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 ...
I was at a water park. There was a slide that came down into a clear tank of water maybe 6 feet deep. A brother and sister, about 8 and 10 go down the slide together. They have these little life jackets on. Brother panics when he hits the tank. Grabs his sister. The teenage lifeguard realizes what’s going on. They almost drowned him both trying to climb him. Scary. He finally got one on the deck, then the other. Just scary and so quick.
Guy was a retard likely druggie. No tears behind this keyboard.
I’d throw him a roll of Lifesavers if I thought it could help.
“Unless you are a good swimmer and a trained lifeguard, jumping in to save someone is insane!”
Absolutely correct. (Yeah, I had the lifeguard training and was a lifeguard many years ago.) If there is a pole or rope long enough to let him grab onto, use it. If there is any object available that can float, throw it to him. But don’t ever jump in yourself.
Anyone who says different is a Darwin Award wannabe.
We had a Worcester cop die last year trying to save some drowning youths who should have been in school. It was terribly sad, and unnecessary.
I most sincerely hope you get the LEO you support someday.
And I mean that in the worst possible way.
L
“And I mean that in the worst possible way.”
Of COURSE you do.
Pretty sick that you are proud of that.
Right, watch the video, the cop would not have been able to save him, glad the cop didn’t try, and end up dead as well...
The guy ran down a cement barrier and jumped into water well deeper than his height....no bank or sand present, which the man was obviously expecting....a shallow river....nope jumped into deep end of the pool, and immediately was in life peril.
Reach
Throw
Row
Go
In that order.
One less criminal.
That only happens when children are bleeding out in classrooms after being shot... (while they’re parents fight to save them.) I’m sure ‘Homeland has those parents listed as ‘domestic terrorists’ by now....
Point-of-fact:
I’m a lifetime swimmer - competitive - am rescue trained and understand both the risks to myself in the water in such a situation AND the liability of inaction.
I’ve segued toward LEO for years but never ‘pulled the trigger’.
I can’t say for certain how I’d have reacted as LEO to a belligerent who violated a police order and placed himself in danger (and, consequently, anyone who sought to rescue him, including the officers). But frankly, my common sense would have put me in the water at some point at a minimum for CYA and the other officers on scene would have owed me BIG TIME.
But as a civilian I would definitely have thought about my wife before diving in the water after the POS (vs. immediately going in after a child without hesitation) and I would sleep just fine with that decision.
Lurker, I have read your posts for years and respect you but you need to keep this in perspective. Last month we lost a Texas Guardsmen who jumped into the Rio Grand to rescue two drug smugglers.
His death achieved nothing.
I have always, wherever I lived, had the best local LEO’s ever. How is this possible? Because I live in great communities.
I have said for years that people deserve the police department that serves them. Police officers are but a representation of the community that they live in. Do you live in a crappy, dangerous, liberal hellhole? Then yeah; your cops will be pathetic.
Do you live in a prosperous, affluent, well educated community? Chances are you will never have any negative interactions with the police save for an occasional traffic ticket which you probably deserve.
WAIT.
The deceased represented to Officers that he could swim; he told them he was going “for a swim.”
He set out well enough that it appeared he actually could swim.
It was only some ways out that it became apparent that he could NOT swim well enough.
At that point, absent water rescue equipment, and training on using it, there’s NO WAY I’ll fault either Officer for not attempting a rescue:
A. Drowning people pose a mortal danger to their rescuers.
B. Doubly so at night.
C. The lake’s “NO SWIMMING” signage may well indicate submerged hazards.
D. Submerged hazards are doubly dangerous at night.
E. Nighttime water rescues are inherently more precarious.
NOT faulting police on this one. Not EVEN.
“They may have decided the guy would improve the world by departing it.”
If so, they appear to be correct.
Without floaties, the drowning guy would have likely brought the cop down with him.
To serve and to protect YOU from...
Hypothetically speaking... lotsa stuff.
Reading rescue swimmer manuals, does not approve responding solo to a distressed swimmer. Unless there are rescue devices at hand. It is ill advised.
Of course the press knows nothing about actually responding unless with camera in hand and in the way... so there’s that.
“Wasn’t there a Supreme Court case decision that “first responders” — our heroes! — cannot be sued for failing to save someone.”
Responders not obligated to answer 911 calls, and the reason they’re not obligated is if they were and their response vehicle was somehow in an accident or they got the address wrong or they were late, held up because protesters were firebombing....they are not liable.
I think that’s actually been used as a case for self-defense since responders if not obligated to answer 911, places the victim in an odd circumstance if choosing to defend themselves or wait for a responder who is not obligated/unable to respond.
There might even be due diligence clauses attached to mistakenly perceived expectations.
“he was an up and coming pro skateboarder and his life was cut tragically short by two racist cops”
Before he smacked his noggin curbside...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.