So, let's recap after a long weekend:
Drop all charges against this nurse.
Done.
Fire the officer(s) who arrested her, for cause, without benefits or pension.
Working on it. Currently suspended (with pay) pending criminal investigation, at least for the two douchebadges most responsible.
Refer them for prosecution for false arrest, kidnapping, and violation of civil rights.
DA is on it.
Demote his/her/their supervisors.
Lt. Jackboots Dickhead is not suspended, but he's under a good bit of scrutiny. So no.
Make your entire department go through mandatory re-training on why this is recockulous.
Done.
Revoke all sovereign immunity, so the nurse, hospital, and all patients affected can sue the officer(s) in question, the city, and the SLPD, for whatever exorbitant civil damages multiple juries think are justified and fair. Something in the mid nine figure range looks appropriate based on the video.
Nope.
Require your mayor, your police chief, the watch commander, and the supervising sergeant(s) of the officer(s) in question make a full, forthright, rapid, and public apology, on air and in writing, to that nurse, her co-workers, the patients, hospital, staff, and citizens of SLC for this egregious violation and badge-happy horseshit.
Done, for the most part.
They all dove on this grenade with remarkable unanimity and speed.
Which bodes poorly for the responsible parties in the long run.
So far, Salt Lake City PD and city management are 3/7, with two more pending, one iffy, and no action on one item.
Not bad for getting your entire city dragged through shit on its face for the actions of two badged assholes.
So it's back to the drafting table for me.
Half-assed compliance will not be given full credit.
Oh, and extra icing on the cake:
1) Detective Jackboots' second job, driving an ambulance? The one where he was going to "bring transients to this hospital, and take his 'good patients' to other hospitals"? That ambulance company has shit-canned him as well over this incident. Karma's a bitch with sharp, pointy fangs, @$$hole.
2) Since the entire incident constitutes an illegal detention and unlawful arrest, Det. Jackboots Payne is facing an additional complication if/when this goes to prosecution:
In Utah, as in a number of other states, assault on a health care provider is chargeable as a third-degree felony too. (Under which "substantial bodily injury" is defined as "pain". Pretty sure getting manhandled and cuffed up unlawfully, based on the video evidence, supports that count.)
4 comments:
The nurse was never charged...so there were no charges to be dropped. She WAS however assaulted by an armed man (felony) kidnapped (felony) and had her civil rights violated (federal felony). However if you ACTUALLY believe that the city
or department will do anything to these two officers I have some beachfront property east of Reno I can give you a good price on. This happened July 26. If
those in charge actually intended to do anything they would have done so by now.
What they are doing right now is going tsk tsk and mouthing platitudes while waiting
for the "next big story" to come along and distract the easily distracted masses.
Once that happens the criminal badgemonkeys are free to go back to crime err business as usual. The nurse may or may not receive a fat check ( money STOLEN from the taxpayers) to make her go away...probably with an accompanying non disclosure clause that prevents her from ever discussing this incident again. And THAT WILL BE THE END OF IT. Want justice? Your NEVER going to get it in a courtroom. If either officer ever encounters justice for this crime it will be in the middle of the night with no warning while they are alone.
Unfortunately for that, they weren't aware of the incident until it broke, because Lt. Dipstick probably sat on it. Which isn't helping his case any.
And the DA there doesn't like the cops anyways, so this isn't quite the fix-is-in disasterpiece theatre one might expect.
The story grew over the weekend, it didn't go away.
In the meantime, it costs me nothing to wait and see, and I can continue to throw internet shit from three states away with a flick of the mouse, indefinitely, just to keep the burner on.
If SLC tries to stall and sweep this under the rug (as if they could - how'd that work out for LAPD with Rodney King?), that anonymous midnight justice is liable to start sooner rather than later.
Win-win.
Manhandling a nurse caring for a blameless burn victim of a horrifying crash resonates with the population in a way many other cop wrongdoings don't. I think this is a good case to stay on and bring up in all its recorded horror if it looks like the cops are trying to duck and cover. No satisfaction until felony charges against the bully cops are filed and at least two cops are arrested. I wonder how the burn victim is doing? Poor guy.
Agreed.
"No justice, no peace" cuts both ways.
Post a Comment