This is the police! Comply and we will not kill you!

Prague, CZ
8 July 2013
By Thomas Secrest

Look at the picture to the left very carefully. You will see that the officer, who is substantially larger and stronger than the young woman he is killing, is pressing the index and middle finger of his right hand into the neck of the woman, while at the same time he is pressing the first knuckles of his index and middle fingers of his left hand into the left side of her neck.

Now look carefully at his face. It is a horrible image. He doesn't look threatened, he doesn't look worried, he looks like a child who after demanding something, didn't get and is about to explode with rage. The grimace on his face is not one of pain, but of a thug trying hard to hurt someone. It took me a while to put my finger on it, but there is also something else that can be read in his face -- perverted gratification. He doesn't feel bad about what he's doing, he's enjoying it.

Now look at the picture to the right. In case you were wondering what he was pressing on, he is pressing on the left and right common carotid arteries. These vessels supply, most, and I really

mean most, of the blood to the brain. If you occlude these vessels long enough, and it doesn't take long, you can induce a stroke, producing dangerous slowing of the heart or with longer compression, you can kill the brain.

He is also compressing her airway so she can't breathe. So to be clear, he is both choking and strangling this young woman.

Now look back at the picture above. Look at that faint line on her neck that starts between the fingers on his right hand and runs across to the same point on his left hand. That line it her hyoid bone. It is a delicate U-shaped bone that sits on the top of the larynx. He is pressing hard on the top of the U. If he breaks that bone (the bottom of the U), then all the kings horses and all the kings men couldn't keep her alive.

The police officer in the picture is doing exactly what you would do if you were trying to kill a woman from behind, who couldn't use her arms to defend herself.

Is she a treat to him? Dose she know kung fu? Was she beating him about the face and head? No to all these, in fact she can't use her arms at all (which is something you can see in this picture). She is no threat other than she refused to do what he wanted and in his rage (look at the face again) he is trying to kill her.

That he stops short of killing her, in no way exonerates him. It is absolutely no different that if a man is trying to kill his wife or girlfriend, but doesn't. Saying, "but I didn't kill her" is not really a great defense.

For your reading enjoyment this link will take you to a police publication that defends the use of this technique. To be quite honest I was more than a little disturbed by what I read.

The main defense was very interesting. Right or wrong, the police are going to force you to do what they want, even if what they want violates your rights as a citizen. Therefore, since you are going to comply (one way or another), using this technique (carotid artery pressure) means they are less likely to have to Taser you, club you, punch you, kick you or shoot you as part of forcing you to do what they want.

After reading the police defense of the technique, I guess the girl in the picture above, should consider herself LUCKY! So, when it happens to you, just remember how lucky you are.

Dark times are coming.