And Bush started it.
That's right newbie...the world did not exist before the election of PRESIDENT George W. Bush!
Welcome to FreeRepublic ..... NOT!
Posted on 03/26/2009 8:04:11 AM PDT by goodolemr
PLANO, Texas (AP) — A police officer was put on desk duty after pulling over an NFL player rushing to see his dying mother-in-law in the hospital and holding him in the hospital parking lot as she died.
Dallas police officer Robert Powell stopped Houston Texans running back Ryan Moats' SUV outside Baylor Regional Medical Center during the early hours of March 18 after Moats rolled through a red light. Moats and his family had gotten a call saying his mother-in-law was dying.
Video from a dashboard camera inside the officer's vehicle, obtained by Dallas-Fort Worth station WFAA-TV, revealed an intense exchange in which the officer threatened to jail Moats.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Could be. I’m sure we wil never know.
I can say that I have been unduly harrassed by police officers at least twice, and I am white...and my dad used to be District Attorney and a judge, and I always say “yes, sir” and “no, sir” to police officers.
It can happen to anyone if the cop is a jackass.
And Bush started it.
That's right newbie...the world did not exist before the election of PRESIDENT George W. Bush!
Welcome to FreeRepublic ..... NOT!
“And Bush started it.”
I was harrassed by police before Bush was even governor of Texas. He didn’t start that.
Looks like the cop needs to find another line of work. He's been put on "administrative duty", for now, which IMHO is a good thing.
Sounds like the higherups in the dept have a pretty good clue.
Blaming Bush for this? Welcome to FR.
Tough story and tougher situation for the police officer. If you examine his actions on the traffic stop ,taking away the situation, this officer could be severly reprimanded for not controlling the occupants of the car.If you want to see a traffic stop go bad I refer you to what just happened in Oakland.
Some times the situation makes it so you can’t help but screw the pooch.
Sure, Dubya made cops everywhere become evil.
It’s all an evil plan to give baths to the scummy unwashed hippies and their patchouli stinking buddies.
And it was all masterminded by Dubya who has a time machine in his basement from which he forces some cops to act badly throughout history.
Sit still, I think I have a heavy wrench around here somewhere for you.
I don’t see any justification for the officer demanding that Mrs. Moats stay with the vehicle — perhaps ask to see her ID quickly before she left, in order to be able to legally identify her as a witness/passenger, but no more than that. She was not the driver, so she hadn’t broken any laws, and given the facts that the red light running apparently occurred quite near the hospital, and the stop happened in the hospital parking lot, and that she was expressing the intention of going into the hospital, her “mother is dying” claim was very plausible. She was not alleged to have broken any laws and had a plausible reason for needing to leave the scene immediately, so there was simply no legal justification for detaining her.
Threatening to arrest someone for no good reason ought to be a FELONY, yes I have been hassled by cops before and yes I am white. No I never answer Yes Sir or No Sir. I also never ever answer any Questions posed by the Jack Booted Thugs, My typical response to any and all questions is: None of your business! Because of my own personal experiences with corrupt cops I would never ever believe anything any cop had to say. When asked to get out of the car LOCK THE DOORS and put Keys in Pocket, No you cannot search my vehicle without a warrant, Always Ask them to call as many of their buddies as possible to assist them, you will get a lot more money in the Civil Suit for Deprivation of Rights.
I never cease to be amazed at how many police officers don’t seem to be able to remember that there’s a video dash cam pointed at them. There are jack-booted thug police officers, and then there are STOOPID jack-booted thug police officers. The latter are so easy to catch, it’s pathetic.
The guy isnt trying to get back in his car. He is trying to get inside the hospital. No one is saying he shouldnt be fined for running the red light but the police officer could use some common sense and deal with the ticket later. He also could have followed to verify the story.
This newbie has 2 posts in his short tenure here calling for Revolution and we’re now living in a “police state” which “Bush started”.
Wack Job? Closet Leftist? Here do discredit FR by clamoring for “revolution” You be the judge.
Traffic stop cut life short, man says
Slowed by deputy trying to get mom to hospital
By Clay Bailey
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Wayne Ables knew his car tag had expired at the end of February.
That wasn’t a priority in the early morning hours of March 12. His only concern was getting his ailing 83-year-old mother to the hospital.
So when a Shelby County Sheriff’s deputy stopped him for an expired tag, he thought the officer would let him get his mother to Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett, less than a mile away. He even suggested the deputy follow him and write the ticket there.
The deputy, whom the department has not identified, declined, according to Ables, and began checking Ables’ license and insurance while calling an ambulance to take Vernice Ables from the scene.
Meanwhile, the elderly woman’s condition worsened. Her breathing became shallow, her body stiffened and her face slumped onto her walking stick.
“She pretty much died in the back seat of my car,” Ables said.
The Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
Vernice Ables suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which affects breathing. She was recently hospitalized to remove blood clots from her lungs and was struggling with her breathing. An oxygen cylinder was her constant companion.
Just after midnight on March 12, she called her son from her Cordova home off Dexter east of Germantown Parkway. Her breathing problems were worse. She wanted to stay at his house on the other side of the parkway.
Once he got her in the car, she wanted to go to Saint Francis Hospital-Bartlett. Ables said it was between 1 and 1:30 a.m. There was little traffic. He could make the short trip quickly.
Ables was in his black 2004 Chevrolet Avalanche with his wife, Denise, when he picked up his mother. The Avalanche was easier for her to get into than Denise’s 2008 Chevy Impala.
The problem with his car was the expired tag. He had tried to get a new sticker, but a cracked windshield caused him to fail inspection. His mother’s previous hospitalization delayed taking care of the problem.
Ables said he wasn’t speeding that morning. He didn’t want to draw any attention. When he saw the deputy’s cruiser on Germantown Parkway as he crossed Interstate 40, he hoped the expired tag would go undetected. The deputy stopped him in the Wolfchase Galleria parking lot near Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
When Ables asked the deputy if he could get his mother to the hospital, he said the deputy questioned his mother in the back seat, asking her age, medical history, whether she was OK.
Meanwhile, Vernice Ables was asking her son to roll the windows down further, in spite of the cold, to see if she could breathe any better.
The traffic stop was frustrating. Ables could see the top of the hospital building from the parking lot he pulled into when the deputy turned on his blue lights. Yet, the deputy wouldn’t let him take his mother there — a trip that, in midday traffic, takes less than four minutes.
The deputy told Ables he could not follow people after a stop, and an ambulance was on the way.
“If I could have taken my mom when I first told him, I could have gotten her to the hospital. She would not have had the indignity of screaming and begging to breathe in the back seat of my car,” he said.
Those blue lights on the deputy’s cruiser may provide some clarification. The dash cameras on county patrol cars activate when the blue lights come on. They may provide documentation of what was said, and the actions of the deputy and the family.
Steve Shular, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said the department is trying to determine whether the Ables family asked for an ambulance or whether the deputy took it upon himself to call one.
“Based on Mr. Ables’ call, the Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Professional Standards is looking at the video and all particulars of the incident,” Shular said in response to a request to view the footage. “We won’t release the video until the investigation is over.”
He said no administrative charges had been filed against the deputy.
Ables said late this week that he did not file an official complaint, but the series of events at least warranted a review.
Ables knows his mother probably would have died that night. Doctors at the hospital told him that.
Still, he thinks the encounter with the deputy could have been handled with more compassion.
“My mom is gasping, and he wants to see my insurance papers,” Ables said. “He went to his car when I gave him my license. This whole time, there is an 83-year-old lady gasping for air, and he’s asking for her age and health history.”
When the ambulance finally came and his mother was on her way to the hospital, where she would be pronounced dead, the deputy let Ables go without writing a ticket for the expired tag.
The deputy’s last words, according to Ables, were “Don’t speed.”
“And he wasn’t nice about that,” Ables said. “No compassion at all. Not a bit of compassion.”
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/mar/21/traffic-stop-cut-life-short-man-says/
Umm, you’ve made 2 posts out and out calling for “Revolution” you made another suggesting we take the FBI out of power...now.
You’re a keyboard revolutionary, if you’re not here to intentionally discredit Free Republic, you seem to be doing everything you can to discredit this site with your “conservative-libertarian” viewpoint.
You’re tarnishing OUR brand with your stupidity and calls for revolution and “taking out” the FBI. Get lost.
It’s more than just “getting a ticket”. Multiple people from the hospital came out to talk to the officer so that this man could get in and see a dying relative. He proceeded to hold the guy and check him for warrants.
The ticket was dismissed by the way. No harm no foul. /s
This all comes back to zero tolerance - treat all “crimes” equally. I guess the good ole days of getting a police escort to the hospital are gone.
The whole motto of protect and serve has been turned around. It seems it’s now the public’s duty to serve the officers.
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