As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options

1312 incidents of [Police Brutality] and counting

145791059

Posts

  • Options
    HevachHevach Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    There's also a nontrivial pattern of ignoring defense misconduct beyond leveraging it for a conviction, because they still see them as on the same team... Just not at all in the way the framers of the constitution intended for the adversarial justice system.

    No profession should be allowed to self police. Every one that does harbors a deep rooted rot, and most have a body count to go with it.

    Hevach on
  • Options
    DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    In unsurprising news, Minneapolis police "misused social media" to monitor protesters during the 2020 protests, among other instances of systemic injustice found by the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

    AP News has a detailed breakdown of the findings, but here's a sample:
    The department’s accountability systems are “insufficient and ineffective at holding officers accountable for misconduct,” the report said. But it said former and current city and police leaders have failed to act, effectively allowing an aggressive culture to fester.

    The report said the department maintains a culture where officers “consistently use racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language and are rarely held accountable” for it.

    “Without fundamental organizational culture changes, reforming MPD’s policies, procedures, and trainings will be meaningless,” the report said.

  • Options
    PolaritiePolaritie Sleepy Registered User regular
    The correct "fundamental organizational change" involves bulldozers and wrecking balls as step 1.

    Steam: Polaritie
    3DS: 0473-8507-2652
    Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
    PSN: AbEntropy
  • Options
    HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    Fire all of them.

    Immediately.

  • Options
    ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    From a cannon.

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • Options
    HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    Into the sun.

    Bacon grease makes for good fuel.

  • Options
    MadicanMadican No face Registered User regular
    I have read far too many stories of police shootings in the past few days. Whether recent or revived as court proceedings reach new points.

    The one where police rolled up on a mentally-ill man fixing pipes outside his house with a knife and bucket in hand and he got spooked with a full-blown panic attack, but the door was locked so he broke through a window to escape inside. The police proceeded to ignore his claims it was his house and shot through the door multiple times, ultimately murdering him as he tried hiding behind an ottoman as a shield. They delayed entering for two hours, during which time the man died of blood loss from a shoulder wound that could have been treated with medical attention.

    The one where police were responding to a restraining order violation and ordered the man to raise his hands. He did so, showing he was unarmed, so he was shot four times. Screaming in pain he struggled to lift his upper half up and raised his hands once more, trying to comply with their orders. So they shot him another thirteen times.

    The one where two teens had shoplifted some Pokemon cards and pizza from Target (yes this one from above with more details) and the police followed them until they got in a car with two other teens, at which point the police boxed them in with their own vehicle and opened fire. The driver, who hadn't been one of the shoplifters, died. The passenger held up his hands in surrender so the police shot them in the hands, blowing off a finger with one of the six bullets they fired. The other two tried to run and one was shot in the back, with the other the only one unharmed.

  • Options
    BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    The one where 19 cops used pedestrians as human body shields while shooting 2 carjackers and the hostage to death, and an additional bystander also to death, just to show their resolve

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Miramar_shootout

    Burtletoy on
  • Options
    Man in the MistsMan in the Mists Registered User regular
    If people don't like "Defund the police", I've got a better slogan: "Raze and Replace".

    Every single barrel is thoroughly rotten.

  • Options
    LabelLabel Registered User regular
    unironically, i think that is a much better slogan.

  • Options
    MorganVMorganV Registered User regular
    If people don't like "Defund the police", I've got a better slogan: "Raze and Replace".

    Every single barrel is thoroughly rotten.

    Always liked the word, though it might be confusing to some, when spoken.

    From an early D&D campaign.
    Player "I use the Ring of Wish to raise all my stats."
    DM "You want to raze all your stats?"
    Player "To maximum."
    DM "Oooookay."

    First time I saw how a DM can be a true asshole, and first time I saw the textbook equivalent of a ragequit before computing brought it to the forefront.

  • Options
    Beyond NormalBeyond Normal Lord Phender Registered User regular
    "The tragedy of this is the noncompliance to the directions of law enforcement officers"

    https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/31/us/florida-police-shooting/index.html

    Battle.net: Phender#1108 -- Steam: Phender -- PS4: Phender12 -- Origin: Phender01
  • Options
    Man in the MistsMan in the Mists Registered User regular
    Gotta look out for those sixty-year-old car thieves, they're a menace to society.

  • Options
    DarkPrimusDarkPrimus Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    "The tragedy of this is the noncompliance to the directions of law enforcement officers"

    https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/31/us/florida-police-shooting/index.html

    Fucking wankers, demanding all the power without any of the responsibility.

    DarkPrimus on
  • Options
    HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    Power without accountability is the literal definition of tyranny! They're fucking tyrants, all of them!

  • Options
    Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9


    Phoenix-D on
  • Options
    zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

  • Options
    syndalissyndalis Getting Classy On the WallRegistered User, Loves Apple Products regular
    If people don't like "Defund the police", I've got a better slogan: "Raze and Replace".

    Every single barrel is thoroughly rotten.

    hold onto this. Share it. This could work.

    Like, we aren’t trying to get rid of “law and order” - its just that the current constable is irredeemable.

    We need a new sheriff; we need to burn this current shit down and build new.

    That is much better than just - stop paying cops

    SW-4158-3990-6116
    Let's play Mario Kart or something...
  • Options
    Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it

  • Options
    zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

  • Options
    kimekime Queen of Blades Registered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    It's really only the hospital that surprised me. Based on my understanding, DAs and judges are part of the problem.

    Battle.net ID: kime#1822
    3DS Friend Code: 3110-5393-4113
    Steam profile
  • Options
    HacksawHacksaw J. Duggan Esq. Wrestler at LawRegistered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    Whole system's broken and corrupt. Can't be saved, has to be reimagined and replaced.

  • Options
    GnizmoGnizmo Registered User regular
    kime wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    It's really only the hospital that surprised me. Based on my understanding, DAs and judges are part of the problem.

    Hospitals are happy to play their part in the horror story of US legal bullshit. The medical system in the US is fucked on a lot of levels that anyone you know with a chronic and/or hard to diagnose condition can tell you a lot about.

  • Options
    Void SlayerVoid Slayer Very Suspicious Registered User regular
    Medical professionals have been recruited into the war on drugs. Not like all of them but with such stringent regulations and controls thier every move can be questioned. "The public is the enemy" is the mindset propagated by the war on drugs shit.

    Hard to form a coherent argument right now thats so infuriating.

    One of my parents has an incurable condition that causes immense pain and every ounce of pain reduction medication we have gotten for them so they can just sleep without screaming has been with wierd ass interrogations to make sure they arent going to get addicted or sell the fucking things. The idea that the hospital staff might call the police to throw them in a cell instead of treating the times I took them to the emergency room is frightening beyond what I can express.

    What every one of the people involved, besides the prison nurse of course, was attempted murder as far as I care.

    He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
  • Options
    Nova_CNova_C I have the need The need for speedRegistered User regular
    Medical professionals have been recruited into the war on drugs. Not like all of them but with such stringent regulations and controls thier every move can be questioned. "The public is the enemy" is the mindset propagated by the war on drugs shit.

    Hard to form a coherent argument right now thats so infuriating.

    One of my parents has an incurable condition that causes immense pain and every ounce of pain reduction medication we have gotten for them so they can just sleep without screaming has been with wierd ass interrogations to make sure they arent going to get addicted or sell the fucking things. The idea that the hospital staff might call the police to throw them in a cell instead of treating the times I took them to the emergency room is frightening beyond what I can express.

    What every one of the people involved, besides the prison nurse of course, was attempted murder as far as I care.

    My mom has trigeminal neuralgia, and multiple surgeries have failed. She takes a lot of powerful painkillers. Morphine tends to work the best. A lot of other powerful painkillers have side effects that are unpleasant. Almost every doctor she's seen except one basically denies her morphine prescriptions because of what you note above.

    Like, who cares if she's addicted to morphine? Does it matter? She has to take something to be functional, she can't not, and it'll never get better so...what does it matter if she's also addicted to those pain meds she cannot stop taking without debilitating, constant pain?

    I hate the common perception of drugs in society.

  • Options
    PaladinPaladin Registered User regular
    Until recently, the CDC had pretty strict guidelines regarding the acceptability of chronic opiate use in terms of morphine milligram equivalent thresholds. The language of the guidelines has recently softened due to failures of the hardline approach.

    Marty: The future, it's where you're going?
    Doc: That's right, twenty five years into the future. I've always dreamed on seeing the future, looking beyond my years, seeing the progress of mankind. I'll also be able to see who wins the next twenty-five world series.
  • Options
    shrykeshryke Member of the Beast Registered User regular
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    The story reads like he was assumed to be a "junkie" by the doctors and nurses when he came to the ER and literally everything after that just follows on from that assumption. Every person after that who he encountered began with the assumption he was some druggie because that's what the people handing him off to them thought and so interpreted everything they saw in light of that and then treated him with as such.

  • Options
    Dark_SideDark_Side Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    shryke wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    The story reads like he was assumed to be a "junkie" by the doctors and nurses when he came to the ER and literally everything after that just follows on from that assumption. Every person after that who he encountered began with the assumption he was some druggie because that's what the people handing him off to them thought and so interpreted everything they saw in light of that and then treated him with as such.

    It's crazy how dehumanizing they are to junkies and homeless, even the hospitals. I was driving by one of the hospitals in downtown Denver and witnessed what appeared to be several officers, or security guards, grouped around a person in a wheelchair on the street corner in front of the hospital. They proceeded to pick that person up and toss them out of the chair, where they collapsed onto the sidewalk. It was nuts to be seeing that in broad daylight on a busy downtown street.

    Dark_Side on
  • Options
    GnizmoGnizmo Registered User regular
    If you are looking to stop dehumanizing people for addiction then I would delete the word junky from your vocabulary. I can't describe the pain I have seen it cause people struggling with recovery. It is definitely used by the medical profession to justify being absolute monsters to people as seen in this story.

  • Options
    Ninja Snarl PNinja Snarl P My helmet is my burden. Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered User regular
    edited May 2022
    Dark_Side wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    The story reads like he was assumed to be a "junkie" by the doctors and nurses when he came to the ER and literally everything after that just follows on from that assumption. Every person after that who he encountered began with the assumption he was some druggie because that's what the people handing him off to them thought and so interpreted everything they saw in light of that and then treated him with as such.

    It's crazy how dehumanizing they are to junkies and homeless, even the hospitals. I was driving by one of the hospitals in downtown Denver and witnessed what appeared to be several officers, or security guards, grouped around a person in a wheelchair on the street corner in front of the hospital. They proceeded to pick that person up and toss them out of the chair, where they collapsed onto the sidewalk. It was nuts to be seeing that in broad daylight on a busy downtown street.

    It's a deliberate effort on the part of the rich and elite. We could solve the vast, vast majority of the cases of addiction and homelessness (other countries with far less money than the US manage it), but it would mean diverting money and power away from the greedy and into the programs meant to help these folks. In the meantime, those at the top do their hardest to make sure those homeless and addicted people are a constant thorn in the side of the average citizen specifically because it's a lot easier to be angry at homeless/sick people you can see than expend effort on pulling down the unknown people actually responsible.

    We aren't supposed to be able to solve these issues, we're just supposed to be distracted by them and focus our resentment on the victims instead of the actual perpetrators.

    Ninja Snarl P on
  • Options
    MorganVMorganV Registered User regular
    Dark_Side wrote: »
    shryke wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    zepherin wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    This one comes with a side order of medical abuse:

    (thread continues, collected below in the spoiler for length and, uh, fuckedupness. Tweeter is a writer summarizing the documents filed at court).
    This is Joshua Smith, a client of @GeorgetownLaw's Civil Rights Clinic. In May 2020, while visiting family in Virginia, his legs went numb. 911 was dialed. 12 hours later, he ended up face down in a jail cell, unconscious and permanently paralyzed. Let me tell you his story.
    After the 911 call, an ambulance took him to the ER of a local hospital in Galax, Virginia. Noticing that Smith had previously been on opioid medication, the doctors and nurses assumed he was looking for drugs. They gave him a shot of Benadryl. Then they called the cops on him. Since he couldn't walk, a sheriff's deputy wheeled Smith out of the ER, arrested him, and forced him into his police car. He took him to a local magistrate judge's office, all while calling him a “junkie” who just “shot up some bad dope.”

    When they arrived at the courthouse, three other cops joined in, put Smith on a rubber welcome mat, and dragged him on the ground to the judge's chambers. The judge noticed an old probation violation, and decided he should go to jail.

    But first, he wanted Smith to stand up. The officers grabbed him from the floor and picked him up, only for his knees to buckle. From his desk, the judge told Smith, “If you can stand up and talk to me like a man, you can go home.” Smith was sobbing on the floor. He couldn't get his legs to work. The judge ordered he be held in jail. The officers shackled Smith's hands and legs, dragged him through the courthouse out into the parking lot, picked him up, swung him three times, and hurled him into the back of a police van.

    During the 40-minute ride, the officer drove erratically, hitting pot holes and taking sharp turns. Smith wasn't secured in any way—just lying on his back on the floor of the van. Every bump sent shock waves of pain through his body. In his spine, an abscess was about to burst. During the whole 40-minute ride, Smith cried out for medical help. At some point, he recalls hitting a particularly hard bump, feeling a wave of excruciating pain, and then nothing. He had lost all feeling in his legs. He'd later learn that the spinal abscess had ruptured.

    The officers arrived at the New River Valley Regional Jail, and then unloaded Smith, who is at this point unconscious, into a jail cell. It's the middle of the night. They leave him there, face down, until they bring him breakfast the next morning. Some time later, a jail officer returns and asks him why he hasn't eaten his breakfast. He can't inhale enough air to respond. A nurse notices him, and immediately calls for help. She may be the reason he's alive today. He gets taken to a hospital in Roanoke, where he goes into emergency surgery. The doctors manage to save his life, but he'd lost all feeling from the chest down. He's now permanently paralyzed.

    When he wakes up, a cop is posted in his room and he's shackled to the hospital bed.

    A few days later, while still sedated and intubated, the cop holds an iPad in front of him and requires him to appear in his own bond hearing. The judge asks him to respond simply by blinking his eyes or nodding his head. Although he was released from custody, Smith feels that the system “practically ended [his] life.” He can't sleep longer than a few hours a night and when he can, he dreams he's trapped in a jail cell. The financial strain has left him on the brink of homelessness. Smith is bringing a federal lawsuit against the hospital, the medical staff, the cops, the judge and the jail for discrimination and multiple violations of his constitutional rights. You can view it here: https://georgetown.box.com/s/uv03ktm44w69s3vfnnq3i5j3crfaycr9

    I am so angry right now.

    they keep finding novel and interesting ways to be the worst people. If you put that shit in a movie people would walk out because they wouldn't believe it
    I expect police to be assholes, and be terrible, but the hospital, the DA and the judge, what the fuck?

    The story reads like he was assumed to be a "junkie" by the doctors and nurses when he came to the ER and literally everything after that just follows on from that assumption. Every person after that who he encountered began with the assumption he was some druggie because that's what the people handing him off to them thought and so interpreted everything they saw in light of that and then treated him with as such.

    It's crazy how dehumanizing they are to junkies and homeless, even the hospitals. I was driving by one of the hospitals in downtown Denver and witnessed what appeared to be several officers, or security guards, grouped around a person in a wheelchair on the street corner in front of the hospital. They proceeded to pick that person up and toss them out of the chair, where they collapsed onto the sidewalk. It was nuts to be seeing that in broad daylight on a busy downtown street.

    It's a deliberate effort on the part of the rich and elite. We could solve the vast, vast majority of the cases of addiction and homelessness (other countries with far less money than the US manage it), but it would mean diverting money and power away from the greedy and into the programs meant to help these folks. In the meantime, those at the top do their hardest to make sure those homeless and addicted people are a constant thorn in the side of the average citizen specifically because it's a lot easier to be angry at homeless/sick people you can see than expend effort on pulling down the unknown people actually responsible.

    We aren't supposed to be able to solve these issues, we're just supposed to be distracted by them and focus our resentment on the victims instead of the actual perpetrators.

    Hey, don't forget the people that actively profited off of it. The Sacklers and oxycontin weren't the first to make a fortune profiting off addiction. They won't be the last. And that's just in pharmaceuticals. The money being put into furthering substance abuse issues and addictive behaviours, is just obscene.

  • Options
    Dark_SideDark_Side Registered User regular
    Gnizmo wrote: »
    If you are looking to stop dehumanizing people for addiction then I would delete the word junky from your vocabulary. I can't describe the pain I have seen it cause people struggling with recovery. It is definitely used by the medical profession to justify being absolute monsters to people as seen in this story.

    It's a good note for sure, and I agree I need to stop using it. But it gets hard when you live in the city and have to deal with some of these people. Anything more on the topic I think is a different thread though.

  • Options
    MayabirdMayabird Pecking at the keyboardRegistered User regular
    I think it came up before, but many police stations/unions/organizations issue essentially get out of jail free cards to family and high-spending supporters so they can get out of such petty things as fines and charges and investigations.

    When we talk about the entire system being rotten, this is one of the many reasons. It is irredeemable. The corruption is systemic, endemic, part and parcel with the apparatus. It can only be destroyed if anything better is to come of it.

  • Options
    MortiousMortious The Nightmare Begins Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    edited May 2022
    wp0WgCnl.png

    Is this actually a photo from that mass shooting recently?

    Because those don't look like police.

    Mortious on
    Move to New Zealand
    It’s not a very important country most of the time
    http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
  • Options
    Phoenix-DPhoenix-D Registered User regular
    Also interesting subtitle there. run from the scene?

  • Options
    Stabbity StyleStabbity Style He/Him | Warning: Mothership Reporting Kennewick, WARegistered User regular
    They gotta dress up in their cosplay before not actually doing anything to stop mass shootings. God this country needs some fucking gun control but fascists love their guns too much.

    Stabbity_Style.png
  • Options
    zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Mortious wrote: »
    wp0WgCnl.png

    Is this actually a photo from that mass shooting recently?

    Because those don't look like police.
    Law enforcement personnel run from the scene of a shooting, with their tacticool armor. Yes that sounds about right.

  • Options
    BurtletoyBurtletoy Registered User regular
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    Also interesting subtitle there. run from the scene?

    Didn't a cop get "in trouble" for running away from the Stoneman Douglas High school shooting?

    By "in trouble" I mean he had to move to the next county over to become a cop again after losing his job.

  • Options
    TomantaTomanta Registered User regular
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    Also interesting subtitle there. run from the scene?

    Didn't a cop get "in trouble" for running away from the Stoneman Douglas High school shooting?

    By "in trouble" I mean he had to move to the next county over to become a cop again after losing his job.

    Pretty sure he also won a court case that said he had no obligation to try and stop it.

  • Options
    zepherinzepherin Russian warship, go fuck yourself Registered User regular
    Tomanta wrote: »
    Burtletoy wrote: »
    Phoenix-D wrote: »
    Also interesting subtitle there. run from the scene?

    Didn't a cop get "in trouble" for running away from the Stoneman Douglas High school shooting?

    By "in trouble" I mean he had to move to the next county over to become a cop again after losing his job.

    Pretty sure he also won a court case that said he had no obligation to try and stop it.

    That is incorrect. The judge has ruled the trial can proceed, but has not been scheduled.
    https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/20/us/parkland-shooting-scot-peterson-charges/index.html

Sign In or Register to comment.