This points out a factor i could not speak to very well. But with this article the pieces fall into place. When our law enforcers lose their empathy for other living beings besides other police it’s time to quit. Walk away before you hurt someone without cause. This also points more to the heart of the matter in Ferguson. The hardware is unimportant. With good policy in place irrelevant until actually needed.

It’s fine with me when night vision is used to find a fleeing armed man in a neighborhood. Or a heavily armored truck is put between a wounded person and active shooter. If anarchists or others manage to turn a May Day protest into a dangerous riot, I’ll have no problem with an LRAD being used to disperse a truly violent crowd.

But again here is the real heart and soul of the matter. Our law officers must have some empathy for the citizens. That’s the first filter to keep unreasoning anger away. Apply some empathy, good police methods and the right gear for the situation we have great policing. I’d say to any officer, if you think of other humans as animals retire or quit. if your first emotion upon seeing a guy on the street is contempt, go home. If you can’t believe a man making a plea to simply stay alive, go home, quit LAPD and get some help. You need it. Maybe that’s my empathy at work.

In the half-hour or so after his arrest late one night last September, Azucena said over and over that he was struggling for breath. Numerous LAPD officers and sergeants heard his pleas for medical attention but ignored them even as his condition visibly worsened.

“You can breathe just fine,” one sergeant told him. “You can talk, so you can breathe.”

Azucena could not walk or stand by the time officers brought him to a South Los Angeles police station for booking. So they carried him into a cell, leaving him lying face-down on the floor. He was soon unconscious. When paramedics arrived shortly after, Azucena’s heart had stopped.

I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe…. I have asthma, I have asthma.

- Jorge Azucena, who died in police custody

The chilling account of how Azucena died is told in two reports made public this week. After a Times article last year on the circumstances surrounding Azucena’s death, the reports offer new details into the man’s desperate and futile attempts to convince officers his lungs were succumbing to what coroner’s officials determined was most likely an asthma attack.

More: Police Failed to Heed Pleas as Man Died, Reports Say - LA Times