Posted on 03/26/2009 7:44:00 AM PDT by texan75010
As he rushed his family to the hospital, 26-year-old NFL running back Ryan Moats rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the emergency room.
Moats and his wife explained that her mother was dying inside the hospital.
"You really want to go through this right now?" Moats pleaded. "My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!"
The officer, 25-year-old Robert Powell, was unmoved. He spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest.
"I can screw you over," the officer told Moats. "I'd rather not do that."
The scene last week, captured by a dashboard video camera, prompted apologies and the promise of an investigation from Dallas police officials Wednesday.
"There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least," said Lt. Andy Harvey, a police spokesman.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I am going to cut the family a lot of slack. They just lost a mom, grandmother and MIL. They could have said goodbye, but a civil servant decided to abuse his authority, be a bully and violate their trust in him. The family has every right to be angry, and very angry. There is no excuse for the cop's behavior. And he deprived them of a final goodbye. I feel for them and understand their rage.
How is the cop supposed to know that this isn't just another in a long line of excuses?
Because the hospital employees told him
Hospital security guards arrived and told Powell that the Moatses' relative really was upstairs dying.
Powell spent several minutes inside his squad car, in part to check Moats for outstanding warrants. He found none.
Another hospital staffer came out and spoke with a Plano police officer who had arrived.
"Hey, that's the nurse," the Plano officer told Powell. "She said that the mom's dying right now, and she's wanting to know if they can get him up there before she dies."
"All right," Powell replied. "I'm almost done."
As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture.
Maybe, but white cops can be a$$holes to white people, too. Guaranteed.
One thing further on that, if the person who suffered the injury was harmed even further by the cop’s need to issue a citation instead of provide rescue or other support the department could be sued for major cash.
Granted there are a lot of NFL players who can act like jerks, but there are even more you never hear about.
I still haven't seen where in the article it says that the driver was wearing a sign saying"I'm a big-deal jock."
I think you’re wrong, but you may not be.
When I got able to, I called my wife from the hospital, and she went to the police station that same day. The next day when I walked in, the chief looked up from his desk and when he saw me he said, G.D.!, I hope you aint as mad at me today as your wife was yesterday!!
Did you read the article?
Come on, be honest. Lots of people here don’t bother to read before they post.
Protectin’ and servin’!
That seems like an odd thing to say. You have no argument, you have no perspective, you just say I didn’t think before I post?
Of course I thought about it. My son-in-law was a deputy sheriff for a time. Yes, some were jerks, some wielded power. I also heard the terrible stories about the folks that thought themselves above the law and knew that they would be let go. Stories of football coaches driving drunk getting off with “excessive fatigue”. Stories of jocks getting off rape charges because of their popularity.
Maybe this guy was a jerk this time. Maybe he came from stopping a buddy of this athlete and had heard the same story. You cannot know the entire situation and all of these stories have another side.
And you are welcome to side with the athlete. I would still side with the law enforcement men/women because I know how difficult it is to go out there and have folks shooting at you, land mines set in marijuana patches, punk kids spitting on you, and smart aleck celebrities saying the same things this guy said. But, I did think.
Read the article!
Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.
The hospital security at 7 1/2 minutes or so into the video tells officer the lady is coding and they need Mr. Moats to sign something..
One way to reinforce the message is the the Cowboys to deny opportunities for detail work at the stadium and other team events. While it is true that the stadium is in Irving and not Dallas proper there are situations where off duty cops are hired for events. A few weeks of no extra work for Dallas cops because of this cop’s behavior this punk would be really popular with his co-workers.
I got a nightstick in the ribs by a burly SFPD cop once for no reason I could surmise. It hurt so bad — I thought that he’d caved my rib cage in.
I’m as white as snow.
Thank God for dashboard cams. Unfreakin’ believeable.
“I can screw with your life. I would rather not.”
NO JACKA$$ you can’t. Your job description does not include screwing with people’s lives.
I do wonder about racism.
Then a nurse comes out at 13 min to tell officers mom has coded for 3rd time and officer continues to lecture another minute.
easy to do.......my young son was rushed to the emergency room while I was at work...i was speeding through a subdivision to get to the hospital, and got pulled over...i told the officer my story, and he took my license, registration and insurance, and told me to drive the speed limit to the hospital, and he would find me there...i drove to the hospital, he found me in the emergency room and gave me my stuff back, and told me that my son was in the best of care, and not to endanger lives again, and he left..
"I'm a big-deal jock."
True. But maybe when the cop ran the plates, and it came back.
Either the cop new he was an NFL player.
Or being an NFL player, with lots o cash, the SUV was an Escalade or Land Rover= EvilRichGuyWhoThinksHeOwnsTheWorld.
Or he hates SUV's.
Or he's a greenie, and hates SUV's.
Or "HE's" got a badge, so "HE's" THE LAW. (yeah I haven't seen that one before)
Most of them end up as LEOs.
FYI: The Cowboys no longer play at Texas Stadium in Irving, which has been stripped out and closed down for demolition. Beginning this fall the Cowboys’ home stadium will be the Jerrydome in Arlington, Texas.
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