Freddie Gray and the "waffle iron".

[You'll shoot your eye out]

I want to relate a personal experience. Once upon a time, way back in the late '90s I found myself the unfortunate recipient of a free ride downtown courtesy of the Marion County Sheriff's Dept. The paddywagon was driven by a chubby little officer with a charming personality. He explained that he would be my chauffeur for the evening. He went on to say that whatever my troubles were they weren't his fault, that he was only a driver and that he had just gotten there anyway. He explained that If I were decent and conducted myself like a gentleman we would have a delightful evening. After my telling him about my debilitating arthritis and extensive nerve damage, he handcuffed me with two sets of cuffs (end to end) and in front rather than behind my back. After reminding me that he was taking care that I be comfortable and that I should behave myself in gratitude of this, he put me in the seat.

Being his first "fare" we then proceeded all over town to collect other customers. We picked up a guy who was so drunk that he couldn't sit up. The officer asked since I had my hands mostly free, could I assist the drunk to stay upright and off the floor. I did that. Next we picked up a guy who was HORRIBLE. This guy was drunk or high and raging. He was cursing, fighting and spitting. The police hobbled and hog-tied this guy and put him head-long in the cage in the back of the van. Our driver tried to give the wild one the same speech that he gave me but to no avail.

Since the guy was raging the driver said we would go right downtown to get rid of him. The whole time cage-boy was raging and spitting as our easy going officer got angrier and angrier. Soon we hear the trickle of water and smell **** while the cage-guy raged and the officer set his jaw as his face turned red.

Now cage-boy starts kicking, as best as he could anyway, at the sides of the cage. He was kicking, raging, spitting, cursing and pissing for twenty minutes continuously until our officer finally lost his cool........ The driver turned around asking me can I reach to both hold on to something and restrain the drunk guy (remember him?) sitting beside me. I said I could, the officer said "HOLD ON TIGHT!".

As the driver slammed the gas, I swear to god that van must have popped a wheelie! I never felt that kind of acceleration from a production vehicle before! Cage-guy flies to the back of the cage, just in time for the driver to put both feet on the brakes. Cage-guy then flew in a heap to the front of the cage............. Rinse....Repeat.... Three times! HOLY CRAP!

The whole thing took about twenty seconds and the raging idiot was docile as a kitten! Wow. The driver having recovered completely his calm sociable demeanor asked " are you alright? How about your drunk? Everybody OK? Man, did you see that cat? I am sure glad that I didn't run over that cat!

A short time later we entered the basement at the City-County Bldg with eight officers waiting all with rubber gloves. While being questioned whether I was shook up or maybe even injured or not and did I see a cat, I heard them in the back unloading cage-boy and discussing about the "Waffle Iron". The "waffle Iron" turns out to be named such because of the little square pattern of holes in the cage and the corresponding marks left on a guy's face, resembling the marks as if hit with a waffle iron.......

Now this was a long and rambling way to say something that could be put into a much shorter statement, such as; I'm not privy to what happened to Freddie Gray, But I can make an educated guess.

 

[shootersix]

^ thats funny right there!

i did hear a story about the evansville civic center roller coaster, same story, same effect, different "application", if anybody knows the evansville civic center parking lot, lots of speed bumps, close together, and its a huge lot, and its also where the jail used to be.

the paddy wagon driver, would start at the back end, drive about 25 mph, and watch the "fine upstanding citizen" fly around like a ball in an pinball machine!, he said that they 'acted a lot better" after that!

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

What did you do to earn the free ride?

 

[Kutnupe14]

I want to relate a personal experience. Once upon a time, way back in the late '90s I found myself the unfortunate recipient of a free ride downtown courtesy of the Marion County Sheriff's Dept. The paddywagon was driven by a chubby little officer with a charming personality. He explained that he would be my chauffeur for the evening. He went on to say that whatever my troubles were they weren't his fault, that he was only a driver and that he had just gotten there anyway. He explained that If I were decent and conducted myself like a gentleman we would have a delightful evening. After my telling him about my debilitating arthritis and extensive nerve damage, he handcuffed me with two sets of cuffs (end to end) and in front rather than behind my back. After reminding me that he was taking care that I be comfortable and that I should behave myself in gratitude of this, he put me in the seat.

Being his first "fare" we then proceeded all over town to collect other customers. We picked up a guy who was so drunk that he couldn't sit up. The officer asked since I had my hands mostly free, could I assist the drunk to stay upright and off the floor. I did that. Next we picked up a guy who was HORRIBLE. This guy was drunk or high and raging. He was cursing, fighting and spitting. The police hobbled and hog-tied this guy and put him head-long in the cage in the back of the van. Our driver tried to give the wild one the same speech that he gave me but to no avail.

Since the guy was raging the driver said we would go right downtown to get rid of him. The whole time cage-boy was raging and spitting as our easy going officer got angrier and angrier. Soon we hear the trickle of water and smell **** while the cage-guy raged and the officer set his jaw as his face turned red.

Now cage-boy starts kicking, as best as he could anyway, at the sides of the cage. He was kicking, raging, spitting, cursing and pissing for twenty minutes continuously until our officer finally lost his cool........ The driver turned around asking me can I reach to both hold on to something and restrain the drunk guy (remember him?) sitting beside me. I said I could, the officer said "HOLD ON TIGHT!".

As the driver slammed the gas, I swear to god that van must have popped a wheelie! I never felt that kind of acceleration from a production vehicle before! Cage-guy flies to the back of the cage, just in time for the driver to put both feet on the brakes. Cage-guy then flew in a heap to the front of the cage............. Rinse....Repeat.... Three times! HOLY CRAP!

The whole thing took about twenty seconds and the raging idiot was docile as a kitten! Wow. The driver having recovered completely his calm sociable demeanor asked " are you alright? How about your drunk? Everybody OK? Man, did you see that cat? I am sure glad that I didn't run over that cat!

A short time later we entered the basement at the City-County Bldg with eight officers waiting all with rubber gloves. While being questioned whether I was shook up or maybe even injured or not and did I see a cat, I heard them in the back unloading cage-boy and discussing about the "Waffle Iron". The "waffle Iron" turns out to be named such because of the little square pattern of holes in the cage and the corresponding marks left on a guy's face, resembling the marks as if hit with a waffle iron.......

Now this was a long and rambling way to say something that could be put into a much shorter statement, such as; I'm not privy to what happened to Freddie Gray, But I can make an educated guess.

I really hoping that guess is that a rough ride killed Freddie Gray. Ill go with lack of medical attention in a timely manner.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I really hoping that guess is that a rough ride killed Freddie Gray. Ill go with lack of medical attention in a timely manner.

Timely manner treatment of spinal cord injury consists of jack squat other than immobilization and immediate decompression if there's a hematoma. That takes time to diagnose and take to OR. IMO if truly just a spinal injury he was hosed at the time of injury, whatever/whenever that was.

btw, EMS cots have the same principle as waffle iron. So do massage therapists I'm sure. Karate instructors, construction workers, etc...

if you're a jerk, you're often treated rough. That's life.

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

What did you do to earn the free ride?

Um...... Errr....... It was a litany of trumped up charges. Disorderly, intimidation, resisting, interfering...... There were six charges altogether, two of which apparently escapes me at this moment. Long-story-short, an old sawed off little dweeb of an officer thought he could curb-stomp me in front of his men. (I don't think he had the proper boots, and they couldn't have been bigger than size 6 anyway) I wadded him up and threw him down..... Twice. His cohorts laughed at him and refused to help him commit battery. He hated that, so he arrested me.

I beat his charges, unfortunately for the price of $25,000. Thus my ever burning hatred with the fire of 1000 suns for police in particular and authority in general. I feel much better now though, as long as I don't think about it too much..... Or at all.

My intent wasn't to rehash my own treatment in the incident I told about. I was just thinking that a RELATIVELY harmless prank such as the one I saw could POTENTIALLY go wrong, resulting in spine/cervical/cranial injuries like the guy in Boston had. At the time I thought it amusing and not entirely without justification. On the other hand, my mother would say "It's all fun and games until somebody gets an eye put-out".

 

[bwframe]

Um...... Errr....... It was a litany of trumped up charges. Disorderly, intimidation, resisting, interfering...... There were six charges altogether, two of which apparently escapes me at this moment. Long-story-short, an old sawed off little dweeb of an officer thought he could curb-stomp me in front of his men. (I don't think he had the proper boots, and they couldn't have been bigger than size 6 anyway) I wadded him up and threw him down..... Twice. His cohorts laughed at him and refused to help him commit battery. He hated that, so he arrested me.

I beat his charges, unfortunately for the price of $25,000. Thus my ever burning hatred with the fire of 1000 suns for police in particular and authority in general. I feel much better now though, as long as I don't think about it too much..... Or at all...

At least you still have your sense of humor, along with your cop hatred. This thread is hilarious...

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

At least you still have your sense of humor, along with your cop hatred. This thread is hilarious...

That was a long time ago. Every cop I see nowadays is young enough to be my kid, or kid brother at least. It's useless to be mean to them, they all have no Idea what I'm mad about. They will just think "Geez, what's eating at the old dude?". I'm sure Frank will help me out and realign my thinking to a focused world view if I will just give him a chance, but I'm not taking beatings like I used to. I'm not wadding guys up and throwing them down any more either!

You have all heard of unrequited love? I have unrequited hatred...... So much to give and nobody to heap it onto.

Now in my old age, I just want everybody to get the hell off my lawn........

 

[BehindBlueI's]

That was a long time ago. Every cop I see nowadays is young enough to be my kid, or kid brother at least. It's useless to be mean to them, they all have no Idea what I'm mad about. They will just think "Geez, what's eating at the old dude?". I'm sure Frank will help me out and realign my thinking to a focused world view if I will just give him a chance, but I'm not taking beatings like I used to. I'm not wadding guys up and throwing them down any more either!

You have all heard of unrequited love? I have unrequited hatred...... So much to give and nobody to heap it onto.

Now in my old age, I just want everybody to get the hell off my lawn........

 

[Frank_N_Stein]

I'm sure Frank will help me out and realign my thinking to a focused world view if I will just give him a chance, but I'm not taking beatings like I used to.

I'm not the smartest guy in the world so I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this. You can rest assured though that I don't have any desire to be in close enough proximity to you to "realign your thinking."

 

[CountryBoy19]

Timely manner treatment of spinal cord injury consists of jack squat other than immobilization and immediate decompression if there's a hematoma. That takes time to diagnose and take to OR. IMO if truly just a spinal injury he was hosed at the time of injury, whatever/whenever that was.

btw, EMS cots have the same principle as waffle iron. So do massage therapists I'm sure. Karate instructors, construction workers, etc...

if you're a jerk, you're often treated rough. That's life.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional.

Just asking a question here: while I realize that immediate medical attention doesn't "unbreak" things that are "broken", in the case of a spinal injury, considering the further treatment of Gray, wouldn't immediate medical attention (immobilization) possibly prevent further injury to his spine if the paddy wagon was a "rough ride" like that mentioned above? Even if he entered the paddy wagon with the spinal injury, it certainly could have been worsened by an unrestrained ride without immobilization of the injury site right?

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

I'm not the smartest guy in the world so I'm not sure what exactly you mean by this. You can rest assured though that I don't have any desire to be in close enough proximity to you to "realign your thinking."

It was suggested a while back that you were giving out expert curb-stompings free as a public service. Since my previous curb stomping was faulty and didn't result in the proper blind compliance Pavlovian effect, I thought that you would volunteer to replace it with the latest new more effective model. You know, sort of a public outreach gesture. Winning hearts and minds.

Your summary rejection only serves to deepen the rift. It's just more indication of the breakdown of the symbiotic police/public relationship. My social responsibility now is to loot and burn, but since I am such an anti-social guy I believe I will just stay home and watch Netflix instead. 'Just my little way of "Sticking it to the man!"

Hey, how did this get to be about me anyway? I was talking about the other guy in the beginning. You know, guy died, riots ensue, news at noon. What the heck, I don't even remember what thread this is now. Where is my wallet?

 

[jsharmon7]

Hey, YSYEO, if you go out looting and burning by yourself you only come across as a crazy person. If you can get enough friends together, then it becomes a "protest" in the eyes of the media. The only difference is the number of people, but these minor details are apparently important.

 

[churchmouse]

In looking at the limited Video it looks like he is in some serious pain when they are lifting him up.
Is he already hurt and was he further injured in the "Ride"

 

[You'll shoot your eye out]

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional.

Just asking a question here: while I realize that immediate medical attention doesn't "unbreak" things that are "broken", in the case of a spinal injury, considering the further treatment of Gray, wouldn't immediate medical attention (immobilization) possibly prevent further injury to his spine if the paddy wagon was a "rough ride" like that mentioned above? Even if he entered the paddy wagon with the spinal injury, it certainly could have been worsened by an unrestrained ride without immobilization of the injury site right?

Yes you are right. I was kind of getting at the concept that if one was unruly enough to earn a "rough ride" It was possible to take a bad bounce and get into trouble without ever getting beat up in the first place.

The "rough ride" is a common enough response to a drunken rage that there are several cute slang names for it. Waffle iron, Evansville roller coaster, etc. You don't normally expect that a mild roughing up results in a broken neck, but s**t happens. People are in various conditions or states of health, occasionally just a freak bounce could break a guy's neck. Of the thousands of rough rides over the years this one guy dies from it. Cops and criminals play rough. In my incident of the OP even I was playing rough and that started with me being a bystander. When that officer blindsided me I threw him on the ground. I suppose both of us could have been injured from playing rough...... It's a risk.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional.

Just asking a question here: while I realize that immediate medical attention doesn't "unbreak" things that are "broken", in the case of a spinal injury, considering the further treatment of Gray, wouldn't immediate medical attention (immobilization) possibly prevent further injury to his spine if the paddy wagon was a "rough ride" like that mentioned above? Even if he entered the paddy wagon with the spinal injury, it certainly could have been worsened by an unrestrained ride without immobilization of the injury site right?

Yes. Spinal trauma can be further injury waiting to happen. A fractured but stable vertebrae may not impinge on the cord at the moment but with improper movement can, and has far less ability to resist manipulation so a normal motion may turn it from stable to unstable. It can also be progressive as swelling in an area puts further stress on the cord and continuing to manipulate a damaged region can further the swelling.