RSS 2.0 FeedThe Latest Police Outrage
by Doug MataconisThis time in Kansas City, Missouri. A pregnant woman was pulled over by police for a traffic violation. She tells them she’s pregnant and bleeding and they ignore her and take her to jail instead. The result was quite tragic:
Salva, a Sudanese native, was pulled over Feb. 5, 2006, by officers Melody Spencer and Kevin Schnell, who had seen her affix a fake temporary tag on her car’s back windshield.
“She told the officers repeatedly over the course of 45 minutes that she was bleeding, she was pregnant, she needed medical attention,” Protzman said. “And they ignored her request and refused to listen to her and refused to take care of her.”
Salva was taken to jail and kept overnight on traffic violations and outstanding city warrants. The next morning, Salva claims, she was released and delivered a premature baby boy who died a minute after birth.
“If Sofia could have her baby back, she would love to have that,” Protzman said. “But the police took that opportunity away from her. She’s pursuing the only recourse that’s available to her under the law.”
The suit, filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court, seeks actual damages exceeding $25,000 and punitive damages to punish and deter such conduct in the future.
The videotape seems pretty damning:
Seems pretty outrageous to me. And yet further evidence that the whole idea of “to protect and serve” doesn’t mean much anymore.
H/T: The Agitator
When I read about I shook my head and gritted my teeth; talk about having priorities out of whack…
The problem with having to remind police officers via such a law suit, and by that I should emphasize those few police officers who have yet to understand what priorities the public expects of them. Police departments all around will now write up yet another standard operating procedure that will decide and limit an officer’s ability to solve issues that fall close to, but may not match exactly, a specific incident.
Police officers are supposed to have problem solving skills, and those skills require moral codes and priorities consistent with the public which they serve. There are so many rules, regulations and standard operating procedures that departments implement to avoid the wrath of litigation that it’s a wonder that each and every police officer doesn’t have to be his/her own lawyer too.
When I was driving around, supposedly as a member of the City of Houston Police Department, in the back of my mind I would go over each situation and see how the Department had extricated itself and the City from any possible law suits in the event such a lawsuit were ever filed. Did I properly do this that and the other while making an arrest. Sometimes the details of an arrest that took a few minutes could take several hours to put into written form as the documentation process secured and justified each and every moment, to include half seconds of that arrest. This was done, not so much to make it possible for a conviction later on; but to protect myself from civil lawsuits which are filed by those seeking to find a chink in the amour. I truly believe that I should have had a patch on my shoulder, one that said, “T. F. Stern’s Police Departmentâ€, because if anything ever hit the fan I knew I’d be all on my own as the City and the Department sawed off my limb and watched it drift a good distance away from them.
Comment by T F Stern — February 2, 2007 @ 10:12 amI’ve tried to write a comment about three times to express my outrage. And no words I care to utter on a blog can quite do it. I hope this lady takes the bastards to the cleaners.
Comment by Brad Warbiany — February 2, 2007 @ 11:29 amThis makes my blood boil pretty hotly. It is senseless, outrageous and criminal. By those officer’s blatant disregard for this woman’s situation, she’s lost her child and has to deal with this tradgedy for the rest of her life. These men should be tried criminally and made an example of. They did not make a “mistake,” they wilfully and consciously made a decision not to deal with the situation as they should have.
Comment by Ben — February 2, 2007 @ 11:38 amThis is part of the problem I have with police power at this point…privatization of police forces would create competition so that senseless stories like this would not be recurrent themes in the news.
I don’t know what else to say. Words are not enough.
[...] 2007 Posted by bencauble in Justice System, General Interest, Police, Outrage. trackback This is a case of police brutality that enrages me. I don’t usually get very angry, but this kind of thing makes me see [...]
Pingback by Infuriating Police Brutality « anti-pedanti — February 2, 2007 @ 11:57 amThis began as a TRAFFIC VIOLATION. This woman was not a danger to society. The main reason that people apply a “fake” take of any kind on their car is POVERTY.
The poor and disenfranchised are preyed upon in this country everyday, often by the very agencies who purport to protect them.
It sickens me to see what American “justice” has become. The wisdom of Solomon is no where to be found in a police state which, it pains me to say, is the direction in which we are now moving.
Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty or give me death”…this woman was given no such option. Neither was any measure of mercy or good judgement applied. The result was the senseless death of an innocent unborn child…who also has no rights in America.
I mourn the loss of this baby and the America that I grew up with before COP TV and “tough on crime” politicians.
Comment by Mike Dawson — February 2, 2007 @ 1:06 pmThis is beyond outrageous. I was involved in a minor car accident when I was 8 months pregnant. Even though there was nothing to fear, I was taken by ambulance to the nearest hospital, just to make sure everything was okay. The police officer came to the hospital to give me my ticket (unfortunately). There is no reason that they couldn’t have called an ambulance, or take her to the hospital themselves and deal with the matter AFTER she had been checked out. I hope those officers carry guilt with them every day for what they have done.
Comment by Aimee — February 2, 2007 @ 7:56 pm