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"A Utah police officer [Jeff Payne] who was caught on video roughly handcuffing a nurse because she refused to allow a blood draw was fired Tuesday in a case that became a flashpoint in the ongoing national conversation about police use of force."
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown made the decision after an internal investigation found evidence Detective Jeff Payne violated department policies when he arrested nurse Alex Wubbels and dragged her out of the hospital as she screamed on July 26, said Sgt. Brandon Shearer, a spokesman for the department.
Attorney Greg Skordas has said Payne served the department well for nearly three decades and questioned whether his behavior warranted termination. He couldn't immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Click here to read the entire story
Utah cop fired after arresting nurse who wouldn't draw blood
Some videos on youtube
Utah officer wants to apologize for nurse's controversial arrest
(Score: 4, Insightful) by AssCork on Wednesday October 11 2017, @06:40PM (15 children)
Defense attorneys love stuff like this. Every time a LEO (especially one with such a loooong career history like this) gets canned for breaking the law to obtain evidence, they start pulling case files and making phone calls.
Did Officer/Detective McSlick work on your case?
Did you get convicted?
Want that conviction overturned? Or at least get a retrial?
BAM.
Just popped-out of a tight spot. Came out mostly clean, too.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @06:46PM
And, of course, this is why the police must be above the law.
Just think about all those Bad Guys™ that will go free! Nobody will be safe!
How do we know they're Bad Guys™? They were arrested. Q.E.D.
Safety trumps freedom every time. It's a no-brainer. (I suppose because one must needs lack a brain to think the way I'm satirizing. Observation: brains are a very rare organ with an unknown but probably nefarious purpose.)
(Score: 4, Interesting) by ngarrang on Wednesday October 11 2017, @06:48PM (4 children)
I was thinking the very same thing. He got caught on camera this time. But how many times in the last 30 years had he gotten away with such illegal and unethical behavior?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:00PM
One of the linked articles said in the past he had been reprimanded for arresting some kids, transporting them somewhere else, releasing them and not documenting the incident.
So it's all good. No kids were killed in that incident. No charges were filed. No harm done.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:09PM (2 children)
I've heard this argument for speeding tickets, and it sucks. The whole system where 99.5% of the cars on the road are breaking the law, but we only enforce the law on random days at random times when an officer happens to be randomly present either running an end-of-month quota filling trap, or when someone manages to offend their concept of respect for the law too fragrantly, then "here's your ticket" and just count your lucky stars the we're not also fining you for the 10,000 previous times you broke the law and got away with it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Thursday October 12 2017, @10:35AM (1 child)
Tickets: or driving while black; young; in a sports car; in a hot rod
In practice, speeding isn't required at all. While driving a sports car 40mph in a 40mph zone and being passed, I was pulled over to be cited for 51. This is why I have a dash cam, and I really wish they'd be available when I was a teenager.
My fav quote from an officer: "It doesn't matter if you're speeding now. If you drive a car like that you must have been speeding sometime."
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 12 2017, @11:55AM
My favorite quote after being detained for 35 minutes for running a yellow light: "I'm going to cite you for running that red light, you can take me to court but it will be your word against mine...."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 11 2017, @07:01PM (4 children)
And those thrown out convictions ought to sour the record of the commanding officer and lead to his firing as well. Unless the commander is held responsible for his officers' behavior, as they are in the military, he will not do his job and fire cops like these.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 11 2017, @08:04PM (1 child)
Something needs to be done about Police Unions interfering with and inserting themselves into how departments deal with police officer conduct.
I am NOT a cowboy! And sppeed is substute fro accurancy.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Grishnakh on Thursday October 12 2017, @03:57AM
Police unions should be banned.
Do we have unions for military enlistees or officers? Fuck no. So why do cops need unions? They're always defending cops who are caught doing highly illegal things.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:39AM (1 child)
Agreed. Mere enlisted men, like myself, were held accountable for the actions of their subordinates. It isn't just commanders who are held accountable. So, if I can be taken to Captain's mast over a subordinate's actions, then WTF aren't police commanders held to at least the same standard?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @05:34AM
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 11 2017, @07:13PM (1 child)
> Defense attorneys love stuff like this.
You know who also loves stuff like this? Innocent people who were imprisoned because of falsified evidence.
If Officer "If You Know What's Good For You" Payne simply had to have some evidence, and wouldn't accept "no" as an answer, the evidence provided by the frightened citizen has good odds of being false. Not many people are willing to bet their entire life on the practically non-existent chance that a judge and jury will trust their word over an officers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @01:30AM
We previously discussed forensics lab tech Annie Dookhan and how she stole evidence (drugs) and queered test results.
Massachusetts Throws Out 21,587 Tainted Drug Convictions [soylentnews.org]
Massachusetts: Tens of Thousands of Drug Convictions to be Overturned After Fraudulent Lab Tests [soylentnews.org]
I had another thing in my personal queue but took so long to get back to it that I deleted it just the other day.
Now, here we are again on a similar topic.
Drug cases tainted by Sonja Farak should be dismissed [aclum.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pav on Wednesday October 11 2017, @11:00PM (1 child)
The police officers involved were trying to dodge responsibility for engaging in a dangerous car chase - the suspect they were persuing (against the rules) swerved in front of a semi-trailer and was killed, and the truck driver (who was actually a reserve police officer himself) was badly burned. There was no reason for them to seek a blood test unless they were trying to shift blame to a victim.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday October 12 2017, @03:46PM