Posted on 08/27/2006 8:11:33 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Jonathan Edwards is speed-dialing them as we speak.
Second marriage? "Extended" family? Who knows? These people live in California.
"Mom and Dad could have come and got her."
Yes, maybe that is so, since they seem to have known she was in custody. Nevertheless I'm not mentally ill and I wouldn't want to be released into some dangerous neighborhood at night.
The more I read about this case the more I think the parents have some sort of case. They DID offer to fly in and take her, the cops were totally rude to them on the phone, would not give any info about their plans for her, wouldn't take her to get her luggage, just dumped her in a hellhole neighborhood they refuse to police. Making a scene in an airport shouldn't be a death sentence or a lifetime in a wheelchair. This person wasn't in her right mind, all the other convicts in the jail knew it, the cops paid no attention, they ignored pleas on the phone to help the situation, they could have given these people maybe 12 hours by leaving this 21-year-old in the jail, but they refused to help make the situation any better. Instead, they took this person from a place she wasn't getting mugged in, put her in a place where she was sure to get mugged, even if she were sane, and washed their hands of it. Yeah, if I were on the jury, I'd be interested in sending these cops a message. They can't be a-holes all the time, they need to work with people who are trying to clean up bad situations and work constructively to get people like this off the street. Well, now they can pay for it. If I were the parents, I'd sue for $100 mil and promise to decline most of the award if each and every callous cop involved in this got fired, lost his pension, and was banned forever from any city employment or future police work. In fact, fire the whole station, you know something is wrong with the culture if you could have that many people acting that callously.
She made a stink at the airport, got into a fight with someone on her cellphone. Sure, she should have been taken somewhere to cool off, but I doubt it was justice to take her to some place she wasn't familiar with, and one where she was certain to get mugged in, not giving her a dollar even of her own money and just dumping her. Those cops need to be taught a lesson about their own callousness. I think the parents have a case.
The Paines believe their daughter was trying to get on a flight home they had booked for her. She recently had dropped out of college at UCLA and the Paines said they don't know how she got to Chicago.
If they knew this, why didn't they ask that she be taken into custody until they could come get her?
She can't get on a plane by herself but she got to Chicago by herself??
This is sad.
I Agree , with you .
Thanks for providing more details. At the risk of getting flamed I will quote some fellow whose name I don't remember who said there are only 2 good police forces in the entire world, the NYPD and Scotland Yard. Based on my own extremely limited experience I tend to believe it.
Here is a little story from just this past weekend that illustrates the COMPLETE USELESSNESS of the Jersey City police department. Driving back from Long Island hubby and I heard a radio news story of a hit-and-run with one fatality and one critical condition victim that had taken place the evening before in Manhattan. They gave a description of a gray honda with florida plates and windshield and body damage. What do we see driving through JC but a car that fit this description, the windshield was really broken (it was dirty white, not gray, but the hit and run happened at about 8;30 at night, so that was pretty close). We were right by a police station and went in to report this vehicle sighting. There was a young woman cop at the desk and she could not have been more bored by us. She could barely hide her irritation at having to pick up the phone and call this in. Really irked me the way she said "concerned citizens" as if that were code for "annoying idiots". I said to hubby "it shows you how much they'd care if you got ran down and killed". Looks like these Chi-town cops had the same "God forbid I should make an effort" attitude.
So, I support the cops, don't get me wrong, but a lot of them really are jerks, and jerks with guns and power can do a lot of damage.
My sis-in-law had bipolar disorder, had a bad "therapist", wouldn't take the meds, and ended up comitting suicide, so my heart really does go out to these people. I know the hell mental illness can cause.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0608270351aug27,1,4299974.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
article title: "She begged for help; guards said, `Shut up'"
Some details from the Tribune article:
They released her alone into one of Chicago's highest-crime neighborhoods, and dumped her out on foot just before dark [7pm CDT; sun sets around 8pm CDT in early May].
I'm pretty sure there's a lot going on here that being disguised with "code words" and outright omissions. She was a young white woman in a bad part of South Side Chicago [51st Street and Wentworth Avenue] after dark.
Even if everything is exactly as the parents say, they may be able to sue but I would not have depended on others and would have come and picked her up at the jail, myself. Maybe they couldn't though.
If I was on the jury, the parents would OWN Chicago. I normally am not on the side of litigants on issues like this, but this one stinks to high heavens.
Go read the Chi Trib article for yourself. Allow for the usual Trib bias, but it still looks REALLY bad.
I am getting it. If it as posted she should "own the city" However, did her parents have 29 hours? Money will not take away the hurt. I'm not blaming them. I'm saying though that instead of trusting strangers, if they had went and got her themselves, she wouldn't be where she is right now. If I got a call that one of my kids was acting strange and in jail, I would be packing my bags as we talked. Maybe they didn't have enough time though. We don't know when they were called. Strange case.
Too bad Baker Act is Florida law, not federal.
They tried to do that and the cops dumped her out before the airplane arrived, giving them no information. What a bunch of scumbags, why couldn't they accomodate these people with this difficult problem they were trying to take off the cops' hands on their own dime? The fact is, they just didn't care. Now with this lawsuit, they can be made to care since nothing else seems to do it. I hope they get enough money from the city for the cops to feel it.
Sorry to hear that was your experience with the Jersey City cops. To be fair, I had a really good experience with the Jersey City cops a few years ago. I was riding a bus late at night, taking off from Penn Station, or wherever that place is for buses nearby and a weirdo from Manhattan followed me on the bus, sat next to me, and got off with me at midnight. I saw him, but did not think anything of it. Then he followed me down the hill to my home. I did not want to obviously shrug him off and make him uncomfortable because he was a black man, so I studiously ignored him and got my pepper spray out. He continued to follow me at close range down the hill, and then grabbed my backpack. I was wearing high heels so running after him was almost impossible. I screamed and made such a racket that the whole world must have woken up. Unbeknownst to me, I was living in a whole neighborhood full of Jersey City cops.
It was midnight but upon hearing me screaming, they all ran out in their underwear, chased the creep down, tackled him, beat him up good, and then charged him with resisting arrest. He looked like hell by the time these cops got done with him. The got my backpack back and ensured that the DA prosecuted him.
I do so love my Jersey City cops, they are heroes to me. I made sure I wrote a letter to the cop chief making sure he knew how good these cops were, discreetly leaving out the part about what they did to the guy after they apprehended him.
They got on the next plane to pick her up and by the time they got there, the cops had already dumped her off. They also pleaded for information about when she would be released and they wouldn't give them any. The whole thing looks like bad faith to me.
May 7 2:15pm Police arrest Eilman 4:00pm (approx) officer leaves voicemail on the parents' cell phones 6:00pm (approx) police tell her parents, who have been calling that she has been transferred to Wentworth District station May 8 7:00pm (approx) police release Eilman without informing her parentsLooks like about 25 hours.
Glad to hear about your experience with the JC PD! You were good to write a letter and thanks too for keeping this thread "fair and balanced".
You can't believe anything the Trib says.
The article leaves too many questions unanswered.
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