How to reduce the police force if you are committing a crime?

BarcelonaThe Madrid municipal police officer arrested for accidentally strangling a suspected thief to death was released on bail this Thursday. However, the investigation remains open, and an autopsy will determine the cause of death of the victim, who allegedly tried to steal the officer's cell phone. The officer, who was off-duty, used the mattress tactic, which consists of immobilizing someone by the neck. This incident, with several precedents in Catalonia, Spain, and around the world, has reopened the debate on how police immobilize or restrain someone.

The Public Security Institute of Catalonia (ISPC) trains future officers for both the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police) and local police forces. Part of the training includes different techniques for responding to a physical attack and for restraining and restraining a person on the ground. It teaches how an officer should intervene alone and also in pairs, and in none of the examples is the detainee grabbed by the neck. The ground movements officers learn include how to roll a person from lying on their back onto their stomach and how to stretch someone who has been restrained while sitting. They also learn how to restrain a person. crosswise (face down and with arms stretched out) and how to perform an immobilization mounted (with the police officer on the arrested person).

Police sources admit that in real life things are very different, as some people resist greatly, and drugs play an important role. They explain that there are several basic guidelines, such as not applying force with your knee to the ribcage or monitoring the pressure you apply with your arm if you are grabbing the neck. In this regard, during the training phase, they insist that the restrained person be constantly checked for proper breathing. The important thing to immobilize someone, they explain, is to block the legs and arms. While the mattress It is not included in the techniques described in the training, although some specialized police units, such as ARRO or Brimo, are trained to use it if they deem it necessary.

Mossos d'Esquadra union sources also regret that there is no mandatory ongoing training on issues such as this, since over time, they admit, the practice ends up being lost. Along these lines, unions such as Fepol insist on the importance of equipping themselves with Taser guns to subdue people from a distance and without engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

Other deaths in police subduing

In Catalonia, the death of businessman Juan Andrés Benítez in 2013 was possibly the most high-profile case of a death during a police restraint. Benítez was handcuffed on the ground, his ankles were tied with a belt, and the police immobilized him with "punches, punches, and knees" in an action they themselves acknowledged was "disproportionate." The six Mossos d'Esquadra officers involved in the restraint admitted in the Barcelona Court of Appeals. a reckless homicide that earned them a conviction Two years in prison, which they didn't have to serve, but which did leave them suspended from work and pay. Two other officers accepted a three-month sentence, which was also suspended, for having erased evidence.

In 2014 A man died while being handcuffed by six Mossos d'Esquadra police officers. in Plaza Molina in Barcelona The arrested man suffered a cardiac arrest and from the first moment several witnesses said that the man was drunk and had attacked the officers Another death by cardiac arrest in police custody. transcended in 2016 to CunitA 39-year-old man, who had an outstanding arrest warrant from a court in Huesca, was arrested by Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) and local police officers.