For decades now, Americans have watched the same horrifying scene play out again and again. A Black man is forced onto his stomach. Officers pin him down. Minutes later, the person is dead. Then come the explanations, the investigations, the promises to “learn from this tragedy” — as if this is all somehow new.
It isn’t new.
From Eric Garner in New York to George Floyd in Minneapolis to Cedric Lofton in Wichita, the dangers of restraining people face down while applying pressure to their backs have been known for years. Yet here we are again with Charles Adair in Wyandotte County.
What is so difficult for law enforcement agencies to understand?
For decades, law enforcement training standards have warned about the dangers of prone restraint — holding someone face down on their stomach after they are restrained. Officers have long been taught that once a person is under control, they should be moved off their stomach and into a seated or upright position as quickly as possible because pressure on the back and torso can become deadly.
One attorney in the Adair case said it plainly: the training is failing. By now, understanding the dangers of prone restraint should be as basic and mandatory in law enforcement academies as firearms training and shooting range drills — something every officer is tested on before ever putting on a badge.
But surprisingly, departments continue acting shocked by outcomes that experts, news videos, activists and grieving families have warned about for decades. And as long as taxpayers — not officers or departments — continue footing the bill for civil settlements and judgments, it is hard to believe meaningful change will come fast enough.
But there is another side to this story worth noting: accountability.
In Wyandotte County, District Attorney Mark Dupree saw a coroner rule the death a homicide and filed criminal charges against the deputy involved. That stands in sharp contrast to Wichita, where District Attorney Marc Bennett used a highly controversial interpretation of Kansas’ Stand Your Ground law to avoid filing charges against any of the officers involved in the death of Cedric Lofton — a decision that left many Kansans shaking their heads.
Elections matter. District attorneys are elected officials, and their decisions can determine whether families get accountability or excuses. Communities — Sedgwick County among them — should remember that the next time these offices appear on the ballot.
And if enough district attorneys across this country begin treating these deaths as potential crimes instead of unavoidable accidents, maybe — just maybe — law enforcement agencies will finally realize these needless killings can no longer be ignored, explained away or accepted as routine.
