Someone that was local said he hadn't tried anything suicidal, he was just severely depressed and he went willfully to seek treatment. When he started to change his mind, the police severely overreacted and tased him to death.

Of course the official police account is that he was violent towards his girlfriend--something all witnesses that I've seen deny--and that he had tried to kill himself with a knife--something his girlfriend denied.

This stinks of coverup. Police suck sometimes.

The buy broke free and was obviously a threat. What were police supposed to do, let him run wild?

If the guy could break his handcuffs, and snap the locks on the gurney on the ambulance, and..he was huge, and on drugs, ya...i would have tazerd him repeatedly as well. It wasnt the tazer that killed him, it was a combo of things.

"Anderson had been dealing with depression, anxiety and a mild form of schizophrenia, all of which were made worse by his marijuana use"

HAHAHA, suck it pot-heads! Drugs are bad for you!

So I've been googling for two hours now. Best information I've gotten first person (from Frontline) was about devious people using leverage with objects around themselves to break handcuffs. Still no citation about crazed people being able to break handcuffs from sheer strength alone.

snocone: One has to ask, what would have happened if they just left him alone.

Almost definitely he would have hurt himself, possibly even hurt some one else. The police did their jobs. It was just a bad situation... a least from the article.

The number of people blaming cops in this situation is unbelievable. You people farking disgust me. When ANYONE is strong and wild enough to do what this guy did, the police are left with little choice.

1. Gun - Obviously you'd all have a problem with this
2. Taser - Seems that some have a problem with this
3. Baton - Don't even try to act like you wouldn't be crying about this
4. Hand-to-Hand - This is what you pretend to want, but if the dude can break free of handcuffs there is a good chance it would have taken multiple officers to subdue this roid-raged meth-head, and then you'd be whining about abuse or the lack of police abilities. Not to mention the very real probability that one of the officers suffers an injury.

You choose assholes. What is the solution? Show your work.

MythDragon: [redaccionbicicleta.files.wordpress.com image 540x361]
RIP Sledgehammer

Kick the habit, shed your skin. This is the new stuff to make you dance. Your going to feel the power build in you.

/This amusement never ends.

CruiserTwelve: Yeah, totally unjustified use of the Taser. He was just laying there all cooperative and stuff, posing no threat at all.

Hey, asshole, if you read the article, it says...

Never mind. Let's just leave it at this.

i hate cops as much as the next guy, and it's clear that this death was avoidable, but i'm not going to criticize the police for this unless more information comes out. sledge hammer was a huge guy, and if i was next to him when he broke a pair of handcuffs then i would probably want to taze him too. i mean, how strong and out of control do you have to be to break a pair of handcuffs? maybe he was just freaking out and suffering from insomnia and depression, and maybe he didn't intend to hurt anyone, but the police couldn't have known that. all they saw was a huge, violent looking guy who just tried to kill himself and now he's breaking apart a gurney they just strapped him to. in this case, i'd say tazing may have been appropriate. it's shame that he died, but i'm not going to blame the cops for it.

AbbeySomeone: I would imagine that most people would get pissed off if they were tased and restrained.

Point is, the linked article says:

1) cops showed up, were intimidated, tased him
2) his heart stopped, EMTS restarted it
3) after that, on the way to the hospital, he tore free from the restraints

Other articles report the order of events as:

1) cops showed up, handcuffed him to stretcher for transport
2) He tried to stand up in ambulance, breaking restraints
3) cops tased him.

When they tased him is a critical piece of information.

CruiserTwelve: Yeah, totally unjustified use of the Taser. He was just laying there all cooperative and stuff, posing no threat at all.

You forgot to mention the order of events.

"When the cops arrived,...they began shooting him with their Tasers-"excessively," according to Curtis-to the point where he suffered a heart attack and for all intents and purposes died for 10 minutes until the EMTs were able to restart his heart." It was only after that, "on the way to the hospital" that he "broke the gurney free from a floor lock and broke a handcuff."

I dunno about you, but if someone starts shocking me for no reason (Article says "Anderson's height (6-foot-4) and bulk intimidated them"- note no real reason for shocking him is given) , I might get a bit agitated afterwards.

Yeah, I'm not fond of the thick blue line, but I'll save any outrage for something more damning. From the information presented it sounds pretty justified, so unless they sat there tazering him and giggling for 5 minutes I have to give credit where it's due.

Waitaminnit. ATTFA, hi girlfriend struggled with him and took. Knife away from him.

The police had multiple officers on scene and decided fark this shiat, too big so they tased him?

Pussy much policemen?

He was then restrained to a gurney and, on the way to the hospital, broke the gurney free from a floor lock and broke a handcuff. At this point, police used a taser to restrain Anderson.

Call me a cop-hater for not trusting presented evidence, can a man break a handcuff and do this. This is incredible hulk type stuff.

Considering the guy was body-builder, his heart might have been weak.

Mugato: Do they even bother teaching hand to hand combat or take downs at the academy anymore? Seems like a waste of time.

No, but they tech you that one shot from a taser turns a man to a compliant pile of jello. When this doesn't happen, that's generally when the psyche- divested of illusions- turns to ye olde "if it didn't work the first time, do it again until it does work" strategem.

Nevermind that any cop properly trained with a baton ought to be able to take down a guy and restrain him single-handedly- even if the guy is twice his size- That kind of training costs money.


Aaaaand this is in no way a repeat of the Rodney King incident. Certainly not.

VIDEOWALLART: PCP is a hell of a drug

If you RTFA they clearly state that his mental health issues were worsened by marijuana use. WEED KILLS!