Friday, March 27, 2009

No excuses for this cop


Maybe you've heard or seen the story from Wednesday night of the Dallas cop who stopped NFL player Ryan Moats and his wife last week as they ran a red light on the way to see her mother, who was dying of breast cancer.

It's apalling. The cop, Robert Powell, 25, was put on administrative leave for his insensitivity and power trip Thursday in handling the situation. Powell detained Moats for 13 minutes in front of Baylor Hospital in Plano. He seemed to goad Moats and even pulled his gun initially on Moats' wife, Tamisha.

At no time did Moats act beligerant. At no time did he say he was an NFL player and try to use his position as Powell was using his. He seemed resigned to the ridiculous situation by answering most questions with "yes sir."

The Dallas police chief in a Thursday press conference said he was "diappointed and embarrassed" over the incident. It's a foregone conclusion that Powell will be fired and he should be. Look at the video from the police car's dashboard on the Dallas Morning News website (dallasnews.com) and you be the judge.

I'm a big defender of the police. They put their lives on the line every day and the huge majority do "serve and protect." But not this guy. He's an embarrassment to law enforcement.

Moats' wife and aunt were allowed to leave and dashed to see her mother, Jonetta Collinsworth. Moats and Collinsworth's father, who was also in the car, stayed behind. By the time they were allowed to leave and got to the woman's room, she was dead. Horrible.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is exactly the type of thing I need to show the inmates with whom I work ... appropriate responses in the face of adversity and unfair situations.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.