as a punishment, I would make him review this comments thread and respond to every single point

tombotia: I'm going to do the unpopular thing and point out that people die everyday. If we let everyone with a sick relative drive like crazed lunatics it'd be happening EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Both of my grandmothers died while we were just a 12 minute drive away [happened in the middle of the night for both]. We didn't speed off like crazed lunatics to go see them off.

He should have drove aggressively but LEGALLY to get there as fast as possible. In the grand scheme of things would it have been ok if he killed someone running that red light just to see his mother-IN-LAW who was dying anyways?

Sure the cop was a dickhead and could have dealt with the ticket after they came out of the hospital [or just wrote the ticket up inside]. But it's his duty to enforce the law and that means tickets for people who run lights.

sure cops are supposed to have decent judgment and claim to want to work with the community but yea, be a stickler while the mans' mother dies.

if this cop or you are such sticklers for "his duty" then he should have pulled a gun on Mrs.Moats when she ran off from the car after it was pulled over. try doing that in real life buddy.

Jujubunnie:

What is the cop supposed to think when you run a red light and then give them excuses? He's not going to go by your word, he's heard everything in the book.



Ummm... they were right at the front door of the emergency room... in a hospital parking lot, and had an actual nurse come out and verify his story....

How does that fall under "everything in the book"?

Godmocker: OMG here we go...Another brother who gets to break the law and basically do whatever they want and will SHOCKINGLY use his race and that "we're just dogs" to most likely sue the police department when the officer was just doing what his job tells him to. Should have just cuffed him and took him to jail and towed the car.

6/10. Played the racism card too early, but so vehemently out of step you're sure to get many bites.

Jujubunnie: tombotia: I'm going to do the unpopular thing and point out that people die everyday. If we let everyone with a sick relative drive like crazed lunatics it'd be happening EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Both of my grandmothers died while we were just a 12 minute drive away [happened in the middle of the night for both]. We didn't speed off like crazed lunatics to go see them off.

He should have drove aggressively but LEGALLY to get there as fast as possible. In the grand scheme of things would it have been ok if he killed someone running that red light just to see his mother-IN-LAW who was dying anyways?

Sure the cop was a dickhead and could have dealt with the ticket after they came out of the hospital [or just wrote the ticket up inside]. But it's his duty to enforce the law and that means tickets for people who run lights.


This, definitely.

Regardless of what your excuse is for driving recklessly, even in a legitimate case such as this, you still must adhere to the law. You are required to present your ID and insurance when asked, yadda yadda.

What is the cop supposed to think when you run a red light and then give them excuses? He's not going to go by your word, he's heard everything in the book. For all he knows, you could be a dangerous felon. He's required to do his job, to check you out, and possibly cite you after witnessing you break a law. Especially running a red light... that's the worst. He compromised the safety of himself and other drivers.

Yes, it sucks for the family, I feel for them and all, but this is how it works.

In my case: If the 17-year-old girl that ran a red light and completely wrecked my car and my body last year had the same excuse, I wouldn't care or feel sorry for her. She still broke a law and hurt me.

have you considered the possibility he ran a red on a street with no cars? he's got a love one who's dying, he's not having a drug-panic attack. his wife is in the car too. i seriously doubt he was blowing through lights blindly at like 45mph. probably just stuck at a light that was taking forever.

if it was that serious ya think the cop would have let him get anywhere past a 1/2 block or so after the light? it woulda been full on car chase at that point. especially if moats was driving really bad. he got all the way to the hospital.

Without seeing the redlight being run, how do we know it wasn't just a "california" stop, or him just rolling through the light at night as opposed to coming to a complete stop before the intersection. It doesn't say he was going 45 mph through an intersection or he would have gone to jail, so he just didn't come to a complete stop and kept going, something we've all done, and something during a day shift the cop wouldn't have even bothered to pull over.

Forgot to add, cop is a dick, deserves a big fat one in his mouth so he can feel real what real power is.

Jujubunnie: What is the cop supposed to think when you run a red light and then give them excuses? He's not going to go by your word, he's heard everything in the book. For all he knows, you could be a dangerous felon. He's required to do his job, to check you out, and possibly cite you after witnessing you break a law. Especially running a red light... that's the worst. He compromised the safety of himself and other drivers.

So.. follow him inside and write him a ticket after his mother dies? Everyone wins that way.

Especially once the nurses come out and tell you that the man's mother is, in fact, dying.

Oh wait, then the cop wouldn't get to get self-righteous and it might waste 5 minutes of his time. Time he could be writing more tickets, since he was on traffic patrol, which is obviously more important the someone seeing their mother for the last time.

Jujubunnie:


Regardless of what your excuse is for driving recklessly, even in a legitimate case such as this, you still must adhere to the law. You are required to present your ID and insurance when asked, yadda yadda.


So are you saying people should follow the law when they are breaking the law, or that there are situations where breaking the law is justified?

Cop should be sentenced to be tied to a chair in the middle of an empty room for one hour, surrounded by all the people he's arrested or ticketed.

To be honest, I understood the police officer's view up until either the nurse and/or other officer came to tell him to stfu and let the poor dood into the hospital.

He probably has heard every excuse about doing stupid crap. I'm not trying to totally justify his actions, mind you. I mean, they were at a hospital and it would've been relatively easy to walk inside the hospital with the people to verify this wasn't a lie.

/I know I would've liked to been able to laugh at my mother in law, too, before she died.
//wait, what? he liked his mother in law?
///whatever, he was just trying to show his sensitive side to get some action later that night from the wife and her friend
////I prefer exit aisles...more leg room

I can understand a police officer needing to do his job and enforce the law equally among all citizens. But I also feel that it is part of an individual officer's job to analyze and assess each situation.

Like for example:
An officer pulls over a person for a simple traffic stop and notices the driver sweating, being nervous, and/or fidgety the officer might determin that the drver might be on drugs, have a weapon, or be a drug trafficer. So they search the car, call in backups, and adapt to the situation.

Or:
You pull over a car in a hospital parking lot. Find out that more than likely he comitted the crime because a family member is on their death bed and will die any minute. Nurses come out, confirm his story, and pleads with the officer to let them see the loved one before death and have a few words. A fellow officer comes and agrees that the person should be able to see the relative before they die. As an officer you analyze the situation and let the guy see his dying family member. The ticket is up to the officer's discretion but let the dude see his dying family member.

What if they were rushing to the hospital because his wife was in labor? Or what if they are tranproting someone having a heart attack? Would this officer make them provide proof of insurance before he would let them proceed?

I am surprised he didn't shoot the two ladies who got out of the car and ran in the hospital or just taze everyone.

Sarcastic_Twit: Jujubunnie:


Regardless of what your excuse is for driving recklessly, even in a legitimate case such as this, you still must adhere to the law. You are required to present your ID and insurance when asked, yadda yadda.


So are you saying people should follow the law when they are breaking the law, or that there are situations where breaking the law is justified?

What the poster was saying was "WHARRRGARRRRBL"

(Imagine Poster Here)

I am surprised the driver wasnt shot, tazed, shot again, beaten, sodomized, jailed, then sodomized again - in that order.

Then a warrant would be issued for the arrest of the wife, mother and dead mother in law.

OK, here is a 'what if'

What if this cop has been lenient in the past, and that morning, his Sargent told him, if he lets one more driver go because of any excuse he will be fired or suspended or what ever they get.

What if there was a APB on a car matching that description with three people inside?

What if there was a threat to the hospital and he was security for it?

What if the police had a recent memo stating no special treatment for anyone, pro athlete, famous or rich, because of negative publicity.


There are many reasons for the cop to act the way he did.

Even if you're a pro football player If you're a black, run a red light in Texas and the cops will absolutely not let you have the last seconds with your dying mother-in-law. Even if they stop you with no chase in the hospital parking lot with nurses pleading

FIFY

The cop just needed a hug or something.

myspamhere: OK, here is a 'what if'

What if this cop has been lenient in the past, and that morning, his Sargent told him, if he lets one more driver go because of any excuse he will be fired or suspended or what ever they get.

What if there was a APB on a car matching that description with three people inside?

What if there was a threat to the hospital and he was security for it?

What if the police had a recent memo stating no special treatment for anyone, pro athlete, famous or rich, because of negative publicity.


There are many reasons for the cop to act the way he did.

I was going to give you 2/10 for trolling, but what if you really are that stupid?

HotKarl: have you considered the possibility he ran a red on a street with no cars? he's got a love one who's dying, he's not having a drug-panic attack. his wife is in the car too.

There are plenty of people on bikes, pedestrians and other hard to spot people who have been put in body bags from this attitude.

If you're not trained and licenced to run reds (especially at speed) and in a car with sirens to warn other uses, you're a serious risk to other road users.

mr_a: I don't think cops are any different than any other profession. There are great cops, average cops, and total ass cops.

This guy is certainly of the last type. If he really thinks in his mind that running a red-light in a situation like that warrants that sort of treatment, he should be fired immediately.

Personally I have a lot of respect for the vast majority of law enforcement. I think they work hard on a job that often time sucks. What a shame that their union protects dickheads like this-it gives the whole profession a bad name.

Of course no worse than other unions (like teachers) which protect the incompetent-except the consequences of incompetence can be more severe.

Wrong. No other profession can arbitrarily screw your life over like a cop. If you ever get a cop holding a grudge against you, you're screwed.

Second, even though there are good and bad cops, the good cops almost always cover for the bad cops. Remember the girl in Seattle who got punched in the face for flipping her shoe off her foot and it touched the police officer? Did the other officer pull the first officer off the girl? No, he helped restrain her.

Third, given the amount of power cops hold, they need to be held to a HIGHER STANDARD then the rest of us. We should be harder on them when a cop screws up and be more ready to fire one, due to how severe the consequences their screw ups can be.

Plus I'm pretty sure cops know they are going into a thankless job when they sign up for it. It just comes with job and they should not hold any illusions.

What if when we broke the law for any reason we expected to get in trouble of we get caught? What if your mother was in the car he could have hit running the red light? What if he had just got his paperwork out when asked and got the ticket over with?

If you are in a hurry to get somewhere drive as quickly and legally as you can and you have no fear of being stopped and adding to your time.

for everyone who says the cop was just doing his job, i hope this happens to you someday..

myspamhere: OK, here is a 'what if'

What if this cop has been lenient in the past, and that morning, his Sargent told him, if he lets one more driver go because of any excuse he will be fired or suspended or what ever they get.

What if there was a APB on a car matching that description with three people inside?

What if there was a threat to the hospital and he was security for it?

What if the police had a recent memo stating no special treatment for anyone, pro athlete, famous or rich, because of negative publicity.


There are many reasons for the cop to act the way he did.

When presented with the information the nurse related, he should at that point have allowed them to head on upstairs to the hospital while he stayed and had coffee with a hot nurse or something. Someone was literally dying. But that is not what he did, he instead said "I don't like your attitude. You're not goin anywhere. I'm gonna tow your car, I don't care." Because he knows he the one in control. He doesn't give a shiat about this guy's mother-in-law, he's just afraid he might have to chill out at the hospital for 30 min.

I wouldn't fire him, because he was definitely just doing his job, maybe just make him a crosswalk supervisor for a couple years.

/that's farked up

HotKarl: have you considered the possibility he ran a red on a street with no cars? he's got a love one who's dying, he's not having a drug-panic attack. his wife is in the car too. i seriously doubt he was blowing through lights blindly at like 45mph. probably just stuck at a light that was taking forever.

Let us quote from the Dallas Morning News article on the incident: [The couple] headed back toward Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. They exited the Dallas North Tollway at Preston Road, just down the street from the hospital.

Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.

He was at Preston Rd and President George Bush (not that one) Turnpike at "around midnight" (according to the DMN). After 11PM, virtually every light between Park Blvd/FM 544 and Frankford Rd along Preston goes flashing yellow because there is no traffic. Preston @ GBT's light is known for taking a long time, especially if you are in the outside turn lane.

This gentleman stopped at the light, then continued on after assessing traffic. Yes, he ran the red light (oh, and there's some question as to where Plano PD's jurisdiction starts and Dallas PD's stops; he might have technically been in Plano when he ran the light) but he did so in a safe manner, if his story is to be believed and possibly backed up by the squad car camera.

There was no reason for the DPD officer to act as he did and many other choices that could have been made, most of them by the officer.

Gee, y'all just now realizing that MOST cops are assholes????

That being said, I wonder how many times "My momma is dying" gets used as an excuse for speeding or running red lights.

Even if it's true, I wasn't aware of any exclusions granted to common law.

Sue the police department for 500 trillion dollars. That should bring a bit more media attention to the problem and ensure this douche is fired. In addition it will ensure the police department will have a new "policy" on how to handle such situations.

Plus he will probably win a large amount considering its not like he can "redo" the events seeing as how the mother in law is already dead.

If i was on the jury i would give it to him too.

myspamhere: OK, here is a 'what if'

What if this cop has been lenient in the past, and that morning, his Sargent told him, if he lets one more driver go because of any excuse he will be fired or suspended or what ever they get.

What if there was a APB on a car matching that description with three people inside?

What if there was a threat to the hospital and he was security for it?

What if the police had a recent memo stating no special treatment for anyone, pro athlete, famous or rich, because of negative publicity.


There are many reasons for the cop to act the way he did.

What if another cop had told him to stop being an asshat? Oh wait, one did...

Your troll-fu is weak grasshopper

bushbot111: And that's why you're a janitor and have no power over human beings, so you can't set up scenarios where people can be physically abused for the sake of revenge. You'd make a great Abu Ghraib guard.

Wow - butthurt much?

Cops never get fired it seems. The only way they fire them is if they steal from the department.

BTW, Dallas Morning News got the street wrong. There's no exit off the Dallas North Tollway to Preston Road; both run north/south parallel to each other. The Turnpike has an exit for Preston that is right next to Baylor Regional.

Man this cop is in trouble now he might even get suspension WITH pay! The horror!

/if you live in Dallas and know or see this prick please cockpunch him until some other cop arrives and tells you to stop being a douche
//then cockpunch him some more

I'm usually the first guy that will defend cops, because in general the media distorts the number of incidents that actually occur (IMHO).

However, this guy was a serious douche on a power trip and deserves to be fired.

tuxytux: for everyone who says the cop was just doing his job, i hope this happens to you someday..

Then I hope you get hit by someone running a red light because they thought their emergency justified doing so.

"What if" the officer acted like a reasonably decent human being?

Any other "what if" misses the point of this incident.

RTH, it was his Mother IN LAW. He prolly just wanted to punch her in the boob right before she died.

I was pulled over driving my wife to the hospital to give birth, so I'm getting a kick out of this idiot.
I blasted through town at 3am on a Friday night, never got out of the car, just yelled what we were doing out the window. The cop gave us an escort the rest of the way, we left him in the parking lot & never saw him again.
The nurse made me slow the wheelchair right down, though.

What a power tripping asshole. I hope he gets fired.

kronicfeld: Sorry about your mom, chief, but your personal "emergency" doesn't justify endangering everyone else on the road by blowing through a red light.

In my effort to speed through the article, I assumed he had been pulled over for speeding and didn't see the part about blowing a light.

Although the officer was being a serious A-hole, you can't just go blowing through lights, you'll end up T-boning another car and killing someone.

Both people were aholes I guess, the cop to a slightly higher degree though. He could easily have handled the incident better.

real shaman: I wonder how many times "My momma is dying" gets used as an excuse for speeding or running red lights.

Even if it's true, I wasn't aware of any exclusions granted to common law.

How about "My Daddy is a cop"? I think there's an exclusion for that one.

Bender The Offender: As a former ER nurse, paramedic, and current nurse clinician I find this equally reprehensible. You're going to engage in unprofessional and unethical behavior to exact your brand of frontier justice? You're going to violate the nightengale oath just to serve your own bizarre sense of justice? I don't give a fark who they bring into my CCU, they're going to get the best possible care me and my staff can provide without consideration of their social standing. Just makes you guys 2 more assholes absuing what little power and authority your profession grants you. Why do't you let your CNO read what you wrote, see if they agree with selective care?

Care has nothing to do with it -- he was talking about going above and beyond the call of duty to make an officer's situation more bearable. Since that's not a requirement of any oath or expected from any job description, there really isn't a problem here. There's no "lower standard of care" involved with denying somebody the use of the copy machine, or refusing to get them a coke... they certainly aren't going to die sitting in a waiting room, in line to be treated for a minor injury like everyone else. Lack of preferential treatment does not equate to a lack of care.

kronicfeld: Sorry about your mom, chief, but your personal "emergency" doesn't justify endangering everyone else on the road by blowing through a red light.

You have NO way of knowing what kind of red light (right on red without stopping... empty intersection, etc... ) You have no idea if he endangered anyone.

And the narrative from the article doesn't even address that.
He's purely playing "I'm a control freak" about their insurance and their attitude, etc...
FINE. YOU'RE RIGHT. WRITE THE TICKET.
But to tell the wife to get back in there, shut your mouth, etc..

This guy should be fired. Nothing less.
Shot in the farking head would even be appropriate in my book.

wesmills: Let us quote from the Dallas Morning News article on the incident: [The couple] headed back toward Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. They exited the Dallas North Tollway at Preston Road, just down the street from the hospital.

Moats turned on his hazard lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist signaled for him to go ahead. He went through.

That really doesn't make any sense. Presumably the other motorist was psychic and not only knew he wanted to run the red light but why he wanted to run it.

Hazard lights don't explain it, if someone pulls up and stops at traffic lights with his hazard lights on, I'm going to assume he's broken down.

Atharaenea: Sad how all the cops like this give all the other cops a bad name. I grew up in a small town, and we had a cop who was like Andy Griffith. I could go on and on about how great of a guy he was.

He's retired and living it up now in Traverse City last I heard. The good cops should make the news too, to counteract stories like this.

That's not likely. They're Law Enforcement Officers now, not peace officers. You want to maintain an air of "We will fark you in the bunghole." They don't want it getting out that some cops are nice people and thinking "Hey, I saw this awesome story on the news last night about this great cop who really looks like he's there for the people maybe more are like him." The more people are dicks and violent to cops, the more they have a justification for increasing that budget spending for next year. So they hire guys like this and complain why their jobs are so hard. Karma is a biatch.

/it's also a tool for social control, but that's for another thread

Sue the crap out of the police department.