I’m usually more of a reader than a blogger here at Kos (although I’ve been a registered member for some time) but I came across a story today that encapsulates everything wrong about the law enforcement community.
As he rushed his family to the hospital, 26-year-old NFL running back Ryan Moats rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the emergency room.
Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital.
"You really want to go through this right now?" Moats pleaded. "My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!"
The officer, 25-year-old Robert Powell, was unmoved. He spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest. "I can screw you over," the officer told Moats. "I'd rather not do that."
http://www.dallasnews.com/...
"I can screw you over." Are there any circumstances that can justify a police officer’s threatening an American, let alone an American in obvious distress?
Even after traveling to the hospital, the officer was still unmoved by the Moatses' story.
Hospital security guards arrived and told Powell that the Moatses' relative really was upstairs dying.
Powell spent several minutes inside his squad car, in part to check Moats for outstanding warrants. He found none.
Another hospital staffer came out and spoke with a Plano police officer who had arrived.
"Hey, that's the nurse," the Plano officer told Powell. "She said that the mom's dying right now, and she's wanting to know if they can get him up there before she dies."
"All right," Powell replied. "I'm almost done."
As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture.
I am not saying that Ryan Moats, a relatively anonymous NFL player, should be treated any different because of his status. Rather, any person in the United States is entitled to better treatment from the police. Too often the police are given a free pass for their transgressions toward the same community they take an oath to serve and protect. Whether or not race played an issue in this case – as it probably did – is beside the point. The police are entitled to enforce the law, but their enforcement of the law should take a backseat to their service to the community, if the two are ever at odds with one another.
Place yourself in Moats' situation: if a headstrong police officer got in the way of you and a dying family member, how would you react? Would you put on the mask of timidity and subservience that police officers often require?
Ask the Dallas Police Department if it is department policy to abuse the rights of American citizens, or to interfere with children seeing their dying parents.
Contact information:
Dallas Police Department Internal Affairs Division
1400 S. Lamar Street
Dallas, Texas 75215
214-671-3986