This story is outrageous. Several blogs, conservative and liberal, have been discussing racism over the past few weeks. Some bloggers believe it's over. After you read this story, please ask yourselves, would this have happened if the people involved had blond hair and blue eyes? Especially ask yourselves this after you learn that a nurse confirmed Moats' story and another officer tried to intervene on Moats behalf.
We are most definitely NOT a post-racial society.
Ryan Moats feared for wife's life during ordeal with Dallas officer
11:48 AM CDT on Monday, March 30, 2009
By DAN X. McGRAW / The Dallas Morning News
The pro running back who was detained by a Dallas officer as his mother-in-law was dying said he feared for his wife’s life during the ordeal.
"I was afraid for her because he was pointing a gun at her," Ryan Moats told ABC-TV's Good Morning America. The interview was broadcast locally this morning on WFAA-TV (Channel 8).
When Officer Robert Powell first pulled him over outside a Plano hospital, "I didn’t realize what was going on at the time," Moats said. "Once I got out, I realized it was pretty serious.
Despite Moats' pleas that he needed to get into the hospital because his wife's mother was dying of cancer, Powell detained him for 13 minutes, threatening him with arrest. The officer stopped Moats because his SUV rolled through a red light en route to the hospital.
The stop took place on March 17.
Moats, a graduate of Bishop Lynch High School, lives in Frisco. He plays for the Houston Texans of the National Football League.
Moats, his wife Tamishia and two other family members were headed to Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano when Powell pulled them over.
With his hazard lights on, Moats stopped at a red light near the hospital and then drove through it after the motorist with the right-of-way signaled for him to go ahead, he told police.
“I got there as safely as I could,” he said in the television interview. “I wasn’t reckless at all.”
Powell, watching traffic from a hidden spot, turned on his lights and sirens, caught up with Moats' vehicle and followed it into a hospital parking lot, just outside the emergency room.
There, the police officer - who has since been placed on leave - detained Moats, threatening and berating him.
Moats' mother-in-law died before he could get in to see her.
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6 comments:
DWB (driving while black) is still common, to common.
Aggressive policing is the result of a dangerous, violent society where anything can and will happen.
Policing procedures are designed to safeguard the officer both physically and legally.
There are far to many incidents of over reaction by the police. The idea that an officer must treat every encounter as a mortal danger to themselves leads to a "shot now ask questions later" mentality.
I don't mean literally shot (although that happens also) I mean an over controlling posture by the police, even when it's not necessary.
We have all seen the tapes of arrests by police using more force than necessary when trying to control a suspect.
A suspect is totally submissive to the police (even having their hands up -giving up) when 4 or 5 police officers run in, slam them to the ground with enough force to break a nose, jumping on top of the suspect (knee in the back) the police yelling orders the suspect cannot possibly comply with because they are totally under the physical control of the police, the adrenaline pumping in the officers creating an emotional filled scene that makes it look like they were arresting Charlie Manson, but it was a shoplifter.
This man was showing (if the story is factual) the traits of someone trying to get help, not being a danger to society.
He may have had his (about to deliver a baby) wife in the car, or a child that had been hurt badly and needing medical attention immediately.
It is had to know why the suspect was driving the way he was, but the fact that the pull over happened in the hospital parking lot, should have given the officer a hint that something more than a traffic violation was going on, or at least that someone in the car needed medical attention.
The police are humans. They make mistakes. They have the traits of any other humans like bigotry, racism, questionable character, they have the added effects of their job like being over cautious, paranoid, and some do have a power complex.
The law says that a citizen has to comply with the orders of an officer. If the officer commits a wrong or mistake, that is for a court to decide.
If these wrongs or mistakes are continuous, or found to be biased towards a segment of society, that also is for a court to decide.
We (trust) hope that the court does not also make the same mistake or bias in deciding the case.
This is why corruption must be checked. Citizens must perform their oversight duties. Citizen involvement is central to the smooth operations of a free society. Voting is only one duty of a citizen. The duty of a citizen is more than just voting.
I once was facilitating a group of predominantly rich white folks serving in a barrio in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The police were regularly guilty of harassing these types of groups.
When they asked why, I answered that it was because they were white, and outsiders.
They were amazed that the police would stop someone just because they were different, or were outsiders.
Yet they were unable to make the leap that was happening to them in Mexico is the same thing that happens daily in the US to people of color or who appear to be outsiders.
I don't think I can stand another conversation about race after reading the filth posted at Right is Right's blog and many other of her cohorts. They did a number on The Gray Headed Brother, they called him every filthy name in the book. It made me sick.
Kinda hard when stuff like the Oakland, CA incident happened and you make comparisons like these.
What happened was bad, I totally agree.
Hmmmm.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/theleague/nflnewsfeed/2009/04/police-officer-in-moats-case-resigns.html
Doesn't strike me as much of a loss.
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