How Many Men Does It Take to Overcome the 'Superhuman Strength' of a Perp or Patient Fortified by 'Bath Salts'?
Jacob Sullum | 6.5.2012 3:04 PM
We all know that "bath salts," regardless of which specific chemicals they contain, give people "superhuman strength"—the sort of strength required to tackle a 65-year-old homeless alcoholic and eat his face, for instance. But you may wonder: Exactly how many grown men does it require to subdue a single individual under the influence of "bath salts"?
Six, according to Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Aguilar is the cop who did not need toxicological tests to know that Rudy Eugene, a.k.a. the "Miami Zombie," was under the influence of "bath salts," a.k.a. "the new LSD" (or so says Aguilar), when he attacked Ronald Poppo. "I took care of a 150-pound individual who you would have thought he was 250 pounds," Aguilar told WFOR, the CBS affiliate in Miami, on May 26. "It took six security officers to restrain the individual." Six is looking like a strong contender, since a May 28 WFOR story attributes exactly the same quote to Paul Adams, a local emergency room physician.
But that is not the end of the matter. The next day, Adams told ABC News "it usually takes four to five people" to control someone who appears in the emergency room after consuming "bath salts." That same day, however, The Daily Beast quoted Adams as saying "to place someone safely in restraints, it's taken seven security guards and one doctor." The story also quotes Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami FOP, who says "we just had a guy that took seven police officers and two supervisors to restrain." Averaging all these numbers (four, five, six, eight, and nine), we can determine that it takes 6.4 men to restrain the typical bath-salt-fortified perp or patient.
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