A good cop story

[proud2BlibKansan]

The daughter of some friends was shot last weekend. She was walking down the street and two kids just walked up to her and shot her. Her parents were in Texas. The hospital called them and they jumped in their car and raced to get to their daughter's bedside. On the way, they were pulled over for speeding. They told the cop about their daughter and he told them to go on, drive as fast as they could and he'd radio ahead to let the other cops know to let them go.

The girl is doing better. It was a miracle she wasn't injured more seriously.

[Earth_First]

1. Obviously that was after the cop brutally assaulted them...

with a "You saw nothing..." in response.

:sarcasm:

[csziggy]

2. On one hand that is a nice story

But once I thought about it, I am not sure allowing them to speed was a good idea. How much good would they have been to their daughter if they had gotten in an accident on the way to her side?

Seriously, speeding is really not worth the risk of adding to the tragedy.

I'm glad they made it safely and that the girl is getting better.

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. But a cop would know first hand that you can speed safely

That was my first thought.

[csziggy]

4. Far too many factors to be sure how safe it could be

Would that cop know their entire route, the road conditions, the weather conditions, how tired or able the driver was, how well the other drivers are driving?

I've been known to speed, but I've also seen how little real time speeding saves as opposed to how much additional risk it can involve.

Now if the cop had been able to provide an escort, maybe that would have reduced the risk.

As I said, I am glad the family is doing better. I hope the girl heals fast.

[emcguffie]

5. I have a family story with cop-sanctioned speeding in it.

This is back in 1960 or so. My mother was pregnant with her fourth child, at age 40. My father was an MD. We lived on a Veterans Administration post, one of those old-fashioned converted army hospital things, all spread out over acres of corridors connecting old fashioned wards, a steam plant, lots of empty buildings, and doctors' families living in converted nurses' housing.

My mother's labor started, but she was also hemorrhaging and didn't realize what was going on. My father was at work. My grandfather was there, and he called my father and told him what was going on -- that mom was bleeding copiously, soaking through bath towels and such. So dad drove home, very quickly, threw my mother in a car and started for the hospital. He knew the placenta was separating ahead of time and that the baby was probably being deprived of oxygen.

They were stopped by police. Dad told his story, and they accompanied him, speeding, to St. Joseph's, where she had an emergency C-section and my baby brother was born.

He's a great guy. On some kind of a scan, either an MRI or a CT, I forget which, his brain shows some atrophy. But he's very bright, very very talented, very kind, and much loved by many. He has at times had seizures. Not many, though.

If those cops had given my father a hard time, or hadn't helped him get to the hospital quickly, I have to think my brother would have suffered significant brain damage. He's a real plus for the planet, as far as I'm concerned.

[csziggy]

8. But that is different that the OP scenario

Your Dad was accompanied by a police escort. The couple in the OP were just allowed to proceed unaccompanied at whatever pace they pleased.

I'm glad your parents got to the hospital in time and that your brother was born. He sounds like a a great guy and is lucky to have a great family.

[emcguffie]

12. Yes, it was different.

I'm still grateful for the speed.

And I'm not sure I got it entirely right. He's long gone now. But that's the way I remember the story, that the police accompanied them, rather than sending them on on their own.

I'm sure traffic was much lighter in those days, too.

Things are very different nowadays, no denying that.

I just watched the UC pepper spray incident. I'm having a lot of trouble digesting that, and don't understand what is going on with cops these days. BUt that really isn't new.

I have another anecdote: my older brother was brutalized by Memphis cops four times in one night after turning left on a turning red light. The last time, he was pistol whipped while handcuffed to a gurney in the emergency room, where they had taken him for his injuries from the first three beatings. He had bootprints all over his body.

I have to say, I harbored a very big grudge against cops for decades after that. It seems I've gotten over it now, but they're doing the same shit again.

It's really weird, looking back at all those peaceful years and the leadup to the Iraq war. From those decades of resistance -- the civil rights movement in Memphis and the anti-Vietnam war stuff -- to the years of peace, and then to watch this country deliberately walk into war again was so weird, it was absolutely surreal. And now it's like we've time warped back to the sixties.

[csziggy]

13. Oh, cops can be brutal without reason

Or for reasons that should not be part of their job descriptions. And things never really changed. If you are part of what they perceive to be "their kind" - middle to upper middle class and above, "respectable", "normal" - they are what they are supposed to be. They will help you when you need it, give you a break whether or not you need it, and generally be the police who "serve and protect" as they ought.

But if you don't fit in those categories - poor, unconventional, brown or black skinned, or not as respectful of them as they think you should be - they will hassle you, be tough, give no quarter, and maybe be violent without cause.

The Occupy group has been framed by much of the media as being composed of "others", those who do not fit into my first category. So many cops are "programmed" to treat them with disdain and go straight from zero to full violence. Add to that all those new "toys" their budgets have been spent on (instead of on raising pay, funding pensions and healthcare) and we get the excessive violence we've been seeing.

Not all police have gone this way, but far too many have. And the use of military weapons (LRAD) on peaceful civilian protestors is abhorrent.

Our country has never really been at peace, even without declared wars. Many of the military actions we've been involved in during the last forty years have been quiet and little covered by our M$M.

I think the main difference now is that with the internet for alternative news sources and for communication, more people have become aware of what has been happening all along. Finally the outrage has reached a level that can no longer be contained.

And the powers that be are trying to fall back on their old methods of using the police against peaceful citizens. Unlike the old days internet and social media are allowing the protestors to shape the narrative. It's only the people who rely solely on the old media that are out of the loop.

Did you see Rachel Maddow last night? She interviewed the retired police captain who was arrested on the bridge last night in New York. You'd think an ex-cop, especially one who was high up in the ranks, would be a conservative. I think the difference in his case is that when he retired he moved out in the middle of nowhere and his main link to the outside world was the internet. Now think about that - he got a different perspective that way.

Sorry this has gotten so long

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. I suspect what the officer really told them was probably along the lines of....

exceed the speed limit, but be careful as well. I have heard of similar situations and the police officers are generally pretty good at instructing the person not to exceed it by a certain amount. I highly doubt the officer sent them along the way with the instruction to put the pedal to the metal.

[progressoid]

6. Nope

No good cop posts allowed. ;)

[HappyMe]

10. Indeed.

Brutes, all of 'em. ;-)

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. LOL

[ljm2002]

7. Nice cop...

...although I do hope he added to drive as fast as you can *safely*. But kudos in any case, it was a human gesture for sure.

[Rex]

14. That has happened to my family.

They even had an escort all the way to the hospital. Of course, where I live you get into the other lane if you see a troopers lights on out of respect and safety.