October 8, 2008
A matter of restraint: Lawsuit focuses on how police subdue suspects
A lawsuit filed by the family of a man who died in police custody raises questions about how officers restrain individuals who are resisting arrest. On May 29, 2007, Ramel Henderson, then 51, lost consciousness while San Diego Police officers attempted to put him in what's known as "maximum restraint," where a subject is handcuffed and placed on his stomach while officers bind the person's ankles and then attach the ankle cuff to a waist cord.
Henderson never regained consciousness and died several hours later at Paradise Valley Hospital in National City. On Monday, Oct. 6, Anthony Willoughby, an L.A. attorney representing Henderson's family, told a federal magistrate judge that the police procedure violated Henderson's civil rights.
Maximum restraint, as applied by the San Diego Police Department, is a modified version of so-called "hogtying," where an unruly subject's handcuffs and ankle cuffs are connected behind the person's back. Hogtying has been banned by some law-enforcement agencies—including San Diego—after a number of hogtied subjects suffocated to death. According to the San Diego Police Department's written procedures, even maximum restraint "should be used as a last resort…"
LINK - SDCityBeat.com (San Diego City Beat)
