Top story on reddit at the moment:
http://www.sltrib.com/pb/news/2017/08/31/utah-nurse-arrested-after-complying-with-hospital-policy-that-bars-taking-blood-from-unconscious-victim
ETA: Slightly longer version: https://www.ksl.com/?sid=45629038&nid=148
She was 100% right. The cop could not legally take blood. She was protecting her patient- as she should have been.
I’m shocked, shocked I say that she was arrested for literally following the law.
What an abuse of power. Someone needs to learn the LAW part of Law and Order.
That is ridiculous. They could have obtained a warrant in a nanosecond. Ok, not that fast, but usually there is a judge available to issue one in such urgent situations.
That said, what does it have to do with the thread? Sure, there is a video from my neck of the woods of a jerk cop sticking a gun into a motorcyclist’s face. It even made it to CNN. But is that relevant to this particular discussion? Or are we now discussing general police brutality?
“That said, what does it have to do with the thread?”
Dumb Things Cops Do While Wearing Body Cams for $100, Alex.
Also, inappropriate statements by those employed in positions of trust can and does have serious consequences for those making them as this LEO found out, ex-Marine NCO Gary Smith from the link in my prior post, or this former Army doctor Terry Lakin whose publicly stated intention to refuse orders to deploy to Afghanistan a second time because he felt the then presiding POTUS wasn’t legitimately eligible to be President:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court-martial_of_Terry_Lakin
End result, his inappropriate comments and implied telegraphed intentions resulted in his court martial, being cashiered from service, forfeiture of benefits including a pension, and a sentence of 6 months in a military prison.
After he got out of military prison, he was also refused a license to practice medicine by Kansas’ Health Board on account of his refusal to deploy to provide medical care for troops in Afghanistan which was part of the very job he signed up for when he opted to become a military doctor.
In short, some inappropriate remarks not only have serious consequences from reactions of others, it could also cause such a loss of confidence in one’s professionalism and trust to uphold one’s pledge to do one’s job…especially in a position of trust in which the public good/safety is at stake to such an extent that the employer has no other choice but to terminate employment.
This is kinda different to the situation under discussion. The top things that a military person should avoid are treason and insurbordination.
It is not similar to a principal who makes insensitive comments about leggings and fatness, or a cop who makes crude comments about who he is more likely to kill.
Well, don’t these threads always turn into “dumb things cops do?” Nobody is interested in good things cops do. Strangely, a cop saying a rude thing to a drunk driver makes the national news and gets people riled up while my BIL getting shot in the face while on duty barely rates the local news. Just another law enforcement officer down.
The main point is that all were in positions of power and public trust.
All made remarks which can reasonably be interpreted as signs the respective remarkers were unwilling to and/or demonstrated a serious lack of judgment vital to their ability to uphold that public trust and use their power responsibly
Jumping into this a bit late, but yesterday @katliamom said:
I won’t defend the words the LEO said, and I certainly think that disciplinary action, short of termination, is warranted.
But @katliamom, you completely changed the situation here. If you had said that a black police officer, upon stopping a black driver, said “We only kill whites”, then that would be analogous. Then most people would either immediately see sarcasm or irony.
Instead you chose a completely different hypothetical situation, one which could only serve to frighten the driver being stopped, rather than the actual poor attempt by the LEO to defuse the situation. And then you attacked this straw man by adding a charge of white privilege.
To add onto fractalmstr’s definition, the Urban Dictionary:
To be sure, the comment was inappropriate. But was it racist? Maybe he was tired of being accused of being a violent racist bully, and instead of sucking it up and de-escalating the situation caused by the motorist’s fear of cops, he resorted to gallows humor.
I am privileged because as I go through my day no one looks at me and expects me to shoot them. Maybe cops who don’t share that privilege vent a little now and then. Isn’t that how privilege works? If no one runs in fear of me, I lose empathy for those who see people viewing them with hostility and suspicion all the time. Civilian privilege.
The cop in question is to be fired.
Cops have not, collectively, earned the privilege of people thinking they won’t wrongfully kill innocent people.
When I was teaching D how to drive, we had that talk about when to do when pulled over. Turn off the car, put the keys on the dashboard, roll the windows down, keep both hands on the top of the steering wheel, sit still and don’t reach for anything including your license until the cop specifically asks for it.
It’s a scary set of instructions for a teen girl to hear, especially at the time there had been a lot of police-involved shootings of unarmed people on the news. She blurted out with, “I hate cops!”.
I told her, “You’re driving an expensive car. You’re a young, cute girl. You’re not black. You look like you have parents who would sue. Cops are not going to harrass you.” That’s privilege. Not white privilege since we’re not white, but certainly several different kinds of privilege.
BTW, I’ve been pulled over about 4 times in my life and never gotten a ticket. Pisses W off since she gets a ticket every single time. Maybe she needs my “how to interact during a traffic stop” lesson :))
@anomander some of my friends are constantly pulled over because we are Black driving expensive cars as if we obtained them illegally. We drive average cars although we have one old luxury sports car. We specifically put personalized plates related to an occupation on it so that cops would think twice before stopping us.
Cobb county police pull over teenage drivers all the time. Regardless of color. A friend’s son was charged with a DUI and carrying a controlled substance (or something like that) for being on his ADHD med and having the prescription bottle in his car. Cost them a fortune in legal fees. Another friend’s son was pulled over after a basketball practice (and was dressed in only gym shorts and a shirt) supposedly for a taillight being out was frisked by a female cop and his car searched. No reason whatsoever. Totally out of line. The student didn’t know he could have refused the search, but probably would have been taken to the precinct. These are anecdotal, but still. So much for “white privilege”.
@partyof5 I know, that’s something black Americans have been living with for decades and the rest of the country is just now becoming aware of. It’s absolutely horrible and despicable and I’m so sorry and embarrassed that DWB is even a thing in this country. Just the fact that there’s an acronym for it is crazy.
Last time I was pulled over I was driving my mom’s Buick, she was in the passenger seat. A middle aged white woman with a white haired old lady. Tail light out. Black cop, southern city. We got a ticket.
The point being that even though studies show that Blacks are stopped at a higher rate than whites, that doesn’t mean whites aren’t stopped for stupid stuff. Like the time my nephew was stopped because he didn’t have the current registration sticker on his plate. He had the sticker in an envelope on the front seat, and showed it to the officer. Not good enough, he got a ticket.
And good parents of any race give their kids the talk. I’ve made my kids watch the YouTube videos. Cops deal with some mean, vicious, dangerous people, every day. It’s smart to proactively demonstrate you are not one of them. De-escalation works both ways.
I’m sorry you get stopped more often than you think is justified, but most of us get stopped for something sometimes. I’ve not yet been shot, but if I ever am I plan to call the cops.
Isn’t that the definition of privilege as used today? Something you get for free without having to earn?