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: 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.
For some odd reason all scientific instruments searching for intelligent life are pointed away from Earth.