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Student gets millions after spending five days in DEA cell without food or water

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Expect a thread full of "You people have no idea how hard it would be to go five days without food or water, there's no way you'd want to do it for any amount of money".

Nah, I'd do it. So would anyone. Trade one shitty week to be set for life? Of course I'd do it.

Guy's really lucky, actually. Not for the money so much as the fact that the feds didn't just drag him into a back alley to disappear and avoid the embarrassment.
I don't think you understand how dangerous kidney failure is but keep on thinking like it's a walk in the park for $4 million.
 
"He was then left in the windowless cell for five days despite repeated cries for help. He could hear people walking around outside the room but could not get their attention. At one point the lights went off for several days. While locked up, he was starving and hallucinating. He claimed that, while incarcerated, he had to drink his own urine for hydration, and ingested some methamphetamine that he found under a blanket inside the cell in order to keep himself awake. He attempted suicide by breaking one of the lenses in his eyeglasses, slitting his wrists with the shards and swallowing them.[10][11] By the time he was discovered on April 25, he was hallucinating and completely incoherent.[12][10]

Upon his discovery on April 25, Chong was taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital in Serra Mesa where he remained for five days, including three in the intensive care unit.[5] He was treated for various problems including dehydration, near-failure of his kidneys, and a perforated lung from eating broken glass."


Yeah, a really lucky guy...



I was thinking that he must be really mentally strong to survive in a dark room for 5 days, but guess not. Poor guy. Hope he didn't suffer any permanent damage.
 
The fact that nobody is getting charged is fucking insane. Absolutely insane.

Anybody who says the cops aren't above the law is kidding themselves.
 
Government agency fucks up to an extent that is literally horrifying? No need to change anything, no need to fire anyone, no need for criminal charges, NP taxpayers can pay for the fuck-up to go away and it's back on with business as usual.
 
Ironically, he's probably doing more drugs than he used to before they caught him.
Sad but there's a part of me that laughed.

Edit: people have no idea what type of mental trauma he went thru. Probably wakes up every night in fucking tears. Not worth it. My dad would freak out from his tours in Viet fucking Nam. Just be glad most of us won't have to face these demons.
 
Huh, I don't think I would have accepted the settlement honestly. This is a damn serious oversight and I would probably have wanted the officers who put me in that situation to face justice.

Oh and I can't at people saying they'd "do it" or how he is lucky. Yeah, guess being near to death (Kidney failure is really painful by the way) in a windowless cell and suffering from PTSD is really great for him...
Yeah, it's nice to want things. Juries usually won't convict in these types of situations and if they do the sentences are almost never worth the effort anyway.

But I think there absolutely needs to be better safegaurds and accountability. That sounds like an extremely poorly ran facility. There should have been several resignation letters being handed in.
 
So agents who have tortured a prisoner ( purposely or not) will not be incriminated? Bah even in my country this shit happens too often

Someone nearly died due to negligence, and people HOPE the officers responsible will AT LEAST get yelled at for it?

What the FUCK?


Can't believe there aren't any charges against the officers responsible.


No criminal action is fucking absurd and infuriating.



The DEA is a piece of shit organization and an embarrassment to this country.

What makes me even more upset is the fact that Congress has introduced a bill to honor the DEA on its 40th anniversary.

no wonder shit doesn't ever change in government. some idiot royally fucks up and costs the tax payers 4 million dollars and nobody even gets fired over this? are you shitting me?

Oh for fuck's sake. What does it take to get criminal charges against police officers? Ugh.

The DEA thugs responsible should be sacked, charged and sentenced for a very fucking long time. This is reprehensible.

The fact that nobody is getting charged is fucking insane. Absolutely insane.

Anybody who says the cops aren't above the law is kidding themselves.

How is this remotely justifiable? It's absolutely nuts that the officers won't face any consequences for this.

Everyone here is outraged, and rightly so....but what's going to come of it?

The system is corrupt to the bone, the authorities are not accountable, there's no justice. There's no good people, just scum on one side and scum on the other.

What are we going to DO?
 
I think he deserves more...but it's still annoying that this is being paid for by us, the taxpayers, for the DEA fuckups...and no punishment in sight for those responsible.
 
Not that the guy deserved what happened to him (nobody does), but it probably wasn't a good idea to spend the night at a drug dealers house. For those wondering why the house was raided, they found 18,000 ectasy pulls in there. He was also detained with seven other people. Why didn't any of them go "hey, what happened to Chong?" Granted, the DEA should have thought that too.

I am guessing no DEA officer is being charged because it is hard to pinpoint who to blame. He knew the name of the officer who told him someone would be with him soon, but is it his fault? What if he did tell someone? Really shitt situation though, and at the very least someone should be fired.
 
One shitty week, dude was lucky etc, yeah, I wonder why people are posting like that?

Yeah, if they lack essential reading comprehension skills, I suppose I could understand where they're coming from.

What I'm seeing here are a bunch of people reading what I posted, assuming that I think I'm some sort of hardcore badass, and getting their insecure panties in a twist because they perceive that a forum nobody thinks he's hot shit...somehow threatening their worldview or something. I don't know. Enjoy being angry at nothing, though.
 
Yeah, if they lack essential reading comprehension skills, I suppose I could understand where they're coming from.

What I'm seeing here are a bunch of people reading what I posted, assuming that I think I'm some sort of hardcore badass, and getting their insecure panties in a twist because they perceive that a forum nobody thinks he's hot shit...somehow threatening their worldview or something. I don't know. Enjoy being angry at nothing, though.

What I read was a guy sounding like he didn't know shit. :/
 
I am guessing no DEA officer is being charged because it is hard to pinpoint who to blame. He knew the name of the officer who told him someone would be with him soon, but is it his fault? What if he did tell someone? Really shitt situation though, and at the very least someone should be fired.

This is my thought as well. His lawyers may have figured it was too difficult to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who was at fault here. His choices may have either been a lengthy, possibly fruitless trial, or an instant payout and a chance to move on. It's shitty those responsible may only get a slap on the wrist, but I don't know if I'd fault anyone who'd choose to settle.
 
I don't recall professing any particular knowledge about the subject at hand, but if you came to GAF tonight to get upset who am I to stop you?

I'm not upset in the slightest, I didn't quote you, I just explained why people might have posted like they did. Go yell at the right people.
 
if that was me, I would have accepted less money but have the people in charge fired. and then brought up with criminal charges.

Cause if locked someone in a room with no food and water for 5 days, I'm pretty sure I will go to jail.
 
Get the fuck out of here with that shit. Complete isolation, slow starvation and near dehydration is not worth any money one could get.

The dehydration is terrible but you won't starve in 5 days lol, you'd be mildly uncomfortable from being hungry if you didn't eat for 5 days.
 
Everyone here is outraged, and rightly so....but what's going to come of it?

The system is corrupt to the bone, the authorities are not accountable, there's no justice. There's no good people, just scum on one side and scum on the other.

What are we going to DO?

Nothing will come of it. The system is corrupt, the criminals responsible will be protected from prosecution for 'doing their job' and whistleblowers will be charged if ever they try anything.
 
Nothing will come of it. The system is corrupt, the criminals responsible will be protected from prosecution for 'doing their job' and whistleblowers will be charged if ever they try anything.

Exactly.

The police are there to serve as insulation between the authority in charge and the masses being shepherded. Things like this are just examples of how the public really is helpless in the hands of those in power.

In a year, Daniel Chong will be forgotten and the system will be one year more corrupt.
 
Everyone here is outraged, and rightly so....but what's going to come of it?

The system is corrupt to the bone, the authorities are not accountable, there's no justice. There's no good people, just scum on one side and scum on the other.

What are we going to DO?
Nothing. Fucking thing sucks.
 
I don't recall professing any particular knowledge about the subject at hand, but if you came to GAF tonight to get upset who am I to stop you?

You referred to 5 days of starvation, dehydration, isolation, and a suicide attempt as a 'shitty week'. And that's not including the PTSD.

When someone posts something like that they are generally considered to be an idiot who is talking out of their arse.
 
Three pages and nobody made a joke about a guy named 'Chong' being locked up and left for dead for smoking weed??
 
Everyone here is outraged, and rightly so....but what's going to come of it?

The system is corrupt to the bone, the authorities are not accountable, there's no justice. There's no good people, just scum on one side and scum on the other.

What are we going to DO?

You go ahead and start the revolution. We'll all be right behind you.



Seriously though, until things get so bad that people are willing to be martyrs for the cause, nothing's gonna happen. It's fucking sad.
 
What I'm seeing here are a bunch of people reading what I posted, assuming that I think I'm some sort of hardcore badass, and getting their insecure panties in a twist because they perceive that a forum nobody thinks he's hot shit...somehow threatening their worldview or something. I don't know. Enjoy being angry at nothing, though.

Don't worry, I see what you're doing and I approve.
 
Government torture program. Fake war on drugs and terror to expand influence over citizen lives. NSA spy program. Alien technology. Planned wars. Xbox One. etc etc etc etc.

They paid him because they don't want to get exposed on their secret government-run citizen underground torture programs. I just know it.. IT'S REAL PEOPLE
 
I wouldn't. 4-5 days without water is long enough to kill you depending on your condition going into the situation.

So much this.

This dude was also probably drinking hard before they took him in. This means his water level dropped a lot even before he was in cell. Kidney failure also suggest this.
 
The dehydration is terrible but you won't starve in 5 days lol, you'd be mildly uncomfortable from being hungry if you didn't eat for 5 days.

You won't die from starvation but you will starve. You'll start noticing signs of starvation going just 1 day without food(slighty foggy thought, lack of expebdible energy).

5 days without food is nothing mild.
 
What worries me here is it seems this guy was thrown in a room with no process. Process is what stops things like this happening. Who is assigned to interrogate this guy? Who is writing up the mandatory paperwork that should be written whenever someone is arrested? Who is cleaning that room at least once every few days for basic hygiene purposes? It seems like the DEA in this instance has become a law unto themselves with the ability to operate in any fashion they like, with little to no accountability. This is scary stuff and could happen to anyone. And to top it off there no repercussions for this type of behaviour. America, what has happened to you? Where's your sense of decency and do you have any shame?

If I was offered a free trip to the U.S at this point, I would have to seriously think whether or not I wanted to go.

The process part is getting eliminated in America.
 
I'd do it. I haven't had a solid meal for 8 weeks right now due to sickness. 5 days away from my wife and kid would be a vacation even if I had to drink my own piss.
 
I still don't understand how they could forget.

It's quite easy actually. Feds work out of normal offices that look no different than your typical insurance or corporate business. However hidden in the back are holding cells designed to temporarily detain suspects for questioning. The arresting agent must decide if they're going to refer the suspect to the US Attorney or release him. If he's going to be federally prosecuted arrangements are typically made with the US Marshals, a transportation contractor or another agent to transport the suspect to a county jail to be held for the weekend until first appearance. I can easily see how there was a mix-up in communication and someone failed to notify the proper personnel that a suspect was being detained and needed to be released or transported. Because it was a Friday you can imagine how quickly people were trying to call it a day and go home. This would be like failing to pick your child up at daycare because both parents thought the other one was doing it.

There will likely be reprimands or punishment, and I can understand the frustration at the DEA agents but if the victim agreed to the $4 million settlement before trial than we should be happy with the outcome on his end at least.
 
lol, no criminal action. There's criminal negligence and then there's clear fucking criminal negligence.

It's a fully deserved payout. Five days with nothing but urine? It's a miracle he survived. He could have got way more if he pursued the civil action; obviously, he wants to move on with his life. And people who are all gung-ho about tort reform continue to befuddle me.
 
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