Posted on 06/06/2022 3:50:27 PM PDT by NohSpinZone
Just after 5 a.m. on May 28, Tempe police officers responded to an apparent disturbance between Bickings and a woman at the Tempe Center for the Arts, which sits on a promenade along the Tempe Town Lake, a reservoir in the city. In its statement, the city referred to Bickings as "unsheltered."
Body-camera footage released by the city shows officers approach and speak to a woman who identified herself as Bickings's wife. As she picked up her belongings off the ground, she explained that she and Bickings sometimes have disagreements but said that he did not physically harm her.
Two of the officers then walked over to Bickings, who was seated on a bench facing the water, according to the body-camera footage. By this point, the officers were running the couple's names for outstanding warrants, a standard procedure, according to the city. The police later said Bickings had three outstanding warrants, the Arizona Republic reported.
But those did not come up during Bickings's encounter with police, according to the body-camera footage, which shows the officers trying to make small talk with Bickings as they ran the check.
That's when Bickings slowly climbed over a short fence dividing the boardwalk and the water. When one of the officers asked what Bickings was doing, Bickings replied that he was going "for a swim."
"I'm free to go, right?" Bickings asked.
The officers said he was not allowed to swim in the lake, but Bickings waded in and started swimming a freestyle stroke toward a bridge, according to the body-camera footage.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Back in the 70s the sheriff’s office here had several billboards around town...they said “if you don’t like the police next time you get robbed call a hippy”.
Seriously? The cop just taunted and watched the guy drown. And last week they stood outside a school listening to kids being killed and stopping parents from saving their kids. And there are repeated reports like this over and over and over again. You can do you knee-jerk support-the-cops routine all you want but it is old and stale. The police are not our friends, they are not obligated to help, they’ll get in the way, and deserve blame when bad things happen around or by them. These are not the cops of years ago, like my dad, that took protect and serve to heart, lived the motto.
I wouldn’t have gone in either....and I was a Lake Michigan life guard.
sounds good LOL
More on FR need to learn this, but they will probably only learn the hard way.
I’m critical of the cops and there’s nothing here to criticize. Idiot endangered himself and if the cops jumped in after him he’d endanger them too. They did the right thing AND they saved on laundering their gear.
I used to be certified as a lifeguard. Even as a trained lifeguard, you are not expected to rescue someone who could easily drown you.
Looking on the biceps of Mr unsheltered, and his size, it would be very difficult to keep someone that size in a position where they are on their back, and you are restraining them while getting them to shore unless they were unconscious.
A flotation device on a rope would be the prudent action, and I doubt one was nearby.
I saw this before on Blazing Saddles, the quicksand scene. Never thought I’d see it for real.
Yup.
Full grown drowning man easily can drown his potential rescuer, especially if he’s wearing a gun belt, vest, full uniform.....
Smart cop.
The guy taunted the police to jump in after him. If they did, Bickings was going to put them under water, one by one and, once they were unconscious, swim back and get out of there.
Cops are law enforcement, not life guards. They shouldn’t have to jump into lakes (or run into burning buildings, before anyone asks) particularly to save people who went in of their own accord.
Cops know that they cannot go to prison for declining to save you, but can get in trouble for trying.
So, tough. They may have decided the guy would improve the world by departing it.
Thank you.
They serve smart people not people dumb enough to get themselves in a jam. Because everyone is so smart, especially them, and smart people never behave recklessly, especially not them.
Save Yourself, Dummy.
Our cops :)
You will never get many people here to accept reality.
You are of course correct. Police officers typically are not trained to be lifeguards.
I’ve had professional life guard certification. If you have never attempted to rescue a swimmer, I assure you you’ve not the first idea of what a physically difficult, nearly exhausting task it is. For an untrained individual to make the attempt is life threatening. Ya don’t just jump in and rescue a guy, and ya don’t fault an untrained non professional for having the good sense to NOT make the attempt. We worked (and trained) with fins on, and it was still difficult.
That’s just the way it is.
The keyboard warriors on FR are all rescue swimmers and could've swam 40yds in full gear, swam back 40yds with the unhoused, unswimming-pooled guy who likely outweighs them by 120lbs, and then hauled him out of the water like it was nothing.
I mean, what were those cops thinking? /s
That said, even dragging a compliant person through the water is taxing. I'm a decent swimmer, and in the best shape of my life still had trouble 'towing' someone.....I know I would never be able to dive in and rescue someone in a panic without drowning. Anyone older than 12, and not a family member - nope.
There is no expectation a cop, or anyone else not a rescue swimmer, should have to likely drown because some grown ass homeless bum wanted to play stupid games. Well, he FAAFO.
So they were put on .. vacation?
I’ve had professional life guard certification. If you have never attempted to rescue a swimmer, I assure you you’ve not the first idea of what a physically difficult, nearly exhausting task it is. For an untrained individual to make the attempt is life threatening. Ya don’t just jump in and rescue a guy, and ya don’t fault an untrained non professional for having the good sense to NOT make the attempt. We worked (and trained) with fins on, and it was still difficult.
That’s just the way it is.
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