James Mincey Jr. died on April 5, 1982 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California after being placed in a carotid hold while under arrest by the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

. While driving home on an early April night in 1982, Mincey Jr. was stopped by police officers for a cracked windshield and was issued a ticket. A few minutes later, a pursuit was initiated after Mincey Jr. failed to stop for the police again. He was acting under the suspicion that the police were harassing him, so he continued driving home. Once home, Mincey Jr. exited his vehicle and was sprayed with "tear gas" in his face. He broke free from the two arresting officer's grips and moved towards his home, while trying to clean his face. Shortly after Mincey Jr., whom officers incorrectly believed to be under the influence of PCP, broke away from the arresting officers' grip, backup officers arrived. The backup officers failed to arrest Mincey Jr. after he broke free from an arresting officer's grip yet again. Finally, one of the officers was able to use a carotid chokehold on Mincey Jr., who was promptly handcuffed. After cuffing him, he was put into the back of one of the original arresting officer's police car and was driven to the hospital in "under sixty seconds". By the time his pregnant girlfriend was able to reach him in the hospital, she thought that " was pretty much gone already". James Mincey Jr. was pronounced dead on April 5, 1982 due to "blunt force injury to the neck". A lawsuit was filed over Mincey Jr.'s death and his father was ultimately paid $450,000 after the Los Angeles City Council agreed to settle for that amount. In response to James Mincey Jr.'s death and other deaths surrounding the use of chokeholds, the then-LAPD Police Chief,

Daryl Gates Daryl Gates (born Darrel Francis Gates; August 30, 1926 – April 16, 2010) was the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from 1978 to 1992. His length of tenure in this position was second only to that of William H. Parker. As Chief ...

, said "We may be finding that in some blacks when chokeholdis applied, the veins and arteries do not open as fast as they do in normal people". His comment sparked outrage among many residents of Los Angeles at the time.

In the media

* '' Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982–1992'' (2017), documentary about civil unrest in Los Angeles between 1982 and 1992 by

John Ridley John Ridley IV (born 1965) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for '' 12 Years a Slave'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunner of the a ...

, Jeanmarie Condon, and Melia Patria. The death of James Mincey Jr. is one of the many highlighted instances of the

LAPD The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

using excessive force in the documentary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mincey Jr., James 1982 deaths Police brutality in the United States