Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 1)

The BBQ Pit
6951

At all times? In every circumstance? No matter what? That’s bullshit. If this was a burning house and a person was injured would you carefully immobilize someone? No, that’s stupid, you would just be sure to carefully not cause spinal injury as you watch them die of smoke inhalation.

So, establishing that your premise clearly is not an absolute, I repeat that I don’t know if this was a situation where the person needed to be moved immediately or not. If the risk of downed power lines or traffic was greater. I don’t know and clearly neither do you.

6952

I guarantee you that @Dandan is not my sock, nor is @crowmanyclouds or anyone else not immediately on the “excessive force” bandwagon.

6953

You don’t argue for a reason, you just argue.

Was the road on fire? Did the power lines ever fall down?

6954

Ignoring what happened after the guy bounced on his head down the road…

I would have a wild guess that this guy was so out of it, mentally or chemically that he literally thought the car was stopped, and then tried to step out. I mean, he just casually stepped out like he thought he was going to just walk away.

6955

Whether or not they fell is irrelevant. What’s relevant is that they were concerned it could happen.
Assuming that was a legit concern, I’d have no problem with him being dragged. I don’t see that as any different than dragging someone, even with a possible neck/spine injury, out of a car after a chase if they noticed it was on fire. It would be equally irrelevant whether or not the fire spread to the point that the suspect would be burned, just that the potential was there.

Plus, it’s better for everyone (the suspect, the police, EMTs, FD etc) to get him out of that area before there’s a problem rather than waiting to see if they actually fall and find yourself having to wait for the utility company to get someone out there to de-energize the lines.

As for whether or not the lines fell, I don’t know, but if you watch the video, it’s not that he hit the pole, he broke it. All the weight of the pole, or at least the part above ground, is now hanging from the wires. And, it does look like they’re genuinely trying to get him out of the way, not rough him up.

Honestly, if they wanted revenge, they’d be better off leaving him where he was. No one would think twice if they said they left him there for his own safety (possible spine injuries) and theirs (the overhead wires), until EMTs, FD and possibly the utility company arrived on the scene. They’re the ones trained for this. Meanwhile, they’d be using it as an excuse not to provide rescue services, possibly meaning he died when he could have been saved.

Ask yourself this. Imagine that was you. You jumped* out of a moving car, hit your head like that, but somehow you survived it and you didn’t do any spine/neck damage. Would you rather the police dragged you away, risking paralysis or leave you there, un-paralyzed, but with electric lines operating at 10’s or 100’s of thousands of volts, ready to find a path to ground, through you.
IOW, possible paralysis or guaranteed death.

*Doesn’t even have to be that you jumped, I’m not implying you were running from the police. We could even change that to “Imagine you got hit by a car going 60mph” and the car hit the pole. You want the cops to drag you out of the way or leave you?

6956

You’re the one not using reason here. You’re just ignorantly assigning blame without facts.

Of course the road wasn’t on fire. I used an example of when clearly you don’t immediately immobilize an injured person to show how stupid your statement was. As far as whether the power lines came down, I don’t know. Do you? Of course not. Do you know they couldn’t have? Of course not. Which was my whole point. Neither of us know.

Of course there should be an investigation, this was a high speed chase that led to a loss of life. Maybe facts will come out now. You jumping in and casting judgement is ridiculous.

You accuse me of “arguing to argue”. No, I’m explaining that you’re playing armchair quarterback and pointing out how foolish that is.

6957

If the power lines had come down why am I certain someone would be complaining that the cops should have pulled him to safety as quickly as possible?

6958

Yep. Died at hospital.

6959

I watched it again, and yeah, he looked quite relaxed sidling out of that thing.

6960

Almost certainly already dead when the cops first laid hands on him. The fact that he was declared dead at the hospital doesn’t mean much-- there are very limited circumstances under which anyone but a doctor can declare someone dead, and so he was declared dead as soon as a doctor saw him.

6961

Principal sends school money to “Elon Musk” his Internet buddy

6962

When I was being taught basic wilderness first aid at the National Outdoor Leadership School, the first question we were taught to ask was, “Is the scene safe?”; that is, can whatever hurt the victim also hurt me? If the answer is “yes”, you either wait until it’s safe to approach, or you get the victim out of danger as quickly as possible, and that means risking further injury if the alternative is death.

We’ve seen enough police videos to know that cops can be abusive, but given that the only evidence we have is a video shot from a traffic copter, I don’t think we can say for certain if the cops were being thuggish assholes, or were trying to protect the injured man, as well as themselves, from further, potentially lethal injuries.

6963

I’m not sure it belongs here since it appears to be someone saying “I was wrong, I’ll leave”.

6964

EX lawyer loses case for recompense from man wrongly accused and released from gaol. Story in brief: an Australian lawyer who represented a man accused of murder who was gaoled for 20 years and then released upon discovery of further evidence tried to SUE the man for the ex-gratia payment he received from the government for his wrongful imprisonment. After the initial conviction, the accused hired another legal team to represent him. The first lawyer not only lost his case for payment, but was also made to pay the legal costs of the man he stupidly chose to sue. Sometimes lawyers ought to just shut up!

6965

Guy runs out on the field of Dodger Statium during pre-game warmups to propose to his girlfriend. Security has a contrary opinion.

She said yes.

6966

A little girl wanted to choose Bessie Coleman as her hero for a project. Her teacher said no.

6967

What the actual f___?

I’m an old White guy, and I think Bessie Coleman was a hero! I note her birthday every January.

6968

Truly. The assignment was her hero, not somebody the teacher had heard of.

Sidenote: I was wondering what was going on with her mother’s left eye until she moved and turned out to be the ring light on the camera.

6969

Aww… I thought her mom was also a hero because she was a cyborg who fought criminals in the sky for the FAA, but now I think you’re right. :slightly_frowning_face:

6970

It’s odd they didn’t specify the school, but perhaps the family didn’t want the publicity.