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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   9806 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026

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Ultimately, I don't know what best practice for maximizing a fentanyl-overdose patient's chances of survival looks like, but I would be very surprised if it looks like pinning him down in a chokehold, any more than best practice for a stab victim is to try to handcuff him. Whether Floyd died from physical choking or as a result of the drugs he'd ingested doesn't let Chauvin off the moral hook; in Floyd's as in Nowak's case, it would still leave us with officers who wasted time "restraining" an already-dying man instead of trying to save his life.

but I would be very surprised if it looks like pinning him down in a chokehold,

Why? Every policy is written in blood. How many people going on deranged crashouts would hurt themselves or someone else if they weren't forcibly restrained?

I once called the cops to assist some delirious homeless guy who fell over and cracked his head open on the sidewalk. Do you think the cops should have let Floyd drive away while ODing on fent, which is what he would have done otherwise?

I'll go on the record and say that if I'm ever in a similar state, I would be thankful to be restrained, because I have a bare minimal "deserves to live in a decent society" level of concern for the likelihood that I might accidentally hurt someone else while out of my mind.

If Nowak had been actively resisting and fleeing arrest, as Floyd was at the time of the start of the restraint, there would be some sort of point you're making. It's not like Floyd was passed out in the gutter when Chauvin rocked up and then Chauvin spontaneously decided to kneel on his upper back.

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