This story from the Chicago Sun-Times about a police officer being sued for handcuffing an ER nurse who refused to draw blood from a DWI suspect against hospital protocol and holding her in the back of his cruiser for 45 minutes is disturbing for a couple of reasons. Let’s run down the bullet points:

• Asking an emergency room nurse to violate hospital protocol in order to better ensure that the concentration of alcohol in the suspect’s blood will be higher disrupts the flow of events in a situation in which there are real, actual stakes. It’s essentially saying that the gathering of evidence is more important than treating people in an emergency situation.
• It’s the exact sort of “attitude adjustment” for daring to argue with a police officer that makes so many Americans distrustful of the police. It reaffirms something that a lot of us feel – that the police expect to be treated deferentially in all situations, which fuels a particular kind of resentment: What you want me to do isn’t always, in every situation, more important than what I’m already doing.
• It removes a friggin’ emergency room nurse from the emergency room for forty-five minutes for no good reason. The reason we respect the police is that they devote their lives to increasing safety and protecting us. When they instead decide to remove someone whose job is to provide medical care for people in an emergency situation from their role because they’re upset that they weren’t being treated like the boss of the room, they’re putting innocent people’s lives at risk. Not even the lives of people who are innocent because, like, they haven’t been convicted of anything yet, but they’re suspects so let’s give ‘em some leeway (As with, say, tasing people). No, yanking a nurse out of the emergency room – especially a head nurse who’s responsible for triage – means there’s one less qualified person available to stabilize grandma after the heart attack. So for those who would dismiss the suit because, boo-hoo, she had to sit in the back of a car for less than an hour with handcuffs on – you’re missing the point. The cop didn’t just violate the nurse’s rights, he threatened the health and safety of everyone in the emergency room. Because he was mad that she wouldn’t break the rules and do what he said.

Again, this sort of abuse of power is why it’s hard to justify the demonization of DWI suspects. Not because DWI isn’t incredibly dangerous and incredibly serious. But because when you insist that anyone accused of doing it is a terrible criminal, you justify things like putting an entire emergency room at risk just to teach a nurse who insists on following the rules (and on treating sick people as a more important part of her job than gathering evidence) a lesson for having the temerity to say no to a police officer who’s absolutely convinced of his own righteousness.

EDIT: More on this here and here and here and here.

(Linda Cardellini from ER image via NBC.com, because typing “nurse & police” into Flickr brings up a bunch of inappropriate Halloween costume pictures but not much else.)

Labels: abuse of power, blood draws, dwi, the attitude test

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The Dallas Morning News has Governor Perry’s response to Texas’ execution of an innocent man in Cameron Todd Willingham. It involves the use of the phrase “so-called” and air-quotes to deride the fact that the state executed a man based on evidence and testimony that’s provably false.

Y’all might have had your hearts warmed by the story of the Grapevine, TX high school football coach who asked half of his team’s fans and cheerleaders to support the Gainesville State School team, consisting of kids in corrections. ESPN covered it. So did This American Life, national news throughout the country, and there’s apparently a movie underway about the coach. Grits for Breakfast has the two TYC teams’ schedule online now, including a Thursday night game in Austin on October 15. If you were moved by the story – and what are you, made of stone, if you’re not – it might be worth showing up to let them know that being supported isn’t just a one-time thing.

Also on the subject of high school football, an Ohio judge sentenced a teenaged boy who pled to an assault charge to five years of probation and barred him from playing team sports for that period. The story comes from Popehat.com, who rightfully point out that the other terms of his probation – finding full-time work in a state with over 10% unemployment or enrolling as a full-time student – may be difficult without the ability to engage his natural talents. Before the conviction, the boy was being scouted by a number of universities.

Slashdot.com, the somewhat over-reactive online community, is in a tizzy about APD. And, specifically, about Chief Acevedo’s talk about “taking on” people who criticize the department online. The summary of the story from the Statesman that got all the comments on Slashdot is pretty off, though – it misrepresents Acevedo’s position so that it looks like he’s saying, “we’re going to arrest people if they call us jerks”, when he’s really saying “pretending to be an APD official when you’re not and making statements that are untrue is a criminal act”, which is true. Grits for Breakfast pops up again to wonder if this means that, like, all other crime in Austin has been completely eradicated so this is a really good use of police time.

Ever get arrested in a casino? Apparently rather than just break people’s legs for cheating these days, the house will now hold them in custody and offer them the opportunity, sanctioned by a district court judge, to sign a confession, pay $500, and not be prosecuted. Which is a little bit creepy, since if you’re being detained against your will and accused of a crime by people with vast resources, you’re not really in a great position to make a great decision, hence the fact that the practice is now under investigation. Insert your own “whatever happens in Vegas” or “the house always wins” pun here – this practice is apparently good for almost $750,000 a year.

Also on Popehat, there’s a downright terrifying piece about an undercover investigative report from a Florida television station in which they went to various police stations asking for the form to file a complaint. A (very mild) sample:

tester: Do you have a complaint form that I can, like, fill out or something like that?
officer: Might not be a legitimate complaint.
tester: Who decides that?
officer: I’m trying to help you.
tester: Like, if there’s a form, why can’t I just take it and leave, right?
officer: No, you don’t leave with forms. You tell me what happened, and then I help you from there. Do you have I-D on?
tester: Why?
officer: You know what? You need to leave.

(It gets worse from there.)

But in more fun news, Austin solo practice attorney George Lobb crashed the groundbreaking ceremony for the new federal courthouse  in Austin. He brought his own shovel and hardhat, and a real big smile. Click the photo to enlarge. it’s a pretty great picture. he looks very happy to be there.

We’ve also got a bigger piece on this coming up, but in case you missed it last week, Charles Hood, a death row inmate here in Texas, had his motion for a new trial denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals even though his prosecutor and the judge were having an affair at the time of his trial and conviction. The argument, as best as I can understand it – and bear in mind that I’m not a lawyer, went something like this:

Appellate Attorney: My client needs a stay of execution, because the judge was sleeping with the prosecutor.

Court: Prove it!

Appellette Attorney proves it by deposing the participants, who admit the affair under oath.

Appellate Attorney: There, proof, now can my client be treated fairly?

Court: Oh, not at this point. You should have done this earlier.

(Cue the wah-wah-WAH sound.)

Labels: abuse of power, APD, art acevedo, football, governor perry, grits for breakfast, in the news, linkdump, money

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