College student locked away, forgotten in DEA holding cell for four days, no food, water or toilet

Tampa Bay Times ^ | 5/3/2012 | Jeff McDonald

[old and tired]

This was no accident. He pissed some cop off somewhere down the line.

It had to have been an accident. Otherwise, it was attempted murder, pure and simple.

[Venturer]

Actually a man in good health will not die in 5 days.

I believe they knew where he was. I cannot imagine a cell block in this day and age that is not under camera surveilance or someone does not visit it for that stretch of time.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

I simply don't care about druggies.

You simply don't get it. This has nothing to do with 'druggies,' and everything to do with a horrendous abuse of power by Federal (and local) government officials.

I don't care if it was intentional or if the people involved were simply incompetent - locking someone away for four days without food, water, or toilet facilities is not someting we can tolerate from the government. Every American should care about that. Certainly every Freeper should care about this - locking someone away without food, water or toilet facilities is about as far from the principles of freedom and limited government as you can get.

[rmlew]

Perhaps you missed the part about kidney failure. The 20 year old will be on dialysis for the rest of his shortened life.

My only issue with this is that he is not able to personally sue the individuals involved and have the thugs with badges loose their pensions.

[Texas Songwriter]

Did the DEA place the powdery material in his cell for him to ingest...gives a positive test....mitigates against him being a good guy. The DEA seems to be one big clusterf... after another. Chong should own the DEA after this. They are out of control.

[Texas Songwriter]

Excessive? They FORGOT about him.

I suppose the next thing to ask is how many like him came before? How many went, not 4 days, but 7 or 8 or l0? If they are that forgetful should they be allowed to keep the keys to the cell? Who is checking on these people each day? Where are those records kept? Has the DEA ever opened up the door to find only a skeleton? Do they feed prisoners? Do they check if prisoners committed suicide (more common than you might think)? Do they forget about diabetics or heart patients who need medicine, perhaps several times a day.

I am reminded of Hildabeast when asked about finding the lost Rose Law Firms records...her reply...."Coulda, woulda, shoulda,...lets move on."

They forgot,...my ass.

[Boogieman]

“Why I don’t feel outraged?”

I guess because your government torturing its citizens on your behalf is not outrageous to you? Or maybe not outrageous, so long as they are citizens that you deem less worthy of constitutional protections than others?

[Boogieman]

“While 4 days in a cell without water, food or toilet is excessive, this is a healthy 23 year old and he was not beaten, tortured or denigrated in any way by his captors.”

Sorry, but 4 days without food and water IS torture.

[Michael.SF.]

Let's back up; Your first post was: When Barack Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, due process became a thing of the past.

Since Bush signed the same law first, due process was lost at that time, thus it was already a thing of the past when Obama renewed the law.

[Boogieman]

“If you want to end the war on drugs and cut the statist war on drugs off at the knees, stop doing drugs.
.....
It’s been a hundred years since the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Act, and drug abuse rate is the same now as it was then.”

You admit two sentences later that drug abuse is pretty much constant, no matter what we do. Obviously, if people will never “stop doing drugs”, then your solution to the statist drug war is a utopian fantasy. It’s no saner than when lefties state that Communism will work great, if we just try it one more time.

[chessplayer]

Perhaps you missed the part about kidney failure. The 20 year old will be on dialysis for the rest of his shortened life.

---

Yup. Hooked up to a machine 7-8 hours a day 3-4 days a week for the rest of his life. And some in here consider that fair punishment for his crime,,,a crime he was never charged with in the first place. The ones who think what they did to him is no big deal are the sort of folks that would have been happy running a gulag in the USSR.

[frithguild]

That's not enough

I would not argue too much with that if there was permanent bodily injury.

[frithguild]

The 20 year old will be on dialysis for the rest of his shortened life Where has this been established?

[Shane]

Just what the hell is you point? You are making a fool of yourself. The law was not simply renewed, it was substantially enhanced to the detriment of our citizens. You are nit picking, while others are more concerned with the posted issue of improper detention. Please just go away with your foolish comments.

[Michael.SF.]

Your lack of recognizing the error you made in the first post demonstrates an astounding inability to grasp the fact of the error you made.

I will go away as when one argues with a fool, others will not know the difference.

[Shane]

Yes, PLEASE just go away!