Sunday, May 15, 2016

DRIVERS WHO FLEE THE POLICE ENDANGER THE LIVES OF OTHER CAR OCCUPANTS, PEDESTRIANS AND THE COPS CHASING THEM

Cops beat up driver who led them on high-speed hour-long chase Wednesday from Massachusetts into New Hampshire

If you’ve been watching the national TV news broadcasts, I’m sure you’ve seen a helicopter view of cops thumping the shit out of a driver Wednesday who had just stopped after a high-speed chase which started in Massachusetts and ended in New Hampshire.

What made the beating look especially bad was that the driver got out of his car and put his hands on the ground, offering no resistance before the cops started pummeling him. Now the public is in an uproar over another example of police brutality.

But not so fast there people!

Drivers who flee the police endanger the lives of other car occupants, pedestrians and the cops chasing them. That really pisses off the cops chasing them. By the time a particularly dangerous chase is over, the pursuing cops are so steamed up that they kick the supreme shit out of the driver when they finally catch his ass.

In the Massachusetts-New Hampshire hour-long chase, Richard Simone, 50, who was wanted on warrants for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, larceny and failure to stop for police, sometimes drove at speeds exceeding 100 mph.

I’ve personally been involved in some chases in which the fleeing driver got the shit kicked out of him when the chase finally ended. In one particular case , the fleeing driver made a sudden u-turn through a freeway median causing several cars in oncoming traffic to end up in a roadside ditch. The asshole not only nearly killed the occupants of those other cars, but he had four small kids in the car with him. When the officers finally stopped him they dragged him out of the car and beat the supreme shit out of him. And quite frankly, I couldn’t help myself, but I cheered those officers on.

These chase-ending beatings are not uncommon. They’re just usually not caught on cameras.

As Bob Walsh reported in a post Thursday, “Last November the deputies pursued a car thief and assault suspect, Stanislav Petrov, 29, into San Francisco. He finally ran out of gas, crashed his car and fled into a Mission District alley. They thumped the dogshit out of Petrov, who undoubtedly had it coming. Unfortunately that action is no longer legally acceptable or permissible.”

In Houston alone, several innocent people have been killed by drivers fleeing from the police by driving down the wrong side of the freeway. And numerous fleeing drivers have crashed into other cars while blasting through red lights at intersections. Just Thursday, a man and a woman were critically injured and had to be pried out of their car by Houston firefighters after a driver crashed into them while fleeing the police in a stolen SUV. And at 1 a.m. Saturday, an 18-year-old girl was killed when she and her date were returning from their senior prom and their car was struck by a pickup truck driver fleeing from Houston cops.

So those fleeing drivers deserve a good ass-whipping, but as Bob said, that’s no longer legally acceptable or permissible. In the Massachusetts-New Hampshire chase, two Massachusetts state troopers have been relieved of duty and are facing the likelihood of criminal prosecution.

Of course there are the shrill voices of those who say the police should never chase a fleeing driver. And there are a few cities that have policies prohibiting the police from chasing any drivers. While there are various tactics employed that are designed to minimize the dangers inherent in police chases, in the end it’s still a fleeing driver disregarding everyone else’s safety.

1 comment:

bob walsh said...

In order to solve this problem, at least in theory, many states, including California, have passed specific laws about reckless flight to avoid apprehension. Even when they catch the drivers it is almost never prosecuted on, making it something of a paper tiger.