Weigel v. Broad

The majority announces a very general rule — troopers may not subject a detained person to prolonged force beyond that necessary to restrain him if a reasonable trooper would have known the applied force presented a significant danger of asphyxiation and death. It sounds remark*1156ably like generic tort law — “[N]egligenee is conduct which falls below the standard established by law for the protection of others against unreasonable risk of harm.” Restatement (Second) of Torts § 282. It leaves the details to be sorted out after the fact by a jury in an appropriate case. But an undifferentiated…