Posted on 10/05/2007 9:11:23 PM PDT by LdSentinal
The article says that the previous incident in Nov. of last year, where she ended up in the hospital became known to the family as a "possible suicide attempt." The article also says the husband called the airport looking for his wife and informed someone there she was alcohol abusive and suicidal. So why are they trying to make it seem like it's the cops fault that she's dead? Isn't it possible that this woman decided she couldn't face the humiliation of having been handcuffed and dragged from the airport and arrested, and chose to end her life by choking herself with the length of chain in the cell?
Frankly, if the family knew she was suicidal, why in the hell was she traveling alone on a trip that far from home? If you ask me, her family dropped the ball, and should shoulder a good deal of the blame in all of this. Your wife is depressed, alcohol abusive, and suicidal, and you let her fly across the country alone to sign herself in to a rehab center? I'd say the husband could be held for criminally negligent homicide because he knowingly allowed a suicidal substance abuser to roam free across the country without proper supervision. I mean, what was so important that he couldn't accompany his wife on this trip?
This article and some of the others I've read would have you believe they were a close-knit, loving family. Everybody got along, yada, yada, yada. So where was the support network for this woman that you would expect from a family described that way? If it had been there, instead of them dropping her like a hot potato, this woman might still be alive. Something ain't right with these people.
I don’t appreciate these people sending their problems to Arizona and when things go bad, well, they want to ruin the lives of the cops who had to deal with the mess.
How many lives do they want to destroy because they couldn’t find someone to baby sit this troubled woman?
It’s not right.
In our society, your life does not have less value if you are alcoholic or mentally ill.
If a family member had accompanied her and she got unruly, she still would have ended up, alone, in police custody.
If police have a mentally ill or suicidal woman in custody and have restrained so she can no longer hurt the officers, it’s their duty to make sure that person is safe until further help arrives.
I think research will show other people have died while being shackled to the bench the way she was.
So the questions that need to be asked are: Did the officers have proper training how to deal with mentally ill people? Did they follow their training? Were the officers so busy that they couldn’t keep watch on this disturbed person?
“Sadly, I think her family is much better off without her.”
In the long run you are probably correct, but I do feel very sorry for her children.
Well, I’m just speculating, but the fact that the family is looking for someone to blame for a suicide (other than the suicidal person) tells me a lot about how she got to be this way in the first place. Sounds like the whole family has a strong streak of irresponsibility. I know this type well: you can’t tell them anything, and nothing is their fault.
If a handcuffed person has to be monitored that closely we have gone way to far in society.
I believe that everyone, every last person needs to be monitored all day every day, including police.
We need to invent machines to do this. The machines will protect us all from the consequences of risky behavior. Yes, I am going to contact hillary right now and alert her to this idea. She will know what to do best.
He is a real meanie.
Since you believe that this lady should have been monitored more closely, do you believe that we should start setting up priorites to monitor about twenty percent of our population.
Let’s start with everyone who drinks. We will assign all firefighters (except those who drink), all doctors, all nurses, all police, all military to follow the drinkers around. They will administer a drunk test to every drinker in the US if they even try to drive a car.
Can you imagine how many drunk driving deaths will be prevented?
They’re like roaches. As soon as light is shined on them, they scurry and disappear.
I agree, and why does fault always have to become an issue. (I know the answer...because we live in a litigious society.)
The woman was suicidal, she ended up killing herself. End of story...it was her fault, she resisted arrest, was handcuffed, and then tried to escape the handcuffs, which ultimately led to her death. It wasn’t her husband’s fault, her in-laws fault, the cops fault, etc.
I saw the tapes, the policemen treated her appropriately. No police cruelty, they gave her every chance to cooperate.
This poor woman’s family reminds me of the Kennedys. They proudly proclaim their concern for the welfare of the masses yet, when it comes to real people, actual human beings you can reach out and touch, hold, caress and show love to, they have no time. Neither the multimillionaire husband nor the Public Advocate mother-in-law could spare one day of their lives to accompany this wretched soul to the treatment center. Read the transcripts of the husband’s 911 calls to the Phoenix police. This man knew perfectly well how sick his wife was. Unfortunately, time was not a commodity he and the Public Advocate were willing to sacrifice. And now they’re so driven to collect a financial windfall, they’ve not only hired an attorney- but contacted a Public Relations expert, as well. These people are truly despicable.
Eventually, they will be right, whih is what they apparently live for.
:)
I’m no fan of the Gotbaums....but it is hard to justify why she was left alone handcuffed and chained to a wall in a holding cell.
I drove by myself to rehab. No one in my family knew I was going. I'd lost my job because of my drinking. I called my wife from the rehab place. The nurse told her over the phone what to bring me for my stay. I told the nurse to tell my wife to make sure she brought me some cigarettes. She asked the nurse if, since I was going to be in there anyway for being a drunk, they could break my cigarette habit as well. The nurse told her "one addiction at a time". She brought the cigarettes.
I've been clean and sober since 06/01/1999. I've also quick smoking.
It's a shame what happened to the woman. What I'm seeing now from her family is classic enabling behavior. However, her death was her own fault.
I doubt Betsy misses her.
Boy this non-story has a lot of legs.
It would seem so. The stepmother didn't even know she had a problem until last year when she was already far gone. This woman died alone because she was alone.
It’s too bad.
Cops aren’t real sensitive. And they aren’t getting any better—in fact cops are real scared too. Esp at airports.
Alcoholics are hell to deal with. They oughta have a medic at the airport too.
Manhattan's Upper West Side. Nuff said.
“We will assign all firefighters (except those who drink)”
With the huge handful of firemen I know, you’ve really narrowed the field.
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