Yeah, I have little faith in the humanity of our law enforcement these days.
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I mean, we constantly see how so many of them flagrantly abuse their authority, even when their lives are not in any obvious danger; but in a chaotic event like a hurricane?
I have to think the worst; my sense of self-preservation will not allow me to do otherwise.
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You don’t have to think the worst. It’s not mandatory, even here. There’s no evidence yet to suggest these officers were neglectful or intentionally harmful in any way. There is, however, very blatantly obvious evidence that these officers nearly lost their lives trying to transport the two women out of the flood zone.
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I’m a working-poor Black woman in America; so yeah bro… I kinda do.
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You attached an unsupported assumption to the end of a post asking people to wait for evidence. You say the were trying to transport them out of the flood zone. The story doesn’t give that explanation for the transfer and other reporting says it was a court ordered transfer.
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Fair enough.
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I’m probably wrong.
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The women appear to have been patients at a mental health care facility.
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Now to ascertain why transporting them right in the middle of a fucking category 3 hurricane was even “necessary.”
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OK, why was someone with depression and no criminal record in chains? Who decided that was necessary?
I’d say that they need to lose their jobs and go to prison for this, but these are cops we are talking about so I expect they will get a few weeks paid vacation to “recover from the trauma”.
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I know it’s an absurd question to ask, but will the surviving guards be brought up on charges? Negligent manslaughter seems appropriate, at least.
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Would that be the US equivalent of the charges that former chief superintendent David Duckenfield is on trial in the UK for (manslaughter by gross negligence)? Obviously it would only be two charges in this case, and not the 95 that Duckenfield faces.
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Ex-fucking-actly! I saw the documentary about Hillsborough, the coverup turned my stomach nearly as much as the initial deaths.
Though in this case, I have a particular horror for lives treated cheaply when those who’ve lost them were wards of the state. It’s not as if prisoners are capable of keeping themselves safe while in custody. That responsibility falls to the incarcerating agency.
While those football fans were there by choice, they had no way to know how badly things had been run. When we put higher trust in government officials, they bear higher responsibility (rather than the immunity they prefer to claim)
[Edited to add:]
One of the Sherriffs’ deputies is named Stephen Flood.
These women were involuntary admissions, they were considered a danger to themselves or others… so much for keeping them safe!
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Christ, what a terrible way to go.
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Cops: a mafia with an implacable union.
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Took a bit of time tracking this down, but I really want to post this to the thread:
Inmates left to fend for themselves in chest high floodwater, all locked up of course, for five solid days with no food, electricity, potable water, medical care etc., during Hurricane Katrina. Many inmates on the ground floor of the prison were never found and are presumed drowned.
Consider this a heads-up if you are not able to tolerate the grimmest of grim truths.
These testimonials are hard to bear, hard to stomach, hard to forget.
See also a more sanitized account here:
I expect to see more of this in the U.S. because of runaway climate change, the impoverishment of public infrastructure (such as drainage and flood management features) by cynical kleptocrats in the name of limited government, the profitable juggernaut that is the prison industry, and the kind of institutionalized warfare the one-percenters are clearly waging on the poors.
I hope I am wrong.
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