Furious
I just saw the most awful story on the morning news.
Apparently a year ago a woman in Kansas City, Missouri was pulled over for having a fake temporary license in the car she was driving. She immediately told the officers that she was pregnant, bleeding and trying to get to a hospital. The officers ignored her and kept asking her why she was trying to go "to the store" with a fake temp tag. They made her get out of the car and searched her for weapons before taking her to jail. Then next day she gave birth to an almost six months premature baby who lived one minute and died. The tapes were released today.
The story from the Kansas City Star is here.
The video tape is here.
The first officer says he saw her put the tag in the window and asks where she got it. She replies it was in the car. He asks why wasn't it in the window and she says something I can't quite hear followed by "I'm having a miscarriage". He ignores her. She repeats, "I have a problem, I'm bleeding ..." He says, "OK, do you have a driver's license?" She says to have the female officer check her. When the female officer comes around the side of the car he just says "She says she pregnant, but ..." his voice trailing office in an obvious 'but that can't be true, she must be lying' tone of voice. After nine requests for help, the female officer just says, "How is that my problem?"
The woman, Sofia Salva, is suing the KCMO police department for wrongful death, personal injury and failure to provide medical assistance.
On one hand, I'm shocked by this. On the other, I'm not completely surprised. It was 14 years ago in Kansas City, MO that I was in a car that was pulled over for a minor traffic violation (going the wrong way down a one-way street), and the driver, and all three passengers were asked for ID, asked to step out of the car, and were searched. I couldn't believe it happened then; I still can hardly believe it happened.
I had been on the Missouri side of Kansas City (which, for those of you who don't know, sits 2/3 in Missouri and 1/3 in Kansas and is technically two cities) with a friend from Ozark visiting her family. We had been out with her sister and two other girls. We had dropped the one girl off and were headed home through a not familiar neighborhood when Rhonda (my friend's sister who was driving), made a wrong turn onto a one-way street. She immediately realized her mistake and pulled into the first driveway to turn around. As she turned back onto the original street, we were pulled over. The officer asked Rhonda if she knew why she was being pulled over. She said, yes, she had turned the wrong way onto a one-way street. She added that it was a mistake; it was dark and the sign was partially obscured, but she had realized it and turned around the first chance she got. The officer just asked for license and registration. He then looked at the three of us and demanded we get out of the car.
In the end, they let us go, but during the course of events it became very obvious that the real reason for the treatment was they wanted to know what four white girls were doing in a black neighborhood after dark.
I've lived in Missouri - two years as a baby/toddler and three & half years as a student - both times in southwest (Joplin). Two years ago my husband & I casually discussed moving to the US to be closer to my family and he was excited about the lower cost of living in Missouri. I told him I would only live in Kansas. There are other reasons, of course, but my run-in the Missouri police is a big one. Seeing this story this morning tells me things haven't changed.
The other thing that made me see red was hearing the female officer say "How is that my problem?" I hate, hate, hate that attitude. I know all the self-protectionist reasons for "not dealing with other people's crap", but it still irks me. Probably a combination of internalizing the story of the Good Samaritan from Sunday School and taking the Girl Scout Promise to heart:
"On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law."
If I'm going to "help people at all times" I can't say "not my problem." That does not mean I'm a doormat - helping someone does not mean doing their work for them. It does mean, however, that if I'm asked for help, or if I see someone in distress, I'm duty- and honour-bound to try to help, or at least point them in the right direction. And making a judgment call on how they got in trouble in the first place is not part of helping. I freely admit that I'm not perfect at doing this and that sometimes I fail miserably. I also feel badly when I'm not in a position to help, or help more.
"He ain't heavy; He's my brother" really resonates with me.
Apparently a year ago a woman in Kansas City, Missouri was pulled over for having a fake temporary license in the car she was driving. She immediately told the officers that she was pregnant, bleeding and trying to get to a hospital. The officers ignored her and kept asking her why she was trying to go "to the store" with a fake temp tag. They made her get out of the car and searched her for weapons before taking her to jail. Then next day she gave birth to an almost six months premature baby who lived one minute and died. The tapes were released today.
The story from the Kansas City Star is here.
The video tape is here.
The first officer says he saw her put the tag in the window and asks where she got it. She replies it was in the car. He asks why wasn't it in the window and she says something I can't quite hear followed by "I'm having a miscarriage". He ignores her. She repeats, "I have a problem, I'm bleeding ..." He says, "OK, do you have a driver's license?" She says to have the female officer check her. When the female officer comes around the side of the car he just says "She says she pregnant, but ..." his voice trailing office in an obvious 'but that can't be true, she must be lying' tone of voice. After nine requests for help, the female officer just says, "How is that my problem?"
The woman, Sofia Salva, is suing the KCMO police department for wrongful death, personal injury and failure to provide medical assistance.
On one hand, I'm shocked by this. On the other, I'm not completely surprised. It was 14 years ago in Kansas City, MO that I was in a car that was pulled over for a minor traffic violation (going the wrong way down a one-way street), and the driver, and all three passengers were asked for ID, asked to step out of the car, and were searched. I couldn't believe it happened then; I still can hardly believe it happened.
I had been on the Missouri side of Kansas City (which, for those of you who don't know, sits 2/3 in Missouri and 1/3 in Kansas and is technically two cities) with a friend from Ozark visiting her family. We had been out with her sister and two other girls. We had dropped the one girl off and were headed home through a not familiar neighborhood when Rhonda (my friend's sister who was driving), made a wrong turn onto a one-way street. She immediately realized her mistake and pulled into the first driveway to turn around. As she turned back onto the original street, we were pulled over. The officer asked Rhonda if she knew why she was being pulled over. She said, yes, she had turned the wrong way onto a one-way street. She added that it was a mistake; it was dark and the sign was partially obscured, but she had realized it and turned around the first chance she got. The officer just asked for license and registration. He then looked at the three of us and demanded we get out of the car.
In the end, they let us go, but during the course of events it became very obvious that the real reason for the treatment was they wanted to know what four white girls were doing in a black neighborhood after dark.
I've lived in Missouri - two years as a baby/toddler and three & half years as a student - both times in southwest (Joplin). Two years ago my husband & I casually discussed moving to the US to be closer to my family and he was excited about the lower cost of living in Missouri. I told him I would only live in Kansas. There are other reasons, of course, but my run-in the Missouri police is a big one. Seeing this story this morning tells me things haven't changed.
The other thing that made me see red was hearing the female officer say "How is that my problem?" I hate, hate, hate that attitude. I know all the self-protectionist reasons for "not dealing with other people's crap", but it still irks me. Probably a combination of internalizing the story of the Good Samaritan from Sunday School and taking the Girl Scout Promise to heart:
"On my honor, I will try:
To serve God and my country,
To help people at all times,
And to live by the Girl Scout Law."
If I'm going to "help people at all times" I can't say "not my problem." That does not mean I'm a doormat - helping someone does not mean doing their work for them. It does mean, however, that if I'm asked for help, or if I see someone in distress, I'm duty- and honour-bound to try to help, or at least point them in the right direction. And making a judgment call on how they got in trouble in the first place is not part of helping. I freely admit that I'm not perfect at doing this and that sometimes I fail miserably. I also feel badly when I'm not in a position to help, or help more.
"He ain't heavy; He's my brother" really resonates with me.