Florida man dumped from wheel chair by the police

[aberkowitz]

That guy was arrested after attempting to evade police and leading them in a car chase!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not sure where you read that. The article that I saw on MSNBC described his crime as a "traffic violation"... normally not the description that's used for a car chase. You have a link?

 

[majorloser]

This is all we had on the news here this morning:

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5760834&version=2&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

EDIT: BTW, from what I understand these were detention deputies involved. Not regular officers.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=73832

 

[Matt34]

That guy was arrested after attempting to evade police and leading them in a car chase!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He should consider himself lucky he wasn't shot and killed while behind the wheel of his car!! I feel no pity for scum like that....... He's lucky he didn't kill anyone during the chase.

Even if that was the case, when someone surrenders themselves to the authorities there is no reason to be treated the way that man was. You can't even blame it on the "adrenaline of the chase". The corrections officer should be fired immediately and Mr. Sterner should be compensated handsomely.

It's officers like her that give all the rest of us in the LE field a bad name.

 

[Johnd]

Even if that was the case, when someone surrenders themselves to the authorities their is no reason to be treated the way that man was.

Precisely. I frankly don't see what all this discussion is about. I don't need to think real long and hard about patently obvious topics like these. When someone surrenders, the purported risk to the officer is gone. In this case, there never was a risk as he is a quad and his hands were in plain view. He should not only be awarded money, the officer should be fired with loss of all benefits, and should be facing at the least a misdemeanor for assault.

 

[jinjuku]

That guy was arrested after attempting to evade police and leading them in a car chase!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He should consider himself lucky he wasn't shot and killed while behind the wheel of his car!! I feel no pity for scum like that....... He's lucky he didn't kill anyone during the chase.

Actually there is a bit of obfuscation over the evading police, it is now sounding like a possibility that it is a trumped up charge.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

I agree that it looks like the officer was wrong in dumping the guy, but let's not convict until we have the whole story. We have no audio or context to the clip, and we don't really know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

In any case, I don't think those actions can be deemed appropriate under any circumstances, but I won't condemn the officer until I read the entire story and it's context. So far....all that is available are jumbled up bits & pieces.

 

[Halon451]

It's outrageous and despicable - this happened right here in my good old home county of Hillsborough, so strike a big one against the home team. I like to think that this case doesn't represent the majority of the force and/or corrections department, but this is merely wishful thinking.

The news broke here in the Tampa area probably before it broke anywhere else, so I've known about it since yesterday - apparently the woman officer had ordered him to stand up so that he could be searched.

Unbelievable...

 

[highfihoney]

Im stayin out of this one,that whole story angers me beyond reason,friggen cop's

 

[stratman]

No matter what the guy did, there's no just cause for treating the man like a piece of meat. I have cop friends and I understand their position, sometimes jerks get out of hand and cops need to do what they need to do, BUT come on, can't these deputies tell the guy's an invalid, why dump him out of the chair? And then right in front of the camera, how stupid can a person be?

 

[gene]

Wow this is crazy. I've been following this story every morning on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show in Tampa. What are the odds it affected someone that visits our forums?

Poor guy and thankfully the bad cops were caught!

 

[Rob Babcock]

The dirtbag that dumped him on his face should be fired, then arrested for assault and battery. I don't care what the guy might have said- it couldn't possibly justify dumping a paralyzed man onto the floor. The other cop that walked by with the sh$t eating grin on his face should be suspended, too, and either fired or trained in the appropriate way to do his job.

 

[Thaedium]

I agree that it looks like the officer was wrong in dumping the guy, but let's not convict until we have the whole story. We have no audio or context to the clip, and we don't really know the circumstances surrounding the incident.

In any case, I don't think those actions can be deemed appropriate under any circumstances, but I won't condemn the officer until I read the entire story and it's context. So far....all that is available are jumbled up bits & pieces.

lol... Leave it too one of us on this forum to bring up the lack of audio in this clip hehehe...

I bet if I had a set of $7,000 cables his writhing on the floor would have been danceable. Doh! Thats a can of worms I shouldn't have opened...

No but in all seriousness, thats sad to see. I respect law enforcement, and I've had my share of run-ins that weren't exactly pleasent for me or them. Still, there is no condoning such despicable behaviour. It will be interesting to see how the investigation reveals itself. I also agree with Buckeye, jumping to rash conclusions and reigning hate upon that detention deputy is not the way to go about this. I'm sure appropriate punishment will be given out should she be found in the wrong. And I think, like most people here that with such video evidence, its pretty clear that she will be getting punished for inappropriate behaviour. As for the grinning bafoon, I'd expect he'll be getting slapped with something as well.

 

[Rob Babcock]

I hope so. The last thing a disabled person should have to expect is for the police to watch them being assaulted and ridicule him instead of helping him. Again, I realize he could have made a snide comment, but what could he possibly have said that would merit being dumped on his head? It's quite possible he could have been killed; with limited use of his arms he could well have face-planted and suffered death or serious injury.

What the hell was that crazy bi$ch thinking?

 

[hemiram]

You would have thought that the idot cop would have remembered the cameras were there, recording it all, and not do anything as stupid, and just plain wrong as she did, just out of fear that she would get busted for it. Exactly what did happen.

I have a friend of mine who is a paraplegic, and he was arrested in NYC, in error, years ago, on a warrant for a guy who looked nothing like him in any way. He was in a restaurant, having dinner with his uncle, when a guy walked by him, turned around and said, "Hey Ron, what's up?". My friend's name is Dave, and he said, "I think you have the wrong person, my name is David!". The guy walked away, and comes back with 4 uniformed cops about a half hour later, just as my friend was getting his food. They come up to him, and say, "Ronald Thomas (something like that), you are under arrest for fraud!", and then tell him to get out of the wheelchair. He tells him e can't, he's not who they think he is and shows them all kinds of ID that shows who he is.

My friend's uncle gets involved, and he is threatened with being arrested too. My friend has a bad temper, and pulls his shirt up in the back, and says, very loudly, You dumb fu**ers have the wrong guy, look at this scar I got in 1970 when I got put into this chair!!" The scar is where they fused his spine after he was ejected from his car when it hit a tree. One of the 4 uniformed guys was a Sergeant, and he tried to get the detective to call someone who knows "Thomas", or to get a picture, "Or this could get bad!". The detective insists my friend is the wanted guy, and tells him to get out of the chair again.

Now it's getting ugly, the detective is trying, singlehandedly, to get my friend out of the chair, the four uniforms are trying to get him under control, but he's nuts. He's yelling, "Stand up Ron!, get your lying *** out of this chair!" Just then, my friend's urine bag pops out of his pants leg, and the four uniforms all step back like it's radioactive. My friend says, "You think I'm wearing the catheter for my own amusement? Finally, sanity prevails and the Sergeant decides to run my friend through records, and it comes back with his info, including the hand control requirement on his license. The detective still insists my friend is "Ron", and starts trying to pull him out of the chair again. The Sergeant stops him, and says, "Someone from fraud is on the way to ID him!" The detective smiles and says, "Well Ron, you better eat your dinner, the one in jail won't be nearly as good!" My friend laughed and said (cleaned up very heavily here), "When he tells you it's not me (bleep bleep), I hope you (bleep)enjoy the "S**t Pie you'll be eating!", and eats his dinner.

About the time my friend finished eating, a Captain, who came in from home walks in, looks at my friend, looks at the detective, and says, "Where is Ron Thomas at?" The detective points at my friend, and says, "That's not him??"
The captain looks at the detective, and says, "Not even remotely close to him in ANY way! Have you had your eyes checked lately?" The detective tries to tell the captain, that he would have sworn my friend was him, "I would have bet everything I've got it was the guy!" The captain reaches in his coat, and pulls out the real guys picture, and the Sergeant laughs, and says, "Jeezus!, the real guy is black!" My friend is an Arab, but is obviously Caucasian. He asked to see the picture, and laughs himself.

I can describe this so closely is because the owner of the restaurant, who hates cops in general, gave my friend a copy of the security tape so he could sue the NYPD. He never did. I have seen the tape about 20 times, and it always cracks me up. The captain gave my friend the pic of the bad guy, and just thinking that anyone could refuse the two of them is just insane. If you are an old time wrestling fan, my friend looks remarkably like "The Shiek", the paper eating, fire shooting bad guy. Ronald Thomas looks like Aresenio Hall with a different haircut! He got a written apology from the detective, and a card from the Captain, in case he "Ever needs a favor".

I will expect the quadriplegic guy will be getting a nice check soon, and the officers involved will be looking for a new job, if not at bars.