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from the in-soviet-russia-you-pay-nurse dept.
NPR reports a nurse in Utah who was arrested on July 26th in Utah has reached a $500,000 settlement with the city and hospital system. Nurse Alex Wubbels was arrested by Detective Jeff Payne for refusing to take a blood sample from a patient without the patient's consent or a warrant. When she tried to present the detective with the hospital policy on the subject, the Detective announced she was under arrest and took her away in handcuffs. The Detective has since been fired after it was initially reported that he was "counseled."
At the beginning of the [body camera] video, she is seen calmly reading the officer the hospital's policy not to allow blood to be drawn without a warrant or the patient's consent, unless the patient is under arrest. "This is something you guys agreed to with this hospital," she explains. Then the officer lunges at Wubbels, forces her outside and handcuffs her as she screams that she has done nothing wrong. The footage drew widespread outrage when it was released by the nurse and her attorney. It became part of a broader conversation about police use of force.
The Washington Post reported, "Wubbels said she will donate some of the proceeds to a fund that will help people obtain body camera footage and provide free legal aid for open records requests. She is also planning to use the money to raise awareness about workplace violence against nurses." Alex Wubbels, in a guest blog post at the American Nurses Association, describes the campaign as #EndNurseAbuse. Workplace violence against nurses is not something covered that often outside the profession, and yet something every ER worker knows about. Usually, though, it isn't the police who are the perpetrators.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Thursday November 02 2017, @11:00AM (4 children)
"The settlement deal covers all possible defendants from lawsuits, The Associated Press reports, including individual police officers and hospital security guards."
As in, the hospital security did not work to secure the hospital. That doesn't mean "take the police down" but at least say "Sorry, officers, but this isn't right, we get a lot of police requests but this is unusual, could you call it in?" rather than helping taking her by force.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday November 02 2017, @01:54PM (3 children)
Given the open and brazen hostility and anger management problems of modern police, I think the university security did the right thing. Saying "Sorry, officers, but this isn't right" is likely to get you shot in the modern police state.
When police get out of control or overstep their authority, the best way it should be dealt with is later, when things cool down, with litigation. (God, I never thought I would say that ever.)
Judgements for bad police behavior need to be increased significantly. The level of damages needs to send a much stronger and louder message to police departments. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW???
Police officers need to carry their own individual liability insurance. Just as some other professions do. Police departments could subsidize these policies at the rate that ordinary officers would pay. But bad police will either face increased premiums or inability to get any insurance -- which will automatically disqualify them from police work. And without any flack from the union. Furthermore, the insurance underwriters would be motivated to investigate bad police and get to the truth because they are the ones financially on the hook.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @04:44PM (1 child)
It's the roids man.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday November 02 2017, @05:21PM
In some cases. In other cases it could just be that they always were a bully, and thus were naturally drawn to law enforcement where they could bully other people around with impunity.
The sad thing is, I still believe these bad cops are the minority. But they are the ones shaping the public's attitude towards the police. While some police departments recognize there is a problem, other departments don't know or don't care.
Roids may not be strictly necessary. But you may be on to something. Most videos that I can remember seeing that have an out of control cop looks like the cop could be on roids.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by forkazoo on Friday November 03 2017, @12:52AM
Some sort of Federal anti-corruption agency that does undercover secret-shopper encounters with police would also be a good thing. If a cop beats the shit out of the FBI for no reason, I think it'll be taken a lot more seriously than if it happens to the rest of us.