This is beyond reproach... To serve and protect my ass, this officer should be fired

[Tilt A Whirl]

Mate you don't have a clue. We have a man in the uk who had Downs Syndrome and had a stroke so went into hospital. He died due to them not feeding him. He went 26 days without food! This was in 2005 and its only made the news last week as a result of a report into 5 other deaths through neglect.

One hospital in Staffordshire has now hit the headlines because over a three year period an estimated 400-1200 people died through improper care!

None of those individual cases got any press on their own it took literally a catalog of complaints and gross incompentences before any of it made the news.

An ordinary person being inconvenienced just doesn't make headlines.

It was a huge story because Moates is a black celebrity. If he was just an ordinary working class guy, say a 23 year old McDonalds worker it wouldn't have made the local paper.

Um Moates really isnt a celebrity
He's barely in the NFL,he's been cut twice in the last two years.
And it certainly isnt because he's black
Its because the NFL players union got a complaint,and then they got the dash cam,which even the cops arent allowed to erase,and lets be honest,the dash cam makes the cop look like a total douchebag.The Union probably leaked it to the press,but even if they didnt,the media would have gotten a sniff of it anyway.
A week ago,nobody knew who the hell Moats was

Ah I see and I get what your saying. This was exactly my thinking too that an ordinary person would have no way of proving the story or any power to demand the police camera footage. He would just telephone the station or write and make a complaint and probably not even get his ticket refunded.

You have to some major leverage to get the dash cam footage and an ordinary Joe Blow's comlpaints would just fall on deaf ears.

Oh and I definitely agree about that cop sounded like a total douche.

But I do think he should still have got a ticket. I mean its not a good precadent to set that if there is a big enough emergency you can jump a red light. The law has to apply to everybody and not be subject to personal interperation. I also feel that way about the role of the police is well. I want them to do their job according to their rules and regulations and not make their own judgements because when people start making their own judgements is when things tend to fuck up.

So I completely agree that the cop was right to stop, pull over, demand to see the license and insurance of the driver and then issue a ticket, all of that is perfectly fine with me.

See thats the big kicker,it was a blinking red,a blinking red in the states happens either past a certain time in the night,or if theres a power outage which is what I read there was,they reset to blinking reds. The law in almost every state,is if you come to a blinking red,your supposed to treat it like a stop sign,stop, check both ways and proceed,which is what Moats did.
So ,no the cop wasnt even right to issue the ticket in the first place,he certainly wasnt right to draw his gun,and detaining Moats for 20 minutes,even after being asked by two nurses and a fellow officer to let Moats go in,is well beyond the pale.