emergencies
Decades ago, my father took care of the father of a famous race car driver. At some point during the care, my dad and the rest of the team called the race car driver to let him know that there wasn't much time left and that he should get to his father's bedside soon. The race car driver lived a ways away from the hospital, but he was able to get there in a matter of minutes--many fewer minutes than it usually took to get from that part of town to the hospital. I suspect some traffic laws were, er, reinterpreted.
Today, the Dallas police department issued an apology to Houston Texan's running back Ryan Moats.
Moats, like the race car driver, had gotten a call from the hosptial: his mother-in-law was dying and there wasn't much time left. Moats and his wife piled into their car and raced to the hospital; they turned their hazard lights on. They hit a red light and stopped. The light took forever, and so Moats made sure that there was no traffic coming from either side, and ran the light.
I watched the rest of this in the raw footage of the stop from the dash-mounted camera on on of Dallas's TV stations' websites. A police officer, Robert Powell, saw Moats run the light, and he chased the car for a minute into the hospital parking lot. The cop yelled at Moats's wife and told her to get back in the car (she says he pointed her gun at him, but you can't see it from the on-dash camera one way or the other). Fortunately, she ignored him and ran into the hosptial so she could be with her mom while she died. Moats was left to explain the situation to the cop, but he'd have none of it. The cop quibbles with needing the insurance form, and threatens to tow the car. Moats finds the insurance information, trying to explain over and over again what's going on. The cop asks Moats what his problem is, and Moats says "My mother-in-law is dying." The cop threatens to send Moats to jail if he doesn't calm down.
Another cop comes up and tries to calm down the situation, and Moats is (in my opinion) ridiculously patient while he's trying to explain everything. He asks the cop to go ahead and hurry up and write the ticket. The cop loved the phrase "shut your mouth and listen" and says it over and over again, but he never ever listened to Moats. The cop again and again threatens to arrest Moats, saying "I could screw you over." The cop threatens to charge him with fleeing. He spends minutes and minutes telling the man how much power he has.
It's all off camera, but I assume the cop's dick is out and he's stroking it to show how fucking big he thinks it is.
A hosptial official comes out to explain that they need Moats inside. And of course, the cops dally even more, discussing the situation. Presumably, they're confirming what they're hearing. More hospital officials come out saying that the mom is dying right now and ask if they can hurry the fuck up. Cop says "I'm almost done." Cop comes out to give the ticket.
And then the fucking cop says, "Attitude is everything. All you had to do was stop, tell me what was going on, and more likely I would have let you go." A nurse interrupts his lecture to say there's no fucking time for this. Cop turns to Moats and says, "Remember attitude?" Moats tries to say something in his defense, and the cop interrupts him to explain the details of a ticket that Moats could give a flying fuck about.
Moat's mother-in-law dies before he can ever get to the room.
It took 13 minutes for officer Powell to write the ticket.
Ryan Moats and his wife are black. Robert Powell is white.
I do give the city of Dallas a bit of credit in that they were quick to apologize, quick to throw the cop into administrative leave pending investigation. They didn't pull the bullshit that happened in Bellaire where the city stuck with the cops when they shot a kid in his own front yard for doing nothing more than coming home.
Not once does Moats in the video play the "do you know who I am" card. He's to busy worrying about getting out of there as quickly as possible to try to use anything other than the facts to help his case. And I wholeheartedly believe had Moats not been a member of the National Football League, this whole thing would have never come to light.
Today, the Dallas police department issued an apology to Houston Texan's running back Ryan Moats.
Moats, like the race car driver, had gotten a call from the hosptial: his mother-in-law was dying and there wasn't much time left. Moats and his wife piled into their car and raced to the hospital; they turned their hazard lights on. They hit a red light and stopped. The light took forever, and so Moats made sure that there was no traffic coming from either side, and ran the light.
I watched the rest of this in the raw footage of the stop from the dash-mounted camera on on of Dallas's TV stations' websites. A police officer, Robert Powell, saw Moats run the light, and he chased the car for a minute into the hospital parking lot. The cop yelled at Moats's wife and told her to get back in the car (she says he pointed her gun at him, but you can't see it from the on-dash camera one way or the other). Fortunately, she ignored him and ran into the hosptial so she could be with her mom while she died. Moats was left to explain the situation to the cop, but he'd have none of it. The cop quibbles with needing the insurance form, and threatens to tow the car. Moats finds the insurance information, trying to explain over and over again what's going on. The cop asks Moats what his problem is, and Moats says "My mother-in-law is dying." The cop threatens to send Moats to jail if he doesn't calm down.
Another cop comes up and tries to calm down the situation, and Moats is (in my opinion) ridiculously patient while he's trying to explain everything. He asks the cop to go ahead and hurry up and write the ticket. The cop loved the phrase "shut your mouth and listen" and says it over and over again, but he never ever listened to Moats. The cop again and again threatens to arrest Moats, saying "I could screw you over." The cop threatens to charge him with fleeing. He spends minutes and minutes telling the man how much power he has.
It's all off camera, but I assume the cop's dick is out and he's stroking it to show how fucking big he thinks it is.
A hosptial official comes out to explain that they need Moats inside. And of course, the cops dally even more, discussing the situation. Presumably, they're confirming what they're hearing. More hospital officials come out saying that the mom is dying right now and ask if they can hurry the fuck up. Cop says "I'm almost done." Cop comes out to give the ticket.
And then the fucking cop says, "Attitude is everything. All you had to do was stop, tell me what was going on, and more likely I would have let you go." A nurse interrupts his lecture to say there's no fucking time for this. Cop turns to Moats and says, "Remember attitude?" Moats tries to say something in his defense, and the cop interrupts him to explain the details of a ticket that Moats could give a flying fuck about.
Moat's mother-in-law dies before he can ever get to the room.
It took 13 minutes for officer Powell to write the ticket.
Ryan Moats and his wife are black. Robert Powell is white.
I do give the city of Dallas a bit of credit in that they were quick to apologize, quick to throw the cop into administrative leave pending investigation. They didn't pull the bullshit that happened in Bellaire where the city stuck with the cops when they shot a kid in his own front yard for doing nothing more than coming home.
Not once does Moats in the video play the "do you know who I am" card. He's to busy worrying about getting out of there as quickly as possible to try to use anything other than the facts to help his case. And I wholeheartedly believe had Moats not been a member of the National Football League, this whole thing would have never come to light.