SCUFFLE WITH POLICE ENDS IN DEATH FOR MAN TRYING TO SWALLOW DRUGS

In one of the most disturbing videos to have emerged from the drug
war, a dashboard camera has caught police officers in Louisiana using
force on a man who was trying to put a small bag of white powder in
his mouth. The man died a short time later at the scene.

A person who answered the phone at the Livingston Parish Sheriff's
Office confirmed that the dash-cam video is authentic. A spokesman,
though, wasn't immediately available.

The man was apparently attempting to avoid arrest by swallowing the
drugs he had on him.

In the video, an officer can be heard repeatedly shouting "spit it
out," while he is shown trying to force the man's jaw open. An
officer later is heard describing what they found in his mouth as a
"plastic bag with white powder."

"Is he breathing?" one officer can be heard asking, after several
minutes of attempting to force open his mouth.

"I don't know," says another.

The Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office later said that the officers
actions were warranted. "He was appropriate in his actions. He
followed departmental protocol in trying to arrest a subject who
tried to resist," Chief Deputy Jason Ard told local reporters.