The Po-lice
I'm sure you all have heard of the recent incident involving Ryan Moats and Officer P, and officer with the Dallas Police Department. If you haven't, well, then you must live under a rock. As is typically the case in the media with pro athletes, authority, and race are involved in an issue, America is staunchly divided into the extremes: this guy is the worst cop in the history of the world, and is an example of why all police are bad to the bone, or this is another example of fine, outstanding police work and another crooked pro athlete/black guy is complaining after doing something wrong.
As I so frequently point out, my friends, the truth is in between.
On a quick aside, I write about that so often that I've decided if I didn't name my blog PJ's Place it would be named The Truth Is Somewhere In Between.
I would like to point out, for the record, that I do feel like I'm a good middle ground observer of this situation: I'm a fairly frequent speeder who gets pulled over once or twice a year, so I sympathize with any person who gets caught by The Man. I'm also the son of a cop, so I sympathize with the tough job the popos have to do.
So let's analyze the situation. First, let's completely throw out the fact that Ryan Moats is a football player. At no point did he play the "Do you know who I am/I'm rich biatch/I'm in the NFL" during the stop, and I think it's fairly safe to say that Officer P (we'll talk about why I won't say his name later) didn't know a backup running back for the Texans on sight. So yes, while that is why the media pounced on the issue, it really played no part in what happened.
So from the beginning, the Moats family (I realize it were his in-laws mostly, but for simplicity sake we will refer to them as such) had spent all weekend as their 45 year old mother was dying far too soon of breast cancer. They went home for a coupla hours of much needed sleep, but were then called at midnight and told to get back to the hospital ASAP to say goodbye. It was literally a matter of minutes.
The Moats family--Robert, his wife, his grandfather-in-law, and an aunt-in-law--all jumped into the car and headed out to the hospital. Robert was smart--he turned on his emergency flashers but obviously wanted to get there as quickly as possible.
He rolled through a red light after exiting the Tollway, but pointed out that there was only one car in any part of the area--I'm pretty sure this was a Sunday, and it was midnight--and that he made sure it was safe.
The Moats family was lit up by Officer P for running the red light, and they drove slowly the block or so to the hospital and parked there. The wife and Aunt immediately bailed out of the car and started to walk into the hospital as soon as the car stopped. Officer P then ordered the women back into the car, drew his service weapon when they didn't comply, and may or may not have pointed it at them.
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We'll break here, as this is the first controversial point. Many people are upset that Officer P drew his gun and pointed it at the women, which in fairness to him he says he didn't point it at them. People, Officer P did nothing wrong by pulling this car over, nor by drawing his weapon.
The problem most civilians make when being pulled over by the police is assumption--especially when people do have a good reason for doing the wrong thing, like the Moats did. Look at it from the cop's perspective: he doesn't know who the Hell you are. He doesn't know you have a sick family member. He doesn't know you're a good upstanding family. You don't think drug dealers who might have product in the car with them have sick family members? Gang members with felony warrants outstanding never have to go to a hospital? Just plain crazy people never go to the hospital? People, police aren't clairvoyant. They don't know who the good guys and bad guys are by looking at their cars. Please believe me when I say that the absolute WORST thing you can do when get pulled over is to immediately hop out of the car and flee the scene. Just be patient for the 1-2 minutes it will take the cop to walk to the car, tell them what's going on, and 95% of the time he'll dismiss everyone but the driver, and probably dismiss the driver as well. However, if you just pop out of the car and run away, how else is he supposed to react? He's supposed to ASSUME "Oh, well they must have sick relatives?". That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. There's plenty of graves out there of officers who ASSUMED something perfectly logical on routine traffic stops. There's a reason we have so many cute phrases about assumption (it's the mother of all fuck ups; it makes an ass out of you and me); it's because anyone who does it is a fool. So yes, with all due respect to the Moats family, they were in the wrong here, and when Officer P drew his gun, he was simply following rule number 1 of any police officer: make it home alive.
Unfortunately for the situation, this was about the last thing that Officer P did correctly.
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Ryan Moats then approaches Officer P and then explains what is going on. Is he a little wired at first? Yes, he is, but obviously this is a very tense situation for him: he's tired, he's emotional over the death of a family member, and he's scared because a police officer is talking to him and his family with a drawn gun. Officer P then takes on the role of the hard ass cop. He proceeds to threaten Moats with arrest for traffic violations--which is ridiculous in and of itself--a coupla which could easily be called "trumped up" (his comment about ticketing/arresting him for parking incorrectly was especially ridiculous). Moats quickly regains his cool, and just asks Officer P to hurry up, ticket him for whatever he wants, and allow him to go inside and see his dying mother-in-law. He very quickly became reasonable, calm, and obviously a sincere man dealing with a difficult situation. Officer P decided to fuck him over, taking his sweet-ass time running searches on their records. Even when a nurse from the hospital came out and spoke to the Officer, informing him that yes, his mother-in-law was dying, and yes, it was happening any second now and he needed to let him go, Officer P still wanted to be Billy Bad Ass and took his time.
17 minutes later, Ryan Moats and his grandfather-in-law went upstairs, to find out that their mother-in-law and daughter had died without being able to see her.
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Officer P is the perfect example of the difference between a good cop and a bad cop.
One of the hardest things for cops when it comes to dealing with civilians is the same problem civilians have: assumption. Far too often, police assume that people know how to react to them. This isn't the case. Police correctly see themselves as a good part of society, there to serve and protect civilians and make everyone's lives safer and better. Unfortunately, most of society doesn't respect/appreciate the police as they should, because the only times most civilians associate with police is during a negative situation. Being pulled over for traffic violations/stepping in during domestic or public disputes/investigating a robbery...all of these are extremely negative situations that, even when not being the police's fault, associates negative feelings about cops. For most civilians, any association with police has been when something bad has happened, so they are immediately scared and nervous. And people who are scared and nervous do dumb things. It's human nature.
Good cops realize that, and roll with the punches. Good cops are able to set civilians at ease, don't get offended by people being rude/argumentative/just plain acting a little weird because of human nature. Good cops also don't hold it against people when they make a stupid, potentially dangerous--but understandable once you are apprised of the situation--mistakes, like two women walking away from the car after being pulled over. Their civilians--they don't know any better.
A good cop would have talked to Ryan Moats, calmed him down quickly--which would have been easy, since Moats calmed down quickly even when dealing with a bad cop--sent the family on their way, checked on Moats and the car quickly to make sure he wasn't full of shit, and then quickly sent him on his way without a ticket but with a super quick, probably 30 second lecture of, "Look man, next time, think about how it looks to me when half the car bails out and runs off. Please make sure if this ever happens again you follow my instructions and we can take care of this a lot easier and faster. Best wishes with your mother."
A bad cop, however, lords over his power, and instead threatens and bullies his detainees. A bad cop goes "by the book" instead of using common sense. A bad cop uses the fear/nervousness that civilians have towards police to run up as many charges as he can--like threatening someone they pulled over with their parking (the next good, perfectly legal parking job I see on a traffic stop will be the first). A bad cop, unfortunately, reacts as Officer P did.
Officer P acted like an asshole, and was a disgrace to the force.
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So there you have it people. Officer P didn't do everything wrong, but his handling of the situation was very poor, and most disturbingly it was poor in the sense that he acted like a bully, which is about the worst complaint you can make of a police officer. He's obviously needs a major attitude adjustment and needs to learn a lot to be a functioning--forget about good--cop, and if there are any other major splotches on his record, I would have no problem with him losing his badge over this. Mistakes happen, and that I can live with, but bullying by the police in unacceptable. If his record indicates a history of that behavior (which the Zach Thomas incident with him seems to support, if that turns out to be true), then he doesn't deserve a badge.
There's one more thing we need to critique, though: that's the behavior of the media and Police Chief David Kunkle.
I was surprised at Kunkle's press conference of the incident, because Kunkle completely threw Officer P under the bus. As we're discussed, he did a lot of things wrong and deserved the sharp reprimand he got, but he wasn't completely in the wrong. Kunkle needs to be careful, because a chief who doesn't back his cops will quickly lose their support, and then be done. Officer P should have been supported for drawing his weapon, and I never heard anyone defend him for doing that.
Finally, what exactly is the media trying to do here, get this guy killed? That's the only conclusion I can see, since they released his full name, multiple photos, and even showed his fricking MySpace page on the news. Look, this was a bad situation from a guy who probably needs to leave the force. But he doesn't need to be harassed by the entire city, and he doesn't need to worry about violence against himself, which is EXACTLY what the media has set him up for. Once again, the media has acted irresponsibly by overly vilifying someone and then releasing far too personal information about the person. If any nut takes things too far and attacks this guy, that's on your head, media.
So in the end, it's a very sad situation. Hopefully we can all--civilians, the police, the Chief, the media--can learn from this situation, and not make the same mistakes again.
As I so frequently point out, my friends, the truth is in between.
On a quick aside, I write about that so often that I've decided if I didn't name my blog PJ's Place it would be named The Truth Is Somewhere In Between.
I would like to point out, for the record, that I do feel like I'm a good middle ground observer of this situation: I'm a fairly frequent speeder who gets pulled over once or twice a year, so I sympathize with any person who gets caught by The Man. I'm also the son of a cop, so I sympathize with the tough job the popos have to do.
So let's analyze the situation. First, let's completely throw out the fact that Ryan Moats is a football player. At no point did he play the "Do you know who I am/I'm rich biatch/I'm in the NFL" during the stop, and I think it's fairly safe to say that Officer P (we'll talk about why I won't say his name later) didn't know a backup running back for the Texans on sight. So yes, while that is why the media pounced on the issue, it really played no part in what happened.
So from the beginning, the Moats family (I realize it were his in-laws mostly, but for simplicity sake we will refer to them as such) had spent all weekend as their 45 year old mother was dying far too soon of breast cancer. They went home for a coupla hours of much needed sleep, but were then called at midnight and told to get back to the hospital ASAP to say goodbye. It was literally a matter of minutes.
The Moats family--Robert, his wife, his grandfather-in-law, and an aunt-in-law--all jumped into the car and headed out to the hospital. Robert was smart--he turned on his emergency flashers but obviously wanted to get there as quickly as possible.
He rolled through a red light after exiting the Tollway, but pointed out that there was only one car in any part of the area--I'm pretty sure this was a Sunday, and it was midnight--and that he made sure it was safe.
The Moats family was lit up by Officer P for running the red light, and they drove slowly the block or so to the hospital and parked there. The wife and Aunt immediately bailed out of the car and started to walk into the hospital as soon as the car stopped. Officer P then ordered the women back into the car, drew his service weapon when they didn't comply, and may or may not have pointed it at them.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
We'll break here, as this is the first controversial point. Many people are upset that Officer P drew his gun and pointed it at the women, which in fairness to him he says he didn't point it at them. People, Officer P did nothing wrong by pulling this car over, nor by drawing his weapon.
The problem most civilians make when being pulled over by the police is assumption--especially when people do have a good reason for doing the wrong thing, like the Moats did. Look at it from the cop's perspective: he doesn't know who the Hell you are. He doesn't know you have a sick family member. He doesn't know you're a good upstanding family. You don't think drug dealers who might have product in the car with them have sick family members? Gang members with felony warrants outstanding never have to go to a hospital? Just plain crazy people never go to the hospital? People, police aren't clairvoyant. They don't know who the good guys and bad guys are by looking at their cars. Please believe me when I say that the absolute WORST thing you can do when get pulled over is to immediately hop out of the car and flee the scene. Just be patient for the 1-2 minutes it will take the cop to walk to the car, tell them what's going on, and 95% of the time he'll dismiss everyone but the driver, and probably dismiss the driver as well. However, if you just pop out of the car and run away, how else is he supposed to react? He's supposed to ASSUME "Oh, well they must have sick relatives?". That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. There's plenty of graves out there of officers who ASSUMED something perfectly logical on routine traffic stops. There's a reason we have so many cute phrases about assumption (it's the mother of all fuck ups; it makes an ass out of you and me); it's because anyone who does it is a fool. So yes, with all due respect to the Moats family, they were in the wrong here, and when Officer P drew his gun, he was simply following rule number 1 of any police officer: make it home alive.
Unfortunately for the situation, this was about the last thing that Officer P did correctly.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ryan Moats then approaches Officer P and then explains what is going on. Is he a little wired at first? Yes, he is, but obviously this is a very tense situation for him: he's tired, he's emotional over the death of a family member, and he's scared because a police officer is talking to him and his family with a drawn gun. Officer P then takes on the role of the hard ass cop. He proceeds to threaten Moats with arrest for traffic violations--which is ridiculous in and of itself--a coupla which could easily be called "trumped up" (his comment about ticketing/arresting him for parking incorrectly was especially ridiculous). Moats quickly regains his cool, and just asks Officer P to hurry up, ticket him for whatever he wants, and allow him to go inside and see his dying mother-in-law. He very quickly became reasonable, calm, and obviously a sincere man dealing with a difficult situation. Officer P decided to fuck him over, taking his sweet-ass time running searches on their records. Even when a nurse from the hospital came out and spoke to the Officer, informing him that yes, his mother-in-law was dying, and yes, it was happening any second now and he needed to let him go, Officer P still wanted to be Billy Bad Ass and took his time.
17 minutes later, Ryan Moats and his grandfather-in-law went upstairs, to find out that their mother-in-law and daughter had died without being able to see her.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Officer P is the perfect example of the difference between a good cop and a bad cop.
One of the hardest things for cops when it comes to dealing with civilians is the same problem civilians have: assumption. Far too often, police assume that people know how to react to them. This isn't the case. Police correctly see themselves as a good part of society, there to serve and protect civilians and make everyone's lives safer and better. Unfortunately, most of society doesn't respect/appreciate the police as they should, because the only times most civilians associate with police is during a negative situation. Being pulled over for traffic violations/stepping in during domestic or public disputes/investigating a robbery...all of these are extremely negative situations that, even when not being the police's fault, associates negative feelings about cops. For most civilians, any association with police has been when something bad has happened, so they are immediately scared and nervous. And people who are scared and nervous do dumb things. It's human nature.
Good cops realize that, and roll with the punches. Good cops are able to set civilians at ease, don't get offended by people being rude/argumentative/just plain acting a little weird because of human nature. Good cops also don't hold it against people when they make a stupid, potentially dangerous--but understandable once you are apprised of the situation--mistakes, like two women walking away from the car after being pulled over. Their civilians--they don't know any better.
A good cop would have talked to Ryan Moats, calmed him down quickly--which would have been easy, since Moats calmed down quickly even when dealing with a bad cop--sent the family on their way, checked on Moats and the car quickly to make sure he wasn't full of shit, and then quickly sent him on his way without a ticket but with a super quick, probably 30 second lecture of, "Look man, next time, think about how it looks to me when half the car bails out and runs off. Please make sure if this ever happens again you follow my instructions and we can take care of this a lot easier and faster. Best wishes with your mother."
A bad cop, however, lords over his power, and instead threatens and bullies his detainees. A bad cop goes "by the book" instead of using common sense. A bad cop uses the fear/nervousness that civilians have towards police to run up as many charges as he can--like threatening someone they pulled over with their parking (the next good, perfectly legal parking job I see on a traffic stop will be the first). A bad cop, unfortunately, reacts as Officer P did.
Officer P acted like an asshole, and was a disgrace to the force.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
So there you have it people. Officer P didn't do everything wrong, but his handling of the situation was very poor, and most disturbingly it was poor in the sense that he acted like a bully, which is about the worst complaint you can make of a police officer. He's obviously needs a major attitude adjustment and needs to learn a lot to be a functioning--forget about good--cop, and if there are any other major splotches on his record, I would have no problem with him losing his badge over this. Mistakes happen, and that I can live with, but bullying by the police in unacceptable. If his record indicates a history of that behavior (which the Zach Thomas incident with him seems to support, if that turns out to be true), then he doesn't deserve a badge.
There's one more thing we need to critique, though: that's the behavior of the media and Police Chief David Kunkle.
I was surprised at Kunkle's press conference of the incident, because Kunkle completely threw Officer P under the bus. As we're discussed, he did a lot of things wrong and deserved the sharp reprimand he got, but he wasn't completely in the wrong. Kunkle needs to be careful, because a chief who doesn't back his cops will quickly lose their support, and then be done. Officer P should have been supported for drawing his weapon, and I never heard anyone defend him for doing that.
Finally, what exactly is the media trying to do here, get this guy killed? That's the only conclusion I can see, since they released his full name, multiple photos, and even showed his fricking MySpace page on the news. Look, this was a bad situation from a guy who probably needs to leave the force. But he doesn't need to be harassed by the entire city, and he doesn't need to worry about violence against himself, which is EXACTLY what the media has set him up for. Once again, the media has acted irresponsibly by overly vilifying someone and then releasing far too personal information about the person. If any nut takes things too far and attacks this guy, that's on your head, media.
So in the end, it's a very sad situation. Hopefully we can all--civilians, the police, the Chief, the media--can learn from this situation, and not make the same mistakes again.
Labels: Police
posted by Michael Pondrom at 10:25 PM
3 comments
