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College Student Abandoned in DEA Holding Cell For Five Days


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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/01/student-abandoned-in-dea-holding-cell-drank-own-urine-to-survive/

Daniel Chong, a 24-year old student at UC San Diego, was taken into custody during a drug raid and abandoned in a holding cell for five days without food or water, according to NBC San Diego.

“They never came back, ignored all my cries and I still don’t know what happened,” he said. “I’m not sure how they could forget me.”

On April 21, Drug Enforcement Agents raided an apartment where Chong and his friends were smoking marijuana. Nine people were arrested and the agents reportedly seized ecstasy pills, marijuana, prescription medication, psychedelic mushrooms and weapons, according to CBS 8 News. Seven of those arrested were taken to jail and one was released.

Chong, however, was left handcuffed in a 5 ft. by 10 ft. holding cell.

Chong said he screamed and kicked the door, but to no avail. Eventually, he began hallucinating and drank his own urine in hopes of staying hydrated. After days without any human contact, he tried to kill himself by breaking his glasses with his teeth, and using the glass to cut himself.

Surprisingly, Chong allegedly found a bag of methamphetamine in the holding cell, which he used to stay awake.

After five days, a DEA worker heard noises coming from the holding cell and discovered him. Chong was taken to the hospital, where he spent three days in the intensive care unit.

Whatever your stance is on the drug war, keeping a young person caught in a drug bust incarcerated and forgotten for five days should be considered reprehensible by everyone. This incident is just going to create more stigma on the U.S. government's actions combating the drug trade and culture.

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Plenty of things wrong with this. The guys who allowed this to happen should do a little time themselves.

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Now that is just wrong, I mean like you say Tom its just going to cause a shit load of stigma. Even if he supplies drugs he doesn't deserve to go without basic human rights, I mean what the fuck?mellow.png

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Wow poor guy, I really feel sorry for him if he did have to resort to drinking his own urine and contemplating suicide

I wonder what their excuse is going to be sleep.png

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Ugh, this pisses me off just reading it. I really don't have anything to say other than questioning how the hell are they running things over there. I cringed when he said he went to the extremes of ending himself with the glass of his glasses. Might as well hand him a hammer and say "well, if things get rough and you can't go on, use this." I kinda question how the hell he found methamphetamine in a small 5 x 10 holding cell though. Looping back, seriously, how the hell are they running things over there?!

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Oh for fuck's sake. Mankind does it again!

facedesk.jpg

Please world, stop making me have less faith on the people that inhabit this planet

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Criminy, when will people realize that just because one is (or could possibly be) a drug user, that doesn't mean that they should be treated like crap? I mean, really now, treating your fellow man like that is just plain unacceptable, if you ask me...

Edited by Komodin
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First: Legalize weed.

Second: He'll probably make a ton of money off a lawsuit so despite this ordeal he may be lucky.

Third: Are you starving to death, dying of thirst? Try METH.

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The only way the student was alive was the same reason he got there: Illegal Drugs.

Like, really?

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Good god, some of the comments on that article. "Hurr durr well he was doing drugs so he had it coming because he's a criminal right guys?".

You know, because torturing people (particularly ones they apparently they cannot find reason to actually charge) to the point that they could very well die is appropriate punishment and not cruel or unusual at all.

Edited by Ekaje
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Well, this was certainly disturbing...

Criminy, when will people realize that just because one is (or could possibly be) a drug user, that doesn't mean that they should be treated like crap? I mean, really now, treating your fellow man like that is just plain unacceptable, if you ask me...

I absolutely agree. And to deny someone life's necessities...I mean, we need both food and water to live. It isn't optional or up for discussion. So how can someone justify not giving Chong what he needed in order to stay alive since he couldn't provide it for himself due to being locked up?

Just because Chong broke the law that does not mean that it was okay to torture him. That was just plain wrong and disgusting. No excuse in the world could justify treating someone like that. On a positive note I'm glad that he survived that terrible ordeal.

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Ugh, the good news streak's over already? We could've had so much fun with a happy story about a pothead named Chong.

That's really frightening, though, for sure. Wasting away trapped in a tiny room is one of the worst fates I can imagine, and to suffer it because of something so inconsequential... I'd almost forgotten what a big deal drugs are, especially in the U.S.

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How the hell does that even happen? When they were letting the other people go, did they not notice this guy or something?

In any case, I can only imagine the kind of trauma that would come with being strung up and isolated in a prison cell no sustenance for a week. I hope he gets justice.

Plus, it's doubly ironic in that he was thrust into this situation over kiddie drugs like mushrooms and marijuana, yet ended up using methamphetamine not only BECAUSE he was arrested for drug possession, but so he could SURVIVE.

Edited by SuperStingray
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Not to rain on your guys' parade, but why exactly are you acting like they did it on purpose, let alone did it in response to him being arrested but not able to be charged for drug use? I don't see anything in the article suggesting it.

It really is a shitty thing what happened to this guy, but I don't exactly see how torture or anything remotely like that comes into play when it is entirely likely that it was just an accident. A massively fucked up accident, but an accident nonetheless.

Edited by Tornado
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I don't think it was intentional, but it does raise a huge issue that there was a serious case of negligence involved.

Don't get me wrong - beyond food and water, I don't believe criminals have the right to a lot of things that they seem to get, but this is disgusting.

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Not to rain on your guys' parade, but why exactly are you acting like they did it on purpose, let alone did it in response to him being arrested but not able to be charged for drug use? I don't see anything in the article suggesting it.

It really is a shitty thing what happened to this guy, but I don't exactly see how torture or anything remotely like that comes into play when it is entirely likely that it was just an accident. A massively fucked up accident, but an accident nonetheless.

I don't think anyone said it was intentional that is why I said what the fuck at end as in why the hell they could forget about a prisoner for five days, that just straight up fucking stupid, bordering on fucktard.sleep.png

Edited by BW199148
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As I said in a status update, (supposing this incident was intentional) the US is "too fair," with "do whatever you want, we trust you won't hurt anyone and if you do, it's no biggie because EVERYONE is equal!" This is why I don't watch the news often, while we need to know that these things happen, but not to the extent we have now, the news needs to cut back on these things to a degree or they will cause even more of the very sadness they "wish" did not happen. Being reduced to drinking one's own urine, that's depressing tot say the least. Again, supposing this horror was intentional, what the US government does not realize is that democracy and control must work together (let's take the book, Lord Of The Flies for example, too little control and too much freedom caused a scary realization), I could go on about this for three paragraphs, but I'd branch off-topic with other problems.

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I don't think anyone said it was intentional

That was exactly what several posts in this thread were saying, to the extent that acting like they did it on purpose is the only way the posts make any sense. You don't claim they tortured some guy unless you know they did it on purpose. You don't wonder how those people can justify denying someone their human rights unless you know their intent was to do so. You don't say how wrong it is to treat people like they are subhuman unless you know that was what the group in question was trying to do.

Ekaje has a point, because he was responding to the comments on the article that were acting like (accidental or not) what happened was alright because the kid deserved it. But expressing outrage because of how horrible they are for what they did to him doesn't really wash when there is nothing to go on even implying that they did it to him intentionally.

Edited by Tornado
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My whole take on the drug war has been,"If they want to kill themselves by imbibing deadly chemicals or substances, be my guest." You can already assume I'm on the front for Marijuana legalization, but that's beside the point.

What these cops did was a tragedy, but also an example of the police force in the states. They can be very crooked and almost all instances of proof of the officers doing illegal things is disregarded or pushed aside. The cops who did this will most likely get a slap on the wrist unless their names are published.

Me? I would have lost it by the second day. I'm terribly claustrophobic. I feel bad for the kid, this goes further into human rights violation and this kid should have a very nice college fund when this is all done.

Edited by Mr.Full-84
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That was exactly what several posts in this thread were saying, to the extent that acting like they did it on purpose is the only way the posts make any sense. You don't claim they tortured some guy unless you know they did it on purpose. You don't wonder how those people can justify denying someone their human rights unless you know their intent was to do so. You don't say how wrong it is to treat people like they are subhuman unless you know that was what the group in question was trying to do.

Ekaje has a point, because he was responding to the comments on the article that were acting like (accidental or not) what happened was alright because the kid deserved it. But expressing outrage because of how horrible they are for what they did to him doesn't really wash when there is nothing to go on even implying that they did it to him intentionally.

Still its incredibly fucking stupid to leave anyone like that.dry.png

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No one said otherwise. But there is a difference between gross (and probably criminal) negligence and war crimes.

Edited by Tornado
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The fact that Chong had to be discovered and not just released made that pretty obvious, I thought. That's what makes it all so creepy to me; if it were actual deliberate torture at least it would've been for a reason, even if it were a terrible one; instead the guy suffered and nearly died because he had really shitty luck. I sure as hell can identify with that. The fact that he was only arrested in the first place for doing something pretty minor only makes it worse.

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my question is, with a history of law enforcement in my family, I've seen a number of holding cells in a number of jails, stations and etc. All of which have some sort surveillance system, meaning you can SEE in ALL the cells. I feel sorry for the guy, but the fact that they "forgot" him in there is quite laughable. There should be no reason for this "oversight."

Edited by LunarEdge
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Honestly, I think the fact that it's negligence and not deliberate torture reflects even worse on the police than torture would.

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