Without knowing Chong’s medical details, I suspect that $20 million is a perfectly reasonable amount to ask for to deal with the long-term health consequences of near-fatal kidney (and possibly other organ) failure. Which was, by the preponderance of currently available data and their own admission, the fault of the DEA. And that’s without getting into long-term metal health effects.
That’ll drive you crazy.
Eh, whatever. I don’t doubt that the guy went through some bad shit that shouldn’t have happened. But the post I commented on, which suggested he should win the lottery because of it, rubbed me the wrong way.
He deserved better treatment at the time of the incident, granted. I’m not sure what he deserves now, but it ain’t 20 mil.
Does he deserve due process of law?
As pointed out above, depending on just how much damage has been done to his kidneys (remember, he spent a few days in the ICU), that could be a reasonable figure.
Maybe it should be less, but that’s a nice upper bound from which to come down. It’s not like he can negotiate a bigger settlement if he started from $10000 and figured out later that wasn’t enough.
This is only your sick fantasy. In actuallity, he was put in a cell to wait for his paperwork to be finished, and forgotten. There was no oppositional conduct.
The 20 mil is also good incentive for the DEA to never let it happen again. And a good lesson for others.
Alright guys, I’ve got the skinny on what really happened here.
After agreeing to release Mr. Chong, he and the DEA agents started talking about how much they miss that TV show Prison Break that used to be on. You know, the one with super hot Wentworth Miller with his one green eye and one blue eye. Anyway, Chong said he’s always wanted a photo of himself reenacting his favorite scene-- the one where Wentworth’s character, handcuffed and in his cell, moonwalked across the frame. The officers, finding this hysterical, obliged and stuck Mr. Chong in a cell. Everybody was perched with their iPhones ready to take a picture that they could then MMS over to Mr. Chong.
As soon as the cell was locked, out of fucking NOWHERE came the Men in Black. Literally, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Oh, and that little alien pug guy. And Agent M. Anyway, they used that red light flashy thing to wipe the memories of all of the DEA agents, but Mr. Chong happened to be turned away, mid moonwalk, so his memory was intact. Then, Will Smith was like, “Hey guys, I was thinking, who wants some tacos?” And everybody went to go get some tacos, leaving poor Mr. Chong there alone.
My point is that really, no one can blame the DEA here. It was all one big government mistake, ya know?
And don’t try to contradict my story, guys! I was just inferring things based on the facts given. Filling in the blanks the way a juror would.
Stick a fork in her, then set up a poll to determine the most popular poster, then ban BigT.
Apparently. She’s done.
I suppose you’re right, it definitely makes more sense that the entire staff of the DEA office decided they were going to go Abu Ghraib on this random kid (who just happened to find himself at a house with 18000 ecstasy pills, multiple firearms, and thousands of rounds of ammunition), rather than one random kid with a personality disorder acting out in resentment of being arrested … But also the kind of Abu Ghraib where they offer you a ride home your first night there and then a few days later, they stop playing Abu Ghraib and take you to the hospital and cross their fingers, I guess, that you won’t tell the press, “They went all Abu Ghraib on me” and also the kind of Abu Ghraib where meth just materializes in the cell of a perfectly innocent, random kid who was picked up at a house with copious drugs, guns, and ammo, and who wasn’t body or cavity searched, and who told conflicting accounts as to why he took this meth (one of those reasons being “to keep him awake” – how did he know that this strange substance, which he certainly had no role in importing in, was a stimulant?)
The same DEA that arrests thousands of people every year, even though this hasn’t happened before and the only difference in this case really is the person of Daniel Chong.
Who also wants $20 million dollars.
No, that’s just the way the world works. I’m sure we all know people who have had experiences just like this.
Just like all those parents who decide to leave their babies in hot cars?
So, your “reasonable inference” involves a scenario that completely ignores the stuff the DEA admits happened because it doesn’t make sense to you?
I’m still trying to figure out how this isn’t some Bizarro World scenario you’re cooking up. Where’s the camera? This has got to be some kind of setup for a prank.
“Personality disorder”? Really? So, now anybody who makes any claim or mistreatment at the hands of a law enforcement agency (even if justified by facts) is automatically not to be trusted? Or do you just have it in for stoners and think anything that happens to them is justified, no matter how horrific the scenario and how benign their actual crimes?
It’s a convenient way for someone to convince themselves that This Could Never Happen to Me. Here’s how the thought process goes:
- This was a terrible thing that happened.
- It was done by the Authorities.
BUT
- Authority is a good thing
- I must always be obedient to Authority
WORRY
- Could this happen to me or my friends?
- Could the Authority make mistakes? This could be bad!
SO
- It must have been someone else’s fault.
- Think, think… whose fault could it have been?
AHA…
- It was the Dirty Fucking Hippie’s fault.
- DFH’s are “other”. They are not like me.
- I am not a DFH
THEREFORE:
- I have nothing to fear from Authority. My life can go on as before, and I don’t have to think about this anymore.
Jesus, you’re stupid.
It doesn’t require malice on the part of the DEA, just incompetence.
They decided to let Chong go and stuck him in a holding cell while they processed the paperwork. But through some oversight or miscommunication they never got around to actually releasing him. They thought the cell was empty, so no one bothered to look inside for five days. Presumably if the room is secure enough to use as a holding cell, it has walls that are stronger than just particle board. And the door is probably nice and thick and solid, making it hard to hear anyone inside calling for help.
The agents responsible should be fired for being fucking morons.
And if you’re worried about the size of Chong’s settlement … well that’s a big reason we need national health care. So people who get injured by idiots don’t have to sue for buckets of money in order to pay their medical bills for the rest of their lives.
Are you serious? This nutty idiot claims to be a lawyer?
If we decide not to create monetary consequences, what exactly do we do? Tell the DEA to clean up their act and hope really hard they do? Creating consequences is how we ensure that people have a strong incentive to avoid the same fuck-ups in the future.
It’s not obvious what the point of your complaint is anyway. Every lawsuit starts with a demand for a higher amount than the actual awarded sum (or settlement) will be.
[QUOTE=Kimmy_Gibbler]
I suppose you’re right, it definitely makes more sense that the entire staff of the DEA office decided they were going to go Abu Ghraib on this random kid (who just happened to find himself at a house with 18000 ecstasy pills, multiple firearms, and thousands of rounds of ammunition), rather than one random kid with a personality disorder acting out in resentment of being arrested … But also the kind of Abu Ghraib where they offer you a ride home your first night there and then a few days later, they stop playing Abu Ghraib and take you to the hospital and cross their fingers, I guess, that you won’t tell the press, “They went all Abu Ghraib on me” and also the kind of Abu Ghraib where meth just materializes in the cell of a perfectly innocent, random kid who was picked up at a house with copious drugs, guns, and ammo, and who wasn’t body or cavity searched, and who told conflicting accounts as to why he took this meth (one of those reasons being “to keep him awake” – how did he know that this strange substance, which he certainly had no role in importing in, was a stimulant?)
The same DEA that arrests thousands of people every year, even though this hasn’t happened before and the only difference in this case really is the person of Daniel Chong.
Who also wants $20 million dollars.
No, that’s just the way the world works. I’m sure we all know people who have had experiences just like this.
[/QUOTE]
The same DEA that admitted it. So, in your mind, they are siding with the kid . . . because they’re in on the conspiracy?
I know some people, for some reason, think that doubling down on a nonsense argument somehow involves less loss of face than admitting they were off-base. But if you really stand by your reasoning in this thread – the fantasy you’ve concocted that contradicts all the evidence we actually have, and involves a kid deciding to hole up in a room and drink his own piss until his kidneys failed – if you really believe that, your thinking is disordered. Not least because in the imaginary world in which something like that had happened, after a day or two (or probably a lot less) they would have called the cops to deal with the trespasser.
Kimmy, your theory is so far beyond “inferences drawn from the facts” that nobody can understand how you got to it. Let’s start with the basics: do you think Chong is lying about being locked in a holding cell for some extended period of time, and potentially for five days?
My surmise is that after he was released, he refused to leave and skilled about and went into a room that he didn’t realize would lock behind him. Alternatively, that he was intoxicated and the DEA allowed him to remain in the cell, but did not prevent him from leaving. Either eventuality would represent a very different situation from that alleged by Chong.
Is it your theory that the DEA maliciously locked him away for five days? Some have suggested incompetence, but Chong’s allegations include that he heard people passing by his cell. So how does that square with being overlooked?
So you still believe the DEA was lying when they sent him to the hospital and confirmed his story. What was their benefit in this whole thing?
Feel free to make reference to the melting point of steel I-beams and the powers of UFOs in describing what you believe happened here.
So, the Associated Press was lying when they said the DEA locked him in his cell while processing his paperwork?
What do you base this on?
They sent him to the hospital, and paid for the trip besides–This much is true. I even cited it as evidence for their good faith in this whole ordeal; something that militates against the contention that the DEA had nefarious intent.
They did not, however, “confirm his story.” Their current official statement is that they continue to investigate the incident.
That seems to be a question better directed to those who want us to believe that the DEA hatched some diabolical plan to torture Chong, no?