I'm tempted to say something like this is a good argument for CC but there is absolutely no way this cop should ever have made it through any kind of law enforcement training with that brain.
What officer Dickweed was concerned about was you immediately halting to pay tribute to his authority. Everything else is secondary to you knowing who the fuck was in charge. Another asshole cop giving them all a bad name.
Something similar happened to NFL running back Ryan Moats. His mother-in-law was dying and the cop wouldn't let him go inside the hospital despite hospital staff coming out to confirm the story. He lectured Moats in the parking lot until the mother-in-law was dead (She was already in the hospital, not in the car).
Yeah not like a little judgment couldn't have been exercised here. Sounds like a classic case of Cartmanitis to me.
If that judge has any sense, he'll throw this out and tell the cop what a douchebag he is. I hope that cop loses his weapon.
And people with this kind of judgment (and, apparently, attitude) are the only ones who should be allowed to have guns?
In all fairness, some judgment should have been used by both sides. Hazard flashers do not give you the power to speed and/or run red lights. Hazard flashers are only intended to be used to mark you as a hazard when you're stopped on the side of the road. What he should have done when he saw the cop was pull over, show him what's going on, put his wife in the back of the cruiser, and then let's run some red lights! I've done that so many times, it's not funny. I know it's different with family, but if this guy is a medic, he should have used his head. But, with that said, this in no way excuses the poor judgment used by the police officer.
With the poor judgement this officer has shown, what guarantee do we have that Officer Cartman wouldn't have stonewalled him on the side of the road? Obviously, it was a legitimate medical emergency. Once the officer confirmed that fact, it was time to get over the need to wave his dick and go look for some real criminals.
My job isn't just to serve one person. It's to protect everyone else out on the road as well. By driving recklessly, in what appears to be fairly urban area, you're putting hundreds if not thousands of people at risk. This, apparently, ended well, but if just one person had not been on their game, lots of people, including this man and woman, could have died. Listen, again, I'm not defending the officer in any way. I would have handled it differently. But, one of my pet peeves has always been that people use hazard flashers like I use the lights on top of my car. They are not the same.
I'm a native of the Communistwealth of Virginia, where the VSP even hassle the living shit out of EMS. We got followed in to the ER a few times. Once the trooper saw we had something legit, that was the end of it. However, they did have one smartass sergeant that if I ever had gotten a call where he was the patient, I would have obeyed every speed limit, traffic sign, and maybe even taken the ambulance in for an oil change and service before responding to the scene.
Sorry, but this cop's personality really shined through. I'm glad this guy didn't take your advice, because I think the cop probably would have let her die while he hassled her husband.
There's no indication that the cop attempted to pull him over in the news article. Just that he followed him until he got to the hospital, THEN he intervened. There's no fucking excuse for that if true. I particularly like this part: This guy clearly had no interest in whether a medical emergency was taking place. He claimed the defendant tried to flee while he was carrying his wife in his arms into the ER. NO ONE IS THAT STUPID. Scumbag. Soon to be sued scumbag.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/22/tennessee.policeman.hospital/?hpt=T2 All charges have been dropped. The police officer is on administrative leave and is being investigated by IA. The woman didn't have a stroke. So good news all around.
Rather than jail - let him serve some real time in an ER and see what goes on; and then send him to EMT training. Then maybe he'll wait until the speeder/red light runner has the family member in the ER and taken care of by the medical folks before pulling the driver to one side and say "son, you could have gotten both of you killed. next time, pull over when you see my lights and let me run them here with my lights and sirens. Warning."
The cop was dead wrong no it's ands or buts. That said, running red lights can get people killed regardless of how good the reason is to get someplace like the ER.
There's a right way and a wrong way to run a red light. From the description in the article, this guy did it right.
Didn't used to be so. Used to be the norm for cops was fellas like Martin Wynn of L.A.P.D., who was the inspiration for Joe Friday of Dragnet fame. [YT="What cops seem to have forgotten how to be."]A9CxT48jIgI[/YT] They go for the superficial "tough guy" vibe, but they forget they do it for the people, not just to the people.
Jesus, I'm tired of stories like this. It's a good thing I had a great experience with cops this morning(resulting in an arrest upon my visual identification of him.....have a nice time getting raped in jail, motherfucker.).
