There is no sense in pretending (making up falsehoods) I didn't make up any falsehoods. I asked some questions.
that others don’t get injured,
I'm sure some have, but HOW PREVELANT is it?
and that the vans don’t come with seat belts,
I didn't say NEW ONES DON'T. I said that They didn't have them when I was younger, and I bet that some of them still don't have them. Matter of fact, the 'regulation' requiring the cops to strap in the arrestee's is VERY NEW and some of the cops weren't aware of it (according to some of the earlier articles).
those cops were supposed to seat belt him in.
When they put you in the back of a police car (handcuffed), do they force you to put on a seatbelt ?
Actually, this incident Is the first time I heard of a ‘paddy wagon’ having seatbelts. None of them I have been in ever had any. IIRC, the seat belts are a ‘new’ feature and available only on the latest vehicles(paddy wagons). That is to say, not all the paddy wagons in Baltimore have seat belts. The same is probably true of most cities in the US. Sure, you really know paddy wagon vans that well and have been in many of them, but never heard of the "nickel ride"?
The back seat of a car is not like the slick, metal, box of a van which is practically a guaranteed injury box, especially when you hands are cuffed behind you.
“It is police policy that all arrestees must be buckled in during transport. The policy, updated just nine days before Freddie Gray was injured, states “all passengers, regardless of age and location, shall be restrained by seat belts or other authorized restraining devices.””
