Friday, March 27, 2009
Driving or DWB?
Moats pulled into the hospital parking lot with a police car tailing him, and with lights flashing:
It turns out, as you may already have read in the link, that police videos cut both ways. I am normally quite supportive of police, but this guy is an idiot -- a vehicle is rushing to a hospital (not from, say, a liquor store), and he is not being helpful? One hopes that this was not a case of Driving While Black -- that the policeman may have behaved equally boorishly with a white family, pulling his weapon and everything -- but it sure looks pretty bad.
Time for the policeman to find another profession.
The mother-in-law died before Moats entered the hospital.
Sympathies to Moats and his wife and their family.
11 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Mar 27, 02:05:00 AM:
By 
TigerHawk, at
Fri Mar 27, 09:11:00 AM:
Me too, actually. Sorry to be a cynic here.
By , at
Fri Mar 27, 09:48:00 AM:
A traffic cop acting like a jerk? Now I've heard everything.
By , at
Fri Mar 27, 11:06:00 AM:
After watching the tape, I think the cop was probably wrong. However, I also think that every black guy pulled over for any moving violation is going to claim that he was simply going to see a gravely ill or dieing relative.
Is there EVER a black driver who is pulled over who DOESN'T know the real reason is DWB?
By , at
Fri Mar 27, 01:30:00 PM:
I live in Dallas and can tell you that this story is on fire here. So far I haven't heard much on the race front. The MSM is treating this more as a story about the officer's lack of sensitivity. It will certainly turn racial if Ryan Moats takes it in that direction - he is scheduled to appear on the local news shows today.
By Dawnfire82, at
Fri Mar 27, 01:43:00 PM:
On Austin radio, as well.
Sounds like the guy was just an asshole, being a stickler for procedure. i.e. he insisted on completing the (legally justified) ticket even when another officer intervened, he wasn't just making up offenses or simply being harassing.
Or maybe he's just a racial bigot, who somehow managed to knowingly record on his own dashboard cam the most pathetic, watered down racial assault in the history of the KKK, to which he naturally belongs.
Since this is Texas, the second is obviously the most plausible.
By , at
Fri Mar 27, 05:49:00 PM:
Since when does Ryan Moats, or anyone for that matter, have the right to risk the lives of other innocent motorists and pedestrians by speeding and driving recklessly, simply because he wants to comfort his mother-in-law before her death? Who is the biggest jerk in this situation?
By Escort81, at
Fri Mar 27, 06:54:00 PM:
Anon 5:49 - I think that the audio portion has Moats explaining that he saw the red light, stopped or slowed down ("rolled") to check for other traffic. If that is correct, and I think that the facts bear that out, then Moats acted with sufficient caution to address your legitimate public safety concerns.
Note that there is another NFL player, Donte Stallworth (also an ex-Eagle), currently involved in a traffic incident that resulted in a pedestrian death. There is not much sympathy for Stallworth, because the facts of the cases are so different.
The evidence shapes my view of each case, though certainly there can be good reason to examine the behavior of the same actors in other incidents. If another tape is produced showing the policeman in the Moats case being equally stupid with white folks in a stop with a similar set of facts, that would tell me that maybe it is not so much DWB, but rather that the policeman is an equal opportunity hassler. That possibility is why I used the language "it sure looks pretty bad," not ruling out the chance that the policeman hates everybody, regardless of skin color.
It's a question of judgment and proportionality on the part of the policeman. Drawing down on Moats and his family as they are trying to enter the hospital, and not reholstering his weapon, was simply "not appropriate," to use the language of the police chief.
Last year, I followed an ambulance transporting my nonagenarian father from our house to the ER of the local hospital, which happens to be down the block from the police station. If a policeman had followed me into the lot in the same fashion as the in Moats case, I think I would have first waved for him to follow me into the structure, and then if he drew down on me, I would put my hands on my head and walk over toward him, stopping at about a 10 ft. distance, and quickly explain to him that I was unarmed, that he needed to reholster his weapon, and that I was turning around to follow my father and the EMTs into the ER. He would then have a choice of helping me or shooting a clearly unarmed man in the back. Fortunately, our local police force is good and that scenario wouldn't happen, so I can blog about false bravado.
By , at
Fri Mar 27, 07:41:00 PM:
I've got to disagree with the DWB charge. This is a stupid asshole being a stupid asshole. If they save tapes, I'll bet the DPD (?) probably, as Escort suggests, has video of this guy treating various other ethnic groups the same. This is about power over other people, not race - note the cop's preoccupation with "what I can do to you" starting at about 5 minutes. Police departments really need to do a better job screening for that sort of problem when they hire.
"I also think that every black guy pulled over for any moving violation is going to claim that he was simply going to see a gravely ill or dieing relative"
When he pulls up to a hospital that gives the argument a little more weight.
"the right to risk the lives of other innocent motorists and pedestrians by speeding and driving recklessly"
I think that was TIC, but just in case, apart from the car the cop dodged when he ran the same red light, I didn't see any other traffic. Also, two things about Plano: 1) you don't see many pedestrians, especially at night and 2) many stoplights in Plano are put in flashing mode at night and even for part of the day on weekends all the time. I doubt that what Moat did is any more dangerous than what somebody driving down Legacy to early church on Sunday morning is doing.
"he insisted on completing the (legally justified) ticket even when another officer intervened"
I think that's another argument against the race angle - doubling down when you realize you're wrong is a sign of immaturity, not racism.
By , at
Fri Mar 27, 08:55:00 PM:
I vote NOT DWB. That being said, I also think that this cop was a major a**hole to a man who, other than verbally arguing with the cop, was cooperating.
In our society, police are given a TREMENDOUS amount of discretion to screw with people's lives and therefore, in our society, it is imperative that the police NOT be a**holes.
This cop needs to become a *former* cop, and quickly.
By , at
Sat Mar 28, 09:27:00 AM:
i live in North Texas and this story is dominating our local news. Some additional "facts" reported on local TV news:
The dashboard tape you are seeing was recorded by a Plano, TX police officer's dashboard cam, not be the Dallas officer's dashboard cam. I have not seen, nor know if, the Dallas recording has not been released to the public yet.
The Dallas officer followed the vehicle out of his Dallas jurisdiction into Plano where the hospital is located. As he follwed the vehicle, it had to be clearly evident where this vehicle was heading--to the hospital.
The Dallas Police department is taking unprecidented actions so early in such a situation (sadly, the Dallas Police Department provides regular fodder for TV news): the Police Chief (who has publicly dated a TV reporter) has issued a public condemnation of the actions taken, and the Police Department posted a public apology on its website.
