Death of Man in poLICE Custody Is Ruled a Homicide

The New York City medical examiner announced on Friday that a man’s death in police custody while he was high on PCP was a homicide.

The man, Ronald Singleton, died from physical restraint by the police while he was in a state of “excited delirium” caused by PCP, or angel dust, the medical examiner said in a statement. Mr. Singleton was 45, according to a police report. An autopsy found that heart disease and obesity were contributing factors in his death, just after midnight on July 13.

Mr. Singleton was cursing and screaming in the rear seat of a taxi cab when the driver flagged down a police officer at the corner of East 51st Street and Fifth Avenue near St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the authorities said. Mr. Singleton then lashed out at the officer and tried to fight him after leaving the taxi, the police said, prompting officers to call for backup and members of a special unit to restrain Mr. Singleton by placing him in “a protective body wrap.”

Mr. Singleton was not placed under arrest, the police said, but was taken away as an emotionally disturbed person by emergency medical personnel. He went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance and was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, the police said.

In declaring the manner of death a homicide, the medical examiner’s office is not suggesting a crime was committed, but is stating its conclusion that the intervention of the police played a role in the death.

The medical examiner’s ruling arrives at a time of heightened scrutiny for the New York Police Department, which has been buffeted by accusations of overly aggressive arrest tactics since a 43-year-old Staten Island man, Eric Garner, died on July 17 from compression of his chest and a police chokehold. His death, which came after officers tried to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes, was also ruled a homicide by the medical examiner.

The Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr., has said he would call a special grand jury that could bring charges against the officer who dragged Mr. Garner to the ground.

No officers have faced disciplinary action for Mr. Singleton’s death. The police said they would cooperate with an investigation into his death by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/30/nyregion/death-of-man-in-police-custody-ruled-a-homicide.html
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Anarcho-Capitalist, AnCaps Forum, Ancapolis, OZschwitz Contraband
“The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime.”-- Max Stirner
"Remember: Evil exists because good men don't kill the government officials committing it." -- Kurt Hofmann

Death of Man in poLICE Custody Is Ruled a Homicide

Death of Man in poLICE Custody Is Ruled a Homicide

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order