WEBVTT - Part One: Excited Delirium: How Cops Invented A Disease 0:00:02.880 --> 0:00:07.120 Genocide ship. Okay, fuck um Sophie helped me out here. 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:09.360 I was just shouting genocide. That's not a good way 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:15.120 to open a podcast. Um No, that's basically the same 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:19.040 as shouting genocide. Um. This is Behind the Bastards in 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:24.919 the podcast not once been introduced like an actual professional. 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:29.880 One time you did it like so proci But you 0:00:29.920 --> 0:00:33.360 were doing a bit. Oh, I was doing a bit. 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:36.479 That must have been the ascid episode. I've forgotten which 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:40.800 episode was the won't tell me? Will tell me your series? 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.400 Of Which episode do you think Robert was fully on 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:48.120 acid for when we recorded? It's one of the older episodes. Yeah, 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:51.400 I mean, and if you're really really Behind the Bastards 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:53.040 fan trying to figure out which one I was just 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.640 fucking blazed on two c I for. But that's a 0:00:56.680 --> 0:00:59.480 story for another day. This is Behind the Bastards podcast, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.840 worst people all the history. Tell you all about him? 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:08.120 My guest today, Mr Ben Bolan, Ben, how are you doing? 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:11.800 I'm so excited, you know, guys, it's it's it's a 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.319 wild time. I snuck into this office where I'm sitting 0:01:15.400 --> 0:01:19.480 in the darkness at turn Off Video because wifi' is weird, 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:24.039 because everything is kind of terrible in general. Uh, but uh, 0:01:24.400 --> 0:01:27.280 you know, it's a it's a bright light, uh, to 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.520 to be together with you guys today. I wanted to 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.160 tell you I was talking Robert was Sophie earlier. I 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.760 really enjoyed the episode you guys did on the Protocols 0:01:37.840 --> 0:01:40.200 of the Elders of Zion. I thought that was a 0:01:41.760 --> 0:01:52.480 protocol stand. I'm really sad that that doesn't have his 0:01:52.600 --> 0:01:55.120 video on because I would have loved seen your face too. 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:03.400 Oh yeah, yeah, because I thought it was stuffed people. 0:02:03.640 --> 0:02:07.400 UM need to know about the genesis or the evolution 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:10.600 of that kind of stuff and just how dangerous it is. 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:16.360 So I wanted to just shout out that episode in particular. Um, 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:18.799 and I do wish I had I wish I had 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:21.399 the video on. I think all three of us are 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.720 far flung across the country right now, but it's really 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:29.839 great to see you guys scattered to the winds. Yeah, 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:32.119 it's great to kind of see you and your Mark 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.960 Ruffalo icon. Yeah, Ben, this is actually speaking of the 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:36.960 Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This has been a 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.080 great week for genocide, or I should say this has 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:46.760 been a great week for recognizing historical genocides media. Yeah, 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.360 well what what where? This has nothing to do with 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.480 the episode, but I think it's nothing pretty rad. Joe Biden, 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.839 recognized for the was the first American president last week 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:58.560 to recognize the genocide of the Armenians that started in 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.960 nineteen fifteen and hasn't really ended by a lot of accounts, um, 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.679 which no other president had the had the cojones to 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.480 do up until now. And the best thing that well, 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.000 not the best thing about it, but a rad thing 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:14.040 about it, is that urda One, the dictator of Turkey, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:18.000 um shot back at the United States by threatening to 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.800 recognize the genocide of the Native Americans that the US committed. 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:25.200 And so we're now in this it's like Cold war 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:29.800 nuclear brinksmanship, but with the recognition of historic crimes against humanity. 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:38.400 And I'm yeah, yeah, let's keep recognizing genocides. Yeah, like, hey, 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:41.920 watch out, buddy. I might also start telling the truth 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.400 to school children. Yeah, I'll talk about all the horrible things. 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.200 You're cut good, let's throw be in here, fuck it, 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:53.960 let's recognize all the genocides. Um. So yeah, this is 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:57.000 actually one of those weird times where like stupid political 0:03:57.040 --> 0:04:01.080 dick measuring is seeming seems to be objectively Pause. Now 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:05.520 everybody's talking about different genocides committed by imperial powers, which 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:14.360 I'm supportive of, so good, good speaking of genocide, Ben, Wow, 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.159 you can make a case that American policing has a 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:21.920 lot in common with different genocidal regimes throughout history, namely 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:25.400 in the use of state power to oppress specific racial 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.039 and religious groups. M m m m. That's kind of 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:32.960 what we're talking about. Not not not quite, but we're 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.320 talking about Have you ever heard of the term excited delirium? Ben, 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.840 I have actually heard of the term excited delirium. Though, 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:45.640 I am going to be honest with you, Robert Sylphe, 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.640 I am not caught up with the textbook definition there. 0:04:48.680 --> 0:04:53.279 What are we talking so excited delirium? In short, just 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.440 to introduce the concept is a lot of doctors would 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:01.919 argue is a faked disease invented by police to justify murder. 0:05:03.520 --> 0:05:05.680 And that's what we're talking about today. Now the story 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:08.240 gets much more complicated and shady than that. This is 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:11.640 a wheel really gonna piss you off? Um, But I 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:13.840 think I should start um with kind of the most 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.599 recent touch point for the term excited delirium, which was 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.440 the killing of George Floyd by now convicted murderer Derek 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:25.960 Chauvin UM, formerly a police officer. When Derek Chauvin put 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:28.440 his knee in his entire body weight on George Floyd's 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.000 neck for like eight minutes or so, uh, the other 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.880 cops present with him knew that something was wrong. One officer, 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.120 a fellow named Lane, asked Chauvin should we roll him 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.960 on his side. Chauvin declined, saying no, staying put where 0:05:41.960 --> 0:05:44.680 we got him. Officer Lane then said, I am worried 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:49.040 about excited delirium or whatever. Now, first off, that's a 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:57.239 very casual or whatever or whatever. Right, yes, whatever. Whenever 0:05:57.480 --> 0:06:00.680 somebody adds or whatever at the end of a sentence, 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.440 that means they don't care. That's like when somebody adds 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.840 for you at the end of a compliment that means 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:09.200 they don't like you. Yeah, it's it's Can you imagine 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:10.880 like going into the doctor and being like, yeah, your 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.640 kidneys are probably shutting down or whatever, like you you 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:18.800 would you would not feel great about that doctor. Yeah. Um. 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.800 So the way he used it, excited delirium may kind 0:06:21.800 --> 0:06:23.840 of seem like a nonsense term to you, even if 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:25.600 you are a medical professional. I know we have a 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:30.240 number listening, because most doctors do not recognize excited delirium 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.840 as a thing. If you don't know the history I'm 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:35.480 about to go over today, that term probably flew over 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:37.719 your head. Is just a piece of cop jargon. Um, 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.320 someone who isn't a doctor trying to diagnose a man 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.360 struggling to breathe. But the reality of what that term 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.880 means and how it's used is actually much more sinister 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:48.400 than that. You might be aware that the initial press 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.440 release the Minneapolis Police sent out after Floyd's death was 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:57.280 man dies after medical incident during police interaction, um, which 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:02.480 is yeah, medical and sid it. I mean technically that's 0:07:02.520 --> 0:07:04.560 like you shoot somewhat to death and you're like, well, 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:07.200 he had a medical incident as a result of the 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.320 lack of blood in his body, and it's like, that's 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:14.440 not inaccurate, but let's tell THEO. But anyway, you're probably 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:17.480 aware that Chauvin's defense attorney, in a constellation of right 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.440 wing bad faith actors, blamed Mr. Floyd's death on a 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.640 drug overdose. What you might not be aware of is 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:26.440 that the term excited delirium is more or less an 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:29.800 invented condition created mostly by a mixture of cops and 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:33.320 the Axon Corporation who make tasers in order to blame 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.280 mostly black men murdered by the police for their own deaths. 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:38.920 The whole story of this is bug fuck and it 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:40.520 will make you want to do things that put the 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.120 burning of the Third Precinct to shame. Um. The most 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:48.440 immediate precursor to excited delirium, the modern term was something 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.040 called Bell's mania, and Bell's mania was first described in 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:56.000 eighteen forty nine by Dr Luther beav Luther V. Bell 0:07:56.400 --> 0:07:59.360 in a publication with the no ship real name, The 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:10.480 American Journal of Insanity. I mean, do the page numbers 0:08:10.520 --> 0:08:13.960 go sequentially or like, how how weird are they getting 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:15.920 with it? You know? And then I guess it's a 0:08:15.960 --> 0:08:19.120 pretty boring journal. I kind of want to put out 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.040 a journal that just cut it, that's just titled You're 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:25.240 not gonna believe this fucking ship just weird physics and 0:08:25.280 --> 0:08:30.240 deep sea fish wild right, Yes, yes, And there's like 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:33.719 always one article about poop, just so we can keep 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.600 it on the nose enough. So Luther Bell published an 0:08:37.640 --> 0:08:40.680 article in the American Journal of Insanity based on his 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.120 work at the psychiatric ward at the Clean Hospital in Boston. 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:47.439 He observed forty patients admitted with what he called fever 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.880 in delirium, and noted that many of them went from 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:54.600 experiencing hallucinations, agitation, and fever to death within several weeks 0:08:54.600 --> 0:08:57.160 of admission. Now Bell was taking notes on a very 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:00.400 real phenomenon, or at least a series of different aminons 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:02.959 that kind of presented in similar ways. The most likely 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.360 cause from most of the symptoms he was observing was 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.080 basically a lack of antipsychotic medications, which didn't exist at 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.280 the time he was doing his work. When those were 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:16.160 developed in the nineteen fifties, Bell's mania grew markedly less 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:20.040 common as a diagnosis. Doctors today now recognized that most 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.080 of Bell's patients who died were likely suffering not from 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.280 any kind of mania, but from infectious or autoimmune encephalitis, 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.920 something that also became much easier to recognize and treat 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:31.680 in the early nineteen twenties. These were a lot of 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:34.880 people who are put in institutions with poor sanitary standards. 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:36.960 They died as a result of that, but because they 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:40.480 were kind of acting erratic and agitated and you know, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.080 shrieking and stuff. He just kind of like, oh, this 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:45.160 is some sort of mania, right. The realities they have 0:09:45.280 --> 0:09:49.280 fucking encephalitis in most cases, and um antipsychotic medications would 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:50.720 have dealt with most of the rest of the things. 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:52.920 But at the time, you know, Bell is not a 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:55.240 bad guy here, He's he's doing the best or not 0:09:55.320 --> 0:09:57.280 to my knowledge based on what I can read, he 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.080 seems like he's doing the best he can to diagnose 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:00.720 the symptom and he just gets it wrong because it's 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.360 sucking eighteen fifty and no one knew anything, you know, right, 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:09.520 this is also people forget you know, we put um there. 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.880 There are people who have done such excellent, meaningful work 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:17.559 in the world of medicine, but we forget that medicine 0:10:17.679 --> 0:10:22.960 as an institution has these deep systemic problems. Like what 0:10:23.000 --> 0:10:25.400 was the guy's name, Samuel Weiss, the guy who got 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.720 the ship beat out of him for asking doctors to 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:34.439 wash their hands. Yeah, that was a huge controversy. So 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.520 I'm like, I I know, like there, I love that 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:40.520 you said bad faith actors, man, because there are people 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.240 who are working in good faith assiduously with the best 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.640 information they have at the time. So I feel like 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:53.079 what you're saying about Dr Luther Bell is that he's 0:10:53.760 --> 0:10:57.439 not trying to be a dick, right and he not 0:10:57.520 --> 0:11:01.440 to knowledge. Yeah, not not to what we what we 0:11:01.520 --> 0:11:05.000 understand from the record. And uh, I would I would 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.520 ask you, you know, I know we're going somewhere with this, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.520 but I want to think about this like one of 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:12.679 the big questions because I think I see where we're 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:15.360 going here, Robert. One of the big questions is how 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:20.000 would he feel about the way the successor of his 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:23.960 ideas being used? Right? Yeah, And I don't know enough 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:28.120 about Bell to tell you that, um, but it's it's 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:31.840 it's going to go to some unexplained, unexpected places. He certainly, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:33.880 I don't think saw this coming when he was he 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.360 was doing his best to kind of diagnose what he 0:11:36.400 --> 0:11:39.920 thought was a single syndrome. Um And kind of that 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:42.800 story I just told Bell diagnosed of this mania in 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:45.600 the eighteen fifties, and then in the nineteen fifties, because 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.600 of better medications, it goes away. That would probably be 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:51.040 the end of the story of Bell's mania if it 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:55.360 weren't for a friend of the pod cocaine. Yes, in 0:11:55.440 --> 0:12:01.199 the eighties cocaine. In seventies, cocaine became markedly more common 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.360 as a drug of abuse. Uh and in nineteen eighty five, 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.080 in particular, Miami was rocked by a sudden spate of 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.040 deaths among black female sex workers. Thirty two women in 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:15.120 total died, and upon initial examination, their deaths seemed inexplicable. 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:18.320 The only hint medical examiners in police had was the 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.760 fact that they all had some amount of cocaine and 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:26.040 other drugs in their system. Charles Wetley, a forensics pathologist, decided, 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.520 based on nothing really, that a combination of cocaine use 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:33.319 and sexual intercourse had killed the women. Whatley decided that 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.800 with chronic cocaine use quote, the male of the species 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.680 becomes psychotic and the female of the species dies in 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:47.600 relation to sex, which is an incredible It's the coke 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:51.160 and fucking that's killing them. It makes men crazy and 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:56.600 it makes women die. Wow. Well, and this is nineteen 0:12:56.679 --> 0:12:59.000 eighty five, right, Bell had we have an excuse for 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:02.040 him getting stuff wrong. It's eighteen fifty people most of 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:06.400 medicine involved tax saws than Charles Whatley. There's no excuse 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:10.720 to be saying this ship um he wrote, quote, my 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.280 gut feeling is that this is a terminal event that 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:16.640 follows chronic use of crack cocaine affecting the nerve receptors 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:20.200 in the brain. What Lee started using the term excited 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.560 delirium to refer to this deadly cocaine fueled mania he 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.320 was pretty sure had to exist. Of course he was 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.960 fucking wrong. Better medical examiners and detectives looked into the deaths, 0:13:30.960 --> 0:13:33.280 exhumed a number of bodies and found that the women 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:36.960 had all been exphyxiated by a serial killer. Excited delirium 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.360 had not caused their deaths. But Whatley was off to 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.560 the races now, and the condition he'd more or less 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.160 invented provided a perfect scapegoat for cops who were increasingly 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:48.440 getting flak overall the black people they murdered in custody. 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.679 So that's and and Whatley really pulls back to excited 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:54.840 delirium to say, like, I'm not the first guy recognizing this. 0:13:54.880 --> 0:13:57.200 You know, there's a history of the medical uh and 0:13:57.240 --> 0:13:59.480 it went away in the nineteen fifties, but then cocaine 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:01.480 brought it back act And this is you know, you 0:14:01.559 --> 0:14:04.679 can't divorce this entirely from the War on drugs, Right, 0:14:04.720 --> 0:14:06.600 You've got Reagan and the White House. People are starting 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.280 to flip out about the dangers of cocaine and crack. 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.079 In particular, crack is you know, more associated with the 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.880 used by by use for people who aren't white and rich, 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.800 so it gets really demonized, and Wetley provides a way 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.360 to blame people for their own deaths when in the 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.360 case like the thing that the name excited delirium comes 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.160 from a bunch of female black sex workers getting murdered 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.160 by a serial killer, and Wetley's immediate jump is like, no, 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.560 it must be their fault. You know, he'd like completely 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.000 misses what it actually happened. Yeah, yeah, it's real fucked up. 0:14:38.160 --> 0:14:41.280 It's mind boggling to me because this is something that 0:14:41.480 --> 0:14:46.360 is that is new information. The idea that one could 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:52.040 take this meta level of victim blaming, like to the extreme, 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.840 it's over nine thousand level of victim blaming and then 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.640 say uh, and then have it been picked up as 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:03.000 a convenient cause. I mean, you know, we've always all 0:15:03.040 --> 0:15:06.080 of us actually on the shows that and that hang 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:09.440 out together and actual friends were all very well aware 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:13.560 of the the problems with the official narrative of the 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:17.880 crack cocaine epidemic. But you know, it's like the big question, uh, 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:21.360 the big question about arms races too, right, like who's 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:26.480 manufacturing the guts? Right, Who's who's growing the coca plants? 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.560 Because it's certainly not someone in like a you know, 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.960 Los Angeles. Uh. So it feels like it feels like 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:37.960 this is beyond incompetence. I would argue, it feels like 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:44.880 this guy is intentionally skipping some cognitive steps to find 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:48.480 this interesting. Yeah, we're we're gonna be talking about wet 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:51.040 Ley a bit later in the episode, so keep it. 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.840 Put a pin in that one, ben So got it. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:59.800 The excited delirium diagnosis spreads like wildfire after Since there 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.680 were also an awful lot of cocaine overdoses in this period, 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:06.760 very few people noticed anything fishy. One group of researchers 0:16:06.760 --> 0:16:10.000 in nineteen ninety seven, writing for the Journal of Forensic Science, 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:14.400 did decide to investigate the troubling rise and excited delirium deaths. 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.800 Quote from a registry of all cocaine related deaths in 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.960 Dade County, Florida, from nineteen sixty nine to nineteen ninety 0:16:20.960 --> 0:16:23.880 fifty eight. Excited delirium deaths were compared with a hundred 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.480 and twenty five victims of accidental cocaine overdose without excited 0:16:27.520 --> 0:16:30.840 delirium compared with controls e d d s. Excited delirium 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:33.680 deaths were more frequently black, male, and younger. They were 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:35.920 less likely to have a low body mass index, and 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:38.480 more likely to have died in police custody, to have 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.680 received medical treatment immediately before death, to have survived for 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:44.880 a longer period, to have developed hyperthermia, and to have 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:49.720 died in summer months. In other words, most accidental cocaine 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:53.520 toxicity deaths were of white people who died suddenly, generally 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:55.440 not near police, because they were partying and doing a 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:57.640 bunch of cocaine right, and they just dropped dead suddenly 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:02.080 because their heart blows up. Right. Meanwhile, black excited delirium 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.520 cocaine overdose deaths were nearly all black people who had 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:08.960 been restrained by law enforcement immediately prior to their death. 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:13.199 The study also noted that these excited delirium cocaine overdoses 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:16.200 tended to have much less cocaine in their system than 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.840 the white cocaine overdoses, so these are all getting blamed 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.920 on cocaine. But the excited delirium deaths are overwhelmingly black, 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:25.760 overwhelmingly involved police use of force, and they have a 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:27.679 lot less cocaine in their systems than the people who 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.440 are just dying of cocaine good stuff. Does it add 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:36.840 up right, say the quiet part out loud, Yes, Yeah, 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:39.719 it's It was pretty obvious to the to the researchers 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:42.919 paying attention from the beginning what was happening. But again 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:45.720 most people don't really catch on at this stage. Now, 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:48.280 if you can read between the lines just a little bit, 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:50.840 the picture is very clear. Cops were arresting black people 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:54.040 for drug possession and restraining them, Like Derek Chauvin. A 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.440 lot of these cops restrained their suspects in a way 0:17:56.440 --> 0:17:59.560 that caused death. Then they blamed that death on cocaine 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.800 and wrote the deaths off as excited delirium cocaine overdoses. 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.800 Dtor Michael baden Of, a prominent forensic pathologist who studies 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.439 deaths in police custody and was once the chief medical 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.520 Examiner for New York City, explained to Brookings, quote, this 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.600 is the germination of excited delirium. The same people who 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.879 did these prostitution deaths now applied excited delirium to cocaine 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:22.920 users in Miami and people who died while being subdued 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.800 by police. By the late nineteen nineties, good doctors had 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.399 started to realize what was going on, and a series 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.119 of studies were published analyzing all these excited delirium deaths. 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.520 It became increasingly clear that the key commonality in most 0:18:36.560 --> 0:18:39.600 of these deaths was not cocaine or any behavior on 0:18:39.640 --> 0:18:41.719 the part of the deceased, but the fact that they 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.520 had been put in police custody and that less lethal 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.560 weapons like mace or taser's had been used on them. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.320 One analysis and the Canadian Medical Association Journal found quote 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.720 in all twenty one cases of unexpected death associated with 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:58.280 excited delirium, the deaths were associated with restraint for violent 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:01.280 agitation and hyperactivity, with a person either in a prone 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:04.600 position eighteen people eighty six percent or subjected to pressure 0:19:04.600 --> 0:19:07.800 on the neck three people fourteen percent. All those who 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.639 died had suddenly lapsed into tranquility shortly after being restrained. 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.879 The excited delirium was caused by a psychiatric disorder in 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.679 twelve people fifty seven percent, and by cocaine induced psychosis 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.639 in eight percent, thirty eight and eight people, thirty eight percent, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.080 eighteen people, eighty six percent were in police custody when 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.800 they died. Four nineteen percent had been sprayed with mace, 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.320 and heart disease was found in another four At autopsy, 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.200 the blood level of cocaine and those whose excited delirium 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:37.560 was cocaine induced was similar to levels found in recreational 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.360 cocaine users and lower than levels found in people who 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.919 died from cocaine intoxication. Now, it's hard to know the 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.240 precise scope of the problem, but excited delirium deaths are 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:52.119 based on the evidence we have extremely common. Eleven percent 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:55.080 of all deaths and police custody in Maryland are attributed 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.479 to excited delirium. In the last decade, at least fifty 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.040 three people have died in custom in Florida. Some council 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:03.800 were like eighty five and we're blamed on what was 0:20:03.840 --> 0:20:07.240 more or less a fake cause of death, excited delirium. Today, 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:10.960 law enforcement officers are routinely taught in training that excited 0:20:10.960 --> 0:20:14.720 delirium is a condition characterized by sudden aggression and distress, 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.600 generally brought on by the use of illegal substances and 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.920 often ending in sudden death. Excited delirium is not recognized 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.120 as a thing by the American Medical Association, the American 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:29.840 Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization, or the European Society 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.399 of Emergency Medicine, which represents doctors in thirty countries. It 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:36.080 is not listed in the diagnosis in the Diagnostic and 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:39.160 Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders the d s M five. 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:42.320 As far as I can tell, only two organizations of 0:20:42.359 --> 0:20:45.960 physicians recognize it as a thing, the American College of 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:51.439 Emergency Physicians and its British counterpart. And the story of 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.040 why that is is pretty shady. But before we get 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:59.000 into that, you know what else is shady, Ben, the 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:07.280 products and services support this podcast. We are back, and 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:10.560 I've just promised been that that um, this is going 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.840 to get a lot worse, uh so much worse. Um 0:21:13.880 --> 0:21:16.240 And I'm making that promise to all of you. By 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:20.440 the end of this again, you'll be thinking about crimes, um, 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.679 which is you know, always always the goal here at 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:27.560 behind the bastards, uh, make you think about crimes, theoretical 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:35.120 minecraft crimes. So we're talking about I mentioned earlier, basically 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:40.480 all the vast majority of like reputable international medical organizations 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.400 where it's like a bunch of doctors and nurses and stuff. Uh, 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.240 do not recognize excited delirium as a thing. That d 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:48.439 s M does not recognize it as a thing, But 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.440 the American College of Emergency Physicians in its British counterpart 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:53.919 do And the why of that is a very shady story. 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:56.639 But before we get into that really quickly, maybe not 0:21:56.720 --> 0:21:59.200 so quickly, I want to at least analyze the supposed 0:21:59.240 --> 0:22:02.320 features of this condition that most doctors don't believe exists. 0:22:02.600 --> 0:22:06.679 According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, excited delirium 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:11.520 is characterized by quote, bizarre behavior generating phone calls to police. 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:14.040 So if the cops get called on you, that's a 0:22:14.080 --> 0:22:20.359 sign you might have excited delirium. Um. Next ship, Yeah, 0:22:20.560 --> 0:22:25.240 Next is failure to respond to police presence, and continued 0:22:25.760 --> 0:22:29.879 struggle despite restraint. The syndrome, apparently in Taos, individuals with 0:22:30.000 --> 0:22:35.000 superhuman strength and makes them impervious to pain. If you're thinking, boy, 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:37.800 it seems like people are using medical jargon to justify 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:43.560 racism and brutality. You're right, that is very much out. Yeah, 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:47.320 it's nice but terrible. Everyone who resists has an illness 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:49.640 that kills them. So if they resist and we beat 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:52.600 them to death, it's their illness that made them resist, 0:22:52.640 --> 0:22:55.359 the police that killed them, not us beating them to death. 0:22:55.720 --> 0:23:00.240 That's cop logic. Oh, you know, the whole time we 0:23:00.240 --> 0:23:02.560 were on the break, this was making me think of 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:04.840 you know, I can't be the only person in the 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:07.360 crowd today thinking this makes me think of the way, 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:13.760 like hysteria got described as a legit medical condition, right yeah, 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:17.320 but while um skipping ahead a little bit. While hysteria 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:22.680 was often at least treated by you know, vibrators, um, 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:27.359 excited delirium is treated with tasers, you also said. You 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:30.439 also said as stute listeners will notice you use the 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:36.520 phrase less lethal instead of the entirely misleading phrase non lethal. Right, No, 0:23:37.320 --> 0:23:40.080 there is uh actually no such thing as a non 0:23:40.160 --> 0:23:43.879 lethal weapon. Um. If it's a weapon, it can kill people. 0:23:43.920 --> 0:23:46.400 It might be hard to kill people, but it will 0:23:46.440 --> 0:23:49.480