Man weren't right ... that's a professional opinion by the way.

It's unfortunate that he died, but I'll reserve judgment until the autopsy results are released.

I've dealt with people who are that out of control, but usually with 5 or so other folks to help me hold him down for the restraint and the shot (any more than that and a small interview room just gets too damn crowded).

That guy was seriously going after the cops, and I'm also quite surprised he didn't end up shot. A lot of people don't go down in relation to peppermace, by the way. In the words of a local cop, "I would have been better off to throw the goddamned can at him." Several departments in my area have gotten the new-style Tazers. So far they are working very well, except for the one crazy guy that got Tazered twice AND had the police dog chewing on his ass and still wouldn't stop fighting.

If you do drugs and fuck with people then there's a substantial liklihood that you will get killed. I get so weary of hearing how everyone but the moron who screwed himself up is responsible. I am SURE that the cops asked this guy to calm down and submit to their authority. When he didn't, he accepted responsibility for what followed.

None of those billy club strikes (excessive or not) killed that guy and I think the coroner's report was probably written before the body was even in the morgue just to quiet things down.

And on the matter of excessive force, I think the only people who should be allowed to decide if the force used was excessive are people who have faced that situation in the past and didn't use it. 12 jurors who've never looked into the eyes of someone who had the desire and the means to kill them have no idea how to judge someone's reaction to that situation.

The OC won't do a whole lot unless you get it in his eyes, and even then you've got a 300 pound HALF-BLIND AND ENRAGED man -- not a big improvement.

However, I suspect the cops beat him because they could and used his instinctive reactions as justification to continue the beating. I'm not the most unbiased when it comes to pi..err, cops though.

PCP is some nasty stuff.

Edit: Noticed that much of my information had come from Fox News. Erased portion of post based on such information.

Extract from Tikat's link for the lazy ones: (bold by me)

Add in a dose of cocaine and I'm surpirsed the guy didn't die earlier.