital.
The Terry Rabb incustody death case is a good example of how a person who's not knowingly committing a crime can still have a negative experience with police officers who were sent out to his home after a 911 call had been made that he was acting crazy, disoriented and tearing things up in his apartment.
Yet, Rabb was not committing a crime when police were dispatched to his home. He was suffering from what's called hypoglycemic unawareness , which happens in diabetics either when their insulin levels are too high or their glucose levels in their blood stream is too low. In Rabb, he had a glucose level of about 20, which diabetics have told me is extremely low. This cause people to be very confused, disoriented and unable to determine what their blood sugar levels are in order to make the proper adjustments (i.e. ingesting fruit juice or corn syrup to counteract an insulin overdose). They become agitated because of this confusion and sometimes act out in emotional and physical ways. Having known diabetics, I've seen the confusion that comes with this condition and on several occasions, had to assist them as they had taught me to do if they were going into insulin shock. People who are experiencing this may act like they are mentally ill and might be believed to be so for people not familiar with them or their medical condition.
Diabetics describe "hypoglycemic unawareness" as being confusing, disorienting and sometimes causing them to feel disassociated or detached from what they are doing and what's going on around them.
Rabb's friends called 9-11 for medical help and it was dispatched as a diabetic and medical crisis to both EMTs and police officers. The police officers drove to the scene to assist the EMTs with a potentially physically combative individual, in part due to policies practiced by paramedics that they are limited in restraining patients.
Terry Rabb died at a hospital after going into cardiac arrest in his own home. Before he went into his fatal cardiac arrest while seated handcuffed on the floor with his back resting against his sofa,
an officer had used a carotid restraint on Rabb, his body on top of Rabb's back while his face was pushed into the sofa cushions on the couch. Some medical experts have serious reservations of whether or not the carotid restraint is safe to use on individuals who are diabetic, have severe hypertension or severe coronary artery disease.
But despite the fact that the call had been broadcast to the officers as a medical distress call (and the CAD sheet for the incident clearly stated this) and the paramedics believed Rabb to be suffering from "hypoglycemic unawareness", one officer was alleged (by Rabb's friend who made the 911 call) to had made statements when he arrived that Rabb was actually on drugs and specifically mentioned crack cocaine and heroin. Rabb tested negative for both substances in his toxicology panels.
Despite the fact that these allegations were made, there's no indication in the officers' interview statements to the Officer-Involved Death Team that they were asked whether or not they made or heard made these alleged statements.
Further information on Rabb:
Terry Rabb public report
Oct. 12, 2005 RPD briefing on Terry Rabb
The police department was well aware that it was having problems with how its police officers were interfacing with the mentally ill and medically ill in Riverside and that some of these problems interlinked with how the officers used force including in an incident that took place in 2004 that was detailed by an anonymous individual on this blog. The monitor who oversaw the implementation of the stipulated judgment's mandated reforms knew this and recommended that they implement a crisis intervention program to address this issue. It is an action being taken by more and more city and county law enforcement agencies across the country since Memphis Police Department pioneered its program in 1988.
Chief Russ Leach told community leaders at different forums including a meeting of the Group not long after the fatal shooting death of Lee Deante Brown (who was paranoid Schizophrenic) in April 2006 that the department needed this program and training and he asked for the community's support in that endeavor.
The department implemented this training and mobile unit program and had it certified through Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) by summer 2007. It began its 30 hour training classes just before that and will have every police officer, dispatcher and "front-line" employee in the department trained by December 2008. The agency realized that this was important, embraced it for the most part and are now inviting other agencies to check out the program so they can take it back to their own departments. The pilot mobile unit program was to start July 1 and be fully funded by a "starter's" grant for one fiscal year.
Having audited the 30 hour training program earlier this year, it was interesting what experts from both mental health, working with homeless and police officers had to say about interfacing with the mentally ill. There were also explanations by various instructors including those who were mentally ill and had been treated themselves about why various police tactics that are often used can be counterproductive or even dangerous when used with mentally or medically ill individuals.
It seems to have gotten a positive response from officers and county mental health people and the department has said that the relationship between the two agencies has greatly improved. Hopefully, more growth in this process can continue to take place. It's important for this to happen as the interactions between the mentally and medically ill and law enforcement officers will most likely increase in the future.
Will Riverside's assistant city manager Michael Beck leave this town to take a job in Pasadena? Everyone will have to wait and see.
Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco resurfaced from the blistering criticism he received from the Press Enterprise Editorial Board and responds. Even though after issuing a press release through his public information division, he hadn't responded to phone calls from the newspaper's reporters asking him to elaborate further on the issue of the Riverside Police Department's enforcement of the permanent gang injunction against Eastside Riva and apparently he had not communicated with Leach on this issue. But he's come forward in writing on this date.
(excerpt)
While some progress is being made, this is not the kind of "balance" that I, or the men and women of the district attorney's office, can accept.
We have a long history of working with local, state and federal law enforcement, but we are prepared to go it alone if necessary. The stakes are too high to ignore our duty.
We will never be content with this level of violence, even if the fulfillment of our responsibility brings unfair criticism. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote, "The true measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
I would rather be at the center of controversy protecting people from being victimized by gang members than be comfortable while they are terrorized. It is a simple choice.
It's unfortunate that Pacheco invoked the name of Anthony Sweat because the D.A.'s office sat on DNA samples in connection with that case for 18 months and even after it was known these tests exonerated the two men arrested in connection with that murder. They were in jail for four years and it wasn't until the eve of trial that the DNA results were released and so were these two men because there was no match to DNA samples extracted from evidence gathered. Two other unidentified individuals who were tested in a group of suspected gang members yielded positive results, according to their defense attorneys. But have any criminal charges been filed by the D.A.'s office in connection with these two individuals who allegedly yielded positive DNA test results? Will Sweat's killers ever be found and prosecuted by Pacheco's office? And did the D.A.'s office take the time to really explain to Sweat's family including his mother why charges had to be dismissed against the two defendants? Not really, because that explanation was left for other people to provide for them.
Here are the court minutes taken the day the case was dropped and there's more information about what happened here.
Case RIF104782 Defendant 785806 ELLIOTT, CASTANEDA FRANCO
Action: Jury Trial In-Progress Date: 05/31/2006 Time: 9:00 AM
Division: 54 Hearing Status: DISPOSED
HONORABLE RICHARD T. FIELDS PRESIDING.
COURTROOM ASSISTANT: TK-T. KOENIG
COURT REPORTER: TC-T. CASAL
PEOPLE REPRESENTED BY DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY J. MOLLOY.
DEFENDANT REPRESENTED BY DPD-A. VIERRA.
DEFENDANT PRESENT.
12TH DAY OF TRIAL
AT 10:23, THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDINGS WERE HELD:
**************NOTICE TO JAIL******************
WITNESSES HECTOR PEREZ/TONNELL LOVE/MARIO SANCHEZ
AND RICARDO BARBARIN ARE ORDERED TRANSPORTED
BACK TO STATE PRISON TO COMPLETE THEIR
PROSPECTIVE SENTENCES
ORAL MOTION BY PEOPLE REGARDING DISMISS PURSUANT TO 1385 PC IS CALLED FOR HEARING.
MOTION GRANTED
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) 1H IN COUNT 6 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 6 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 5 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 5 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 4 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 4 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 3 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 3 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SU IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D3 IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 2 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 2 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) VF IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) SR IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) D7 IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COURT ORDERS ENHANCEMENT(S) BP IN COUNT 1 STRICKEN.
COUNT(S) 1 DISMISSED PURSUANT TO 1385 PC
DEFENDANT RELEASED.
ALL EXHIBIT(S) ARE RETURNED TO PEOPLE/DEFENSE.
******************NOTICE TO JAIL******************
ORDER COMMANDING THE SHERIFF TO HOLD WITNESS
MARIO SANCHEZ IS RELEASED
ORDER COMMANDING THE SHERIFF TO HOLD WITNESS
TONNELL LOVE IS RELEASED
CLOSE CASE.
CLOSE CASE.
AT 11:15, THE FOLLOWING PROCEEDINGS WERE HELD:
****************AMENDED ORDER TO JAIL************
PLEASE DONT TRANSPORT MARIO SANCHEZ BACK TO
STATE PRISON UNTIL FURTHER ORDER OF THE COURT
CLOSE CASE.
Castaneda's arrest records were sealed and destroyed after a hearing in July 2008.
A claim has been filed in connection with the death of a tribal member of Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians who was shot by Riverside County Sheriff's Department deputies.
In Los Angeles, a park was dedicated that will be named after LAPD SWAT officer, Randal D. Simmons who was killed in the line of duty earlier this year. When he was alive, Simmons was involved in neighborhood youth programs through his church in Los Angeles and was fairly well-known for his activism.
People in Inglewood are upset at language that would establish civilian oversight there.
INGLEWOOD NEEDS AN ELECTED CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARD
The current Inglewood City Ordinance establishing a "Citizen Police Oversight Commission" is a sham, a hoax and an attempt to deceive and defraud the people of Inglewood.
The Ordinance claims to establish an "Independent Investigator" but examination of the Ordinance reveals that the so called "Independent Investigator" is required to be a Captain in the Inglewood Police Department and that he (or she) reports to and is supervised by the City Administrative Officer.
The "Oversight Commission" can recommend prosecution of problem police officers but only if the Inglewood City Attorney approves such recommendations.
The "Oversight Commission" can recommend disciplinary action against problem police officers but again only if the City Administrative Office agrees and the City Administrative Office "shall have final disciplinary authority"
In short the "Citizen" Oversight Commission is really only the same old story of the police and the city officials policing themselves
Unless an ELECTED Civilian Police Review Board is established we will not have a trustworthy mechanism to assure that the recent atrocities of police abuse resulting in the killing of three people by the Inglewood Police in the last three month will be stopped.
WE NEED A POLICE REVIEW BOARD THAT IS DIRECTLY ELECTED BY THE PEOPLE OF INGLEWOOD AND THAT IS RESPONSIBLE ONLY TO THE PEOPLE OF INGLEWOOD THROUGH ELECTION BY THE PEOPLE AND RECALL BY THE PEOPLE.
Any other type of police review board or commission is ultimately a servant of the political establishment and not a real solution to the problem of police abuse.
We need an Elected Civilian Police Review Board that is the actual boss of the police rather than a police "Oversight Commission" that is, in the final analysis, really just a powerless advisor to the police chief, the city manager or to the mayor and city council.
In order to establish such an ELECTED CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARD it must be approved by the citizens of Inglewood through a Charter Amendment. We need to propose such a Charter Amendment and begin the campaign to establish such an ELECTED CIVILIAN POLICE REVIEW BOARD immediately. Our lives and the lives of our neighbors and our children depend on a real and significant change in the powers that control the Inglewood Police Department. The Inglewood Police Department absolutely must be controlled directly by the people of Inglewood.
DEMAND AN ELECTED POLICE REVIEW BOARD IN INGLEWOOD!
[Committee to Establish an Elected Civilian Police Review Board]
The Eugene auditor resigned
The wife of a former police officer who died in a shootout with New York City Police Department officers asked if the correct information had been given out.
Labels: civilian review spreads, CPRC vs the city, officer-involved shootings
posted by Five Before Midnight | 1:49 PM
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