Posted on 07/21/2009 7:40:41 PM PDT by Federalist Patriot
Here is video from a patrol car dashcam as well as cellphone video of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol Officer pulling over an ambulance and then choking an EMT from the ambulance after they exchanged words. The officer was irate because when he pulled alongside the ambulance, the driver only gave him some kind of hand gesture. The EMT told the officer that there was a patient in the ambulance, but it seemed to make no difference to the officer.
The paramedic has now filed a lawsuit against the officer . . . . (Watch Video)
(Excerpt) Read more at freedomslighthouse.com ...
ping
So,
The question this prompts, is why do my neighbors empower a tyrannical form of law enforcement. If this were an isolated incident then OK fine, one bad apple etc. etc. But this goes on all over the United States, every day. So why do my neighbors insist on funding these clowns? The Police forces are institutionally and cultural untouchable tyrants. De fund them, extract their fangs.
I hate frivolous lawsuits.
That being said, I hope that paramedic gets PAID!!! Sonofab*tch cop needs to go to jail. They had a patient in the back!! All for that puny cop’s EGO?
Ugh, I got really angry watching that crap and then got angrier when another cop pulled up and assumed that butthole cop must be right and starts holding the paramedic... good GRIEF.
I hope that Chief of Police is appropriately ashamed.
That officer needs another job. Today.
It’s not even a question about whether the Cop was acting inappropriately. The problem is that he is empowered by law, through the auspices of our elected officials to do that if he wants to. Now these are elected officials, so I can only conclude that my neighbors want the Police to have the power to make these kinds of judgments and to arrest people arbitrary. So it is a structural problem, not a policeman problem.
Not about the police officer, but about police powers!
When budgets are tight the threat of “firing police officers” is held over our heads. This video proves that some deserve to be fired. All public employees should be held to highest standards, and this redneck cop isn’t fit to scrub urinals.
It’s not about the officer, it’s about Police POWERS! (I seem to keep saying the same thing, in frustration).
This was most certainly an isolated incident. Good luck finding another EMT or paramedic in this country who has an experience with a police officer even remotely resembling this one.
Thank you for so completely missing the point.
Um, not just EMT’s get abused by cops, just john Q public. This one just got press because it WAS an EMT, that’s all. So yes, not a policeman problem, a police powers problem. But if you need your safety guaranteed by others, and if you want a risk free predictable existence then you will advocate for and fund a strong aggressive police force. Yes this KIND of stuff happens every day, all over the country.
He’s been on administrative leave since shortly after the incident, and per the Fox article, “the Oklahoma Highway Patrol is preparing this week to announce how it will deal with Trooper Martin”. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534312,00.html?test=latestnews
Methinks his police officer days are numbered. And in this job market, with this sort of record at his last job, his chances for finding any sort of new job are pretty bleak.
NYPD, FDNY and EMTs (before they became part of FD) used to get into regular turf tussles.
Please show me a report where an NYPD officer physically assaulted an EMT or paramedic who was on duty with a patient in the ambulance.
In this incident, the police officer initiated the whole thing — this was a not a situation where an ambulance arrived at a crime scene that was already being controlled by police, and police argued with the EMT/paramedic over whether a perp should be departing via ambulance or police cruiser. The officer continued to assault the paramedic even while the elderly female patient is heard screaming inside the ambulance as she realizes something crazy is going on outside, and her relatives are screaming that she needs to get to the hospital.
This was no “turf battle”. This was a one-way assault by a totally out of control police officer. It was later revealed that this officer had been terminated from his previous position with another police department for inappropriate aggressive behavior.
All I spoke about were turf battles that used to happen. Some got physical.
“This was most certainly an isolated incident. Good luck finding another EMT or paramedic in this country who has an experience with a police officer even remotely resembling this one.”
didnt go to the physical level, but one of the guys doing his field time during my EMT class had their car get stopped by a cop for “excessive speed”. Note that this particular ambulance had it’s red lights ON and working, and was transporting a chest pain/heart attack patient to the hospital at the time. Said stupid cop held them at the stop for over 20 minutes till his boss came to remind him that ambulances were, in fact, emergency vehicles just like the one he was driving. The Lt then proceeded to provide stupid cop with world-class reaming for wasting his time, being an idiot, etc.
Stupid cop said “but he wasnt using his siren!” Legitimate reasons for not using siren include NOT disturbing heart patients more than the already are, but dummy didn’t understand that.
It DOES happen. There are some REALLY dumb ones out there. I have to wonder how that one passed the academy, though.
At least, the stupid cop didn’t assault the EMT, and the Lt. drilled it into his head that he was never again to stop an ambulance with lights flashing for “excessive speed”. The OHP didn’t seem to be planning any disciplinary action at all against against this hothead officer, until the media filed formal demands for the release of the dashcam video and the patient’s relatives released their own video. The OHP had the dashcam video all along and was apparently going to sweep it all under rug until they were forcibly prevented from doing so. That’s worse than a random stupid/hothead officer — that’s something seriously wrong at much higher levels.
In the case you described, the ambulance driver and EMT should have just stayed in the ambulance, explained the facts of life and law to the stupid officer in about 10 seconds, and proceeded along their way. Then the doofus would probably have given chase and called for backup, and questions would have raised immediately — “You need backup for WHAT? For pursuit of an ambulance that’s exceeding the speed limit with it’s flashing lights on?”. Seriously, EMTs and ambulance drivers shouldn’t allow such illegal crap to threaten a patient’s life and health — if the cop assaults/restrains/pulls a gun, then they don’t really have a choice and legal liability for any harm to the patient falls squarely on the officer, but anything short of that, and the ambulance crew has a rseponsibility to proceed as they know they are legally empowered to do and medically required to do. If they decide to hang around for 20 minutes while some clueless cop argues with them, it’s really their legal liability if the patient suffers harm as a result of the delay.
Trooper suspended for scuffle with paramedic for five days without pay.
Seems about right to me.
Link to story
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/07/22/oklahoma-patrol-trooper-suspended-for-scuffle-with-paramedic/
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