Yeah, wouldn’t want to trigger one of those “Put your hands in the air! Get down on the ground! Don’t move! Stop resisting!” spasm loops.
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Those other officers know he was in the wrong. All they had to do was say something. “With great power…”
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So apparently Officer Strongarm is now on paid administrative leave pending investigation by an outside authority, namely, SLC Unified Police.
How about the watch commander who told him she should be arrested?
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Yes, that exactly. I was just reading a quote from Wubbels’ attorney:
“This has upended her worldview in a way. She just couldn’t believe this could happen,” Porter said.
That’s everyone who doesn’t have it forced on them every day, who grows up believing Hollywood’s portrayal of police-as-moral-hero, who thinks that policing is being done the way they would do it, the way they would want it done. They believe it until a close encounter with reality forces them to update their model of the world.
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I am sure only the best cops are put on the “Blood Draw Unit”… I mean those guys have to use needles and stuff. I am really surprised there has not been a “Phlebotomist Cop” show yet. I can see it now “Miami BDU” - We stick it to the bad guys.
Props to Nurse Wubbels to try and improve the situation before just lawyering up. It shows moxie and a concern for the best possible outcome IMO… She still has the option to sue their arses.
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Perfectly encapsulating my concern about cops and domestic violence.
Well, here’s one:
Or, well… a portrayal of one.
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Can you imagine how this would have turned out had there been no video of the incident?
Cop: the nurse took an aggressive stance, then she lunged at me. I backed away. Then I think she tried to grab my gun. That’s when I had to restrain her.
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1-Someone on the “Blood Draw Unit” should know the law relating to said unit.
2-Sounds like the sergeant was suggesting arrest as an option not ordering him to do it.
3-The cop could have just waited for the administrator to arrive.
4-The cop could have arrested her in a manner designed to de-escalate violence/hysteria rather than sounding all irritated and pissed off then manhandling her. She was obviously terrified and doing what she thought was the right thing.
I’m aware being a cop is a difficult job and being blocked from what you’re trying to is always irritating. However, I think he was in the wrong. I suspect the profession attracts hotheaded control freaks who feel that they can always resort to violence/detainment/arrest to get their own way.
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Ah, the “nuremburg defense”? I hope it’s as successful for him as it has been at other historical trials…
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and that may be the one sound judgement made during the entire incident.
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There aren’t very many black people in Utah, so the cops are reduced to taking out their aggression on (gasp!) white people.Oh, the humanity!
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Everyone in this thread (who honesty already knows better, but perhaps doesn’t have it fully integrated into their worldview): Welcome to the everyday life of people of color in a lot of “underserved” areas.
Welcome to a view of the world in which your word doesn’t matter, your rights don’t exist, and cops can do whatever the F they want to you up to killing you because they “thought he had a gun” or “was resisting arrest”. Ask anyone who grew up in Compton, or Lawndale, or Hawthorne, etc… whether they trust the police (just naming places local to where I grew up, but they exist pretty much everywhere).
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Yep; welcome to our world…
“Do as I do
See what I see
Walk in my shoes
Hurt your feet…”~ DMX
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The police department with which the truck driver was a reserve officer has issued a statement thanking Nurse Wubbels:
“The Rigby Police Department would like to thank the nurse involved and hospital staff for standing firm, and protecting Officer Gray’s rights as a patient and victim,” it said. “Protecting the rights of others is truly a heroic act.”
(Link. Warning: autoplay video on page.)
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My thoughts exactly when I saw the video. All those LEO there, and not one makes a significant effort to stop what was clearly an assault, not a lawful arrest. Police can arrest police, but they seem incapable of doing so.
It appears that the US has a major systemic problem with it’s police forces. Looking in from the outside, it is apparent that the relationship between police and citizens is fundamentally broken. Yes, you can say “it’s only the bad ones”, but there seem to be enough of them to reach this conclusion.
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I liked this comment on the twitter thread:
Black people r canaries in the coal mine. Eventually a rogue police state turns on all, even the privileged. That’s what this video shows.
“Eventually” - we seem to be beyond that event horizon.
We’re in serious need of a police force to police the police force.
We don’t have citizen’s militias, and although a few fringe right-wing groups call themselves militias, few outside those groups would trust them. Without any check on the police, we’ve traditionally seen occasional riots or random cop killings as retribution for police crimes, and those both endanger everyone.
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