Last outpost of crazy: Don't pet

Safety tip: know the dangers of your area and what to do about them. So if you live somewhere with alligators, have some idea how to handle, or not handle, alligators. Or you might end up as a wacky news item and a death statistic in the single digits. Not a good look. 

Image: 123rf.com

Analysis of the Cincinnati shooting video

Earlier this month, a security officer for the University of Cincinnati shot and killed an unarmed driver during a traffic stop. The officer was indicted for murder, and also indicted on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

He was wearing a body camera throughout the incident, and the video was just released. Now, accordingly to the prosecutor, the video shows "the most asinine act by a police officer I have ever seen."

That's not what I saw when I closely watched the video, though admittedly I wasn't able to watch it frame by frame.

The officer pulled over the driver for a minor infraction--not having a front license plate... or did he pull him over for driving while black? The officer asks for his license. The driver searches around for it, but doesn't produce it. That is an expedient move by the driver because his license had been suspended (as investigation showed after the fact). If he had produced his license, the officer would quickly confirm that he was driving with a suspended license. That would probably mean an arrest, towing the car, and lots of fines for the driver.

Here is a chronology of how the altercation unfolds:

• At 3:12, the officer starts to open the car door. The driver grabs it to keep it closed. He moves his right hand to the ignition. The officer's right hand is on the roof of the car. The driver says "I didn't even do nothing."
• At 3:13, the officer says "Come on and take your seatbelt off." His right hand is still on the roof of the car.
• At 3:14, the driver starts the ignition (can be heard) and the officer reaches with his left hand into the car to grab the ignition.
• At 3:16, the officer yells "stop, stop." At the same time, the sound of the engine revving is audible. The gun is visible in the officer's right hand.
• At 3:17, the officer fires this gun. The driver slumps to his right. The car is also moving forward.
• At 3:18, the officer is falling backward. The camera shows the sky.
• At 3:19, the officer is starting to stand up. His gun is clearly seen in his right hand.
• At 3:24, he is running after the car down the street.

Clearly, the driver was fleeing the traffic stop. Clearly, the officer reached for his weapon and shot within 3 seconds of the driver starting the ignition. Both men were acting and reacting very quickly. As the prosecutor said:

"You won't believe how quickly he pulls his gun and shoots him in the head."

The officer claimed he was dragged, and that doesn't seem to be true. However, the driver must have put the car in gear while the officer was reaching in, so the officer had good reason to worry that he might be dragged or knocked down and run over.

To understand and judge the criminal charges, we will have to consider how officers should act when a driver tries to flee a minor traffic stop. We have to consider whether the officer was in danger, or whether he was trigger happy, or both. This is not an open-and-shut case.

It does seem to me that many officials in Cincinnati have ganged up on the officer. It's not just the prosecutor, who laid on charges of intentional murder and incompetence, The university fired him. The mayor stated that he wanted charges. No one there wants Ferguson-type riots and demonstrations. The officer seems to have been thrown under the bus as Cincinnati tries not to be the next epicenter of race-based demonstrations.

This isn't my final word on this case. I might write a post on how the video refutes the claims that the prosecutor made in his (grandstanding) press conference. Maybe I'll learn more about police training that leads officers to shoot first and shoot fast. Maybe I'll unravel how a simple traffic stop ends up with someone dead, not just once, but too many times already this year.

3:12 -- Look where their hands are.

Image: youtube.com

Extras. USA Today's list of events at the end of this article differs from mine. They're wrong and they seem biased against the officer: "Without a word, Tensing fires a single shot," "the car rolls a short distance." The car didn't roll a few feet, but probably at least 150 feet. You can hear the rev of the engine as though it was accelerating, not 'rolling.'

More of the chronology:

• At 3:27, someone asks "Are you alright." The officer, while running, says "I'm good."
• At 3:41, he is close to where the car has crashed and we can see another security officer enter the frame.
• At 4:15, we can see that a third security officer is also already on the scene.

Were these other two officers already at the other end of the block? What did they see? Did they have body cameras too? Maybe their footage isn't important since we have video of the entire event at close range. Or maybe it is important if it is shows more of what happened.

Update 7/31/15. Video from the body cameras of the two officers who arrived just as the altercation erupted.

Update 8/1/15. A Cincinnati officer killed in June of this year.

Oh, the humanity in Ferguson, Missouri

Real life is always more complicated than it seems. Always. Take the first impressions of the shooting in Ferguson, Missouri.

At first, it seemed that a cop either went nuts or was intent on killing this young black man. Now it seems that there was more to the altercation than a cop shooting a young black man for walking down the middle of the street. There's a lot more to the story.

At first, it seemed like the bullet-ridden young man was "a gentle giant" who was about to go to college. Now it seems like he used his size to intimidate a shopkeeper just minutes before he died. Maybe he behaved in a threatening way to the cop too.

At first, the other young black man seemed like a bewildered soul--his friend killed in front of him. Now he seems like an unreliable witness who leaves out important details. It's hard to know how much he's a victim vs. being a perpetrator. Will this man be able to openly talk about what really happened, or will he hide behind his partial truth?

At first, the police in the town were secretive and aggressive in handling the resulting protests and violence. Then the governor called in black state police commander who could be a fair arbiter. Will the local police learn how to address the community concerns about this terrible incident, or will they remain defensive and self-serving?

At first, the community mourned the inexplicable shooting of an upstanding young man. Then it turns out that the man wasn't so upstanding, but they are angry with the police for making them face that truth. Will they be able to deal with the truth?

Finally (for now), it seems that perhaps the cop had a reason to shoot his weapon. But did he have a reason to keep firing it, more times than the witnesses could count, at a man who had raised his hands in surrender?

There were so many poor choices in this incident:

• The theft by the young men earlier that day
• The cop who continued to shoot when the man was surrendering
• The witness who omitted pertinent facts
• The looters who took advantage of the protest to smash and steal
• The local police who increased tension with military-like responses
• The local police who are so slow in releasing pertinent facts and are lying about their reasons for what they release

Yet there are some promising signs. The state has found a fair arbiter to talk with the community and ease tensions. He can bridge the gap because he's both a police officer and a black man who grew up in a neighborhood not far away. In the community itself, some local folks have stepped up to stop others from looting during a return to looting. They're still angry, but they know that violence isn't the answer.

We need to be able to admit the imperfections, to accept that people have made mistakes, and not to assume the worst about one another. Maybe then we can learn to be better people and be fairer to each other. I have some hope for a silver lining in this terrible storm.

Image: riverfronttimes.com

Sources. Video of the robbery. The body left for hours on the street.  The unreliable witness. Two reliable witnesses. Counterproductive police response. The fair arbiter. Stopping the looters.

How accurate is brain death?

This post will for those who share my scientific curiosity about the issues involved in the current case of Jahi McMath, the 13-year-old declared brain dead from complications after an operation. The hospital has declared her brain dead, and refuses to fit her with a tracheostomy or feeding tube into her stomach (G-tube). She's currently on a respirator.

These kinds of issues have come up before, including whether Terri Schiavo's G-tube could be disconnected so she would no longer passively receive nutrition and water. Terri Schiavo was in a persistent vegetative state where she could breathe on her own but she didn't have voluntary movement. According to the hospital, Jahi requires a respirator and would cease breathing and all signs of life if detached from it.

Jahi is categorized as "brain dead," a new category that allows someone to be considered dead and have their organs removed by doctors for transplantation. Without this category, all breathing and circulation would have to cease before the organs could be taken and they would be in a degraded condition.

The medical profession has established criteria for brain death including the total absence of response in all cranial nerves. Furthermore, it can be confirmed by studies of blood flow in the brain, which have ceased in a brain dead patient, though this is not 100% accurate in confirming brain death.

It's questionable whether the criteria for declaring brain death are as rigorous as they should be or are followed rigorously. Several supposedly brain dead people have revived, but isn't supposed to be possible. Here's a case from Oklahoma of a man declared brain dead after an accident. His body was being prepared for organ removal when relatives noticed something and subsequent tests showed reflexes indicating greater than expected nerve response. He came out of coma 5 days later (with all his organs) and recovered much of his function. There was a similar case in Britain. This site lists several other cases.

One problem is that doctors are too hasty in declaring brain death after accidents. When there is injury to the head, the brain can swell to the point that most blood flow stops, causing deep coma and looking like brain death. However, in some people the swelling diminishes and the person lives, though with varying degrees of brain damage. Care must also be taken after drowning, exposure to cold, and drug overdose.

Jahi's case doesn't fit into this category, however. She suffered from blood loss, cessation of her heartbeat, and no oxygen to her brain. It doesn't seem to me that swelling was involved. None of the recovery cases occurred to someone in a situation similar to Jahi's.

Of course I don't have inside information about how long Jahi wasn't breathing, test results for brain function, or her response (or lack of response) to trial cessation of her respirator. There's a very good chance that she is indeed brain dead, especially since it's been over three weeks since she had any signs of neural function. However, the eagerness of some doctors to harvest organs for transplant has corrupted the practice of declaring brain death, at least to some extent. It is horrific that doctors should be so eager to take organs that they'd sacrifice lives in the process.

One of many complications

Image: papermasters.com

Update 1/7/14. She will probably die, or finish dying, soon.

Update 5/6/18. Here's a case of a boy with a head injury so severe that he was thought to be brain dead. He regained consciousness and is speaking. The article isn't clear, but it seems that he was in a coma for less than a month. This is quite different from someone in a long-term coma. Jahi is still alive with the support of a ventilator and all the other types of life support. That doesn't mean she isn't brain dead. It could be that our medical systems are excellent at maintaining bodily functions.

Short: A portrait of grieving

Here's fairly short but touching article about a woman grieving for her stillborn son. Most people don't get over the loss of a child, at least that's what I've seen from my five decades of life. This mother may have done the most effective grieving a mother can do.

Image: digitalspy.co.uk

Death of a partisan

A surprising event today: Andrew Breitbart died.

It's hard to figure what to say on this occasion. I didn't care for his political positions  and especially for his egregious tactics, but I agree with the tradition that it's unseemly to bash someone on their death. After all, some people respected and even loved him.

So, it is OK to say something like this?

This is a reminder that we are all mortal. Through his hard work and pointed commentary, Breitbart had influence on a national scale. He'll be mourned by his supporters, but I'm not among them. However, I don't believe and would never say that this is God's judgment on him. May he rest in peace and may his family find some solace.

I think that is as kind as I can be, but I welcome comments and criticism.

Died March 1, 2012