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Video and Audio Title: Police Union Complains That Public Got to See Them Roughing Up Utah Nurse The head of the Salt Lake Police Association has watched the country's outrage over the videos showing a nurse getting arrested for refusing to draw a man's blood without a warrant and has decided the correct response is to complain that the public got to see what its officers did. Union head Stephen Hartney sent a letter to the city's mayor and police chief to complain video of the brief arrest of nurse Alex Wubbels has made "pariahs" of Det. Jeff Payne and his watch commander at the time of the incident, Lt. James Tracy. Wubbels became an insta-celebrity on Labor Day weekend after she released police body camera footage showing Payne very forcefully arresting her at University of Utah Hospital because she refused his demand that she draw blood from an unconscious victim of a nasty high-speed car crash. The patient, William Gray, was not a suspect, nor involved in the chase, and Payne didn't have a warrant. Wubbels, surrounded by staff at the hospital, explained that she was not permitted to draw the man's blood. Payne arrested her, in what appeared on video to be sheer frustration at having been defied.
Payne and Tracy have been placed on leave while the case was investigated. A couple of weeks ago the city revealed an internal investigation and a civilian review board determined the two officers violated department policies. Hartney this week complained the police body camera footage should not have been publicly released until the investigation was completed. From the Salt Lake Tribune:
The city, however, didn't release the videos. It agreed to a request by Wubbels to release the footage to her, following the law Hartney referenced. The city said it had no good reason to deny the video footage to Wubbels. The two officers weren't even put on administrative leave until after Wubbels went public with the video footage. What might have been forgotten in all of this is Wubbels released the video because she believed she was exposing a widespread problem of police bullying nurses into drawing blood without consent or a warrant. And while Wubbels was pleased the Salt Lake City Police had been responsive to her claims of abuse, she and other hospital staff were concerned about other law enforcement agencies, including university police. Campus police did absolutely nothing during the arrest, and since then the hospital has implemented new policies to limit police access to parts of the hospital. Public pressure and response is important to holding police officers accountable. They are public servants, and Hartney's responses, like we've seen from other police union leaders, misuse the concept of due process to try to conceal information from the people to whom the police are supposed to answer. Yesterday we saw that a North Carolina law exempting body camera footage from public records requests was very clearly being used to try to shield police from exposure of conduct that might expose them to public criticism. Gray, the car crash victim unable to consent to Payne's demand for a blood draw, died Monday while still in the hospital. Poster Comment: Gray, the car crash victim unable to consent to Payne's demand for a blood draw, died Monday while still in the hospital. Will the cops who killed him be charged with manslaughter? Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 9. Gray, the car crash victim unable to consent to Payne's demand for a blood draw, died Monday while still in the hospital. So he suffered terribly for a couple of months and died. Sad.
Will the cops who killed him be charged with manslaughter? No. They have a no-pursuit policy in high speed chases. But if all they did was flip on their lights and pursue for a moment, they'll probably get away with it. If they continued the pursuit at very high speed against a visibly reckless driver then a jury may make some big punitive award in a civil lawsuit by the widow. Chances are if that is the case that they will choose to settle the lawsuit before it goes to court.
The letter said the union was, at this point, not arguing or even discussing the merits of the allegations raised against the officers. "Rather we are solely concerned... with the 'investigatory process' which we believe has been corrupted." What they oppose is the public routinely knowing what they do. They'd prefer to keep it under wraps and have the PD settle out of court before the public ever finds out anything, using non-disclosure settlements.
#2. To: Tooconservative (#1) What they oppose is the public routinely knowing what they do. The video was inflammatory and added nothing to the investigation. It was released by the nurse solely to garner sympathy for the nurse who brought this on herself by resisting arrest. This is no different than all the other videos presented here and elsewhere in the Internet -- aggrieved "victims" who go against law enforcement then record the aftermath, hoping for sympathy and maybe a couple of thousand dollars. I have zero sympathy for them. As my dad would say, "they got what they deserved".
#5. To: misterwhite (#2) The video was inflammatory Yes the pigs actions were reprehensible and inflammatory. The asshole should never have been a cop. He should have his ass kicked and be locked up for 15 years minimum. He needs to be in a cell with the biggest black faggot in the prison.
#9. To: A K A Stone (#5) Yes the pigs actions were reprehensible and inflammatory. The asshole should never have been a cop. He should have his ass kicked and be locked up for 15 years minimum. The most they could get him for is a false arrest and violation of her civil rights. He'll blame his supervisor (because he did on video at the time). The supervisor will say that the detective took his remarks too literally and it was a misunderstanding. And that no real harm was done because the nurse was released after 20 minutes, about 10 minutes after the supervisor arrived. No way they get prison or jail time. Reprimands, fines, possibly forced to retire or booted from the force at most. And unlikely to lose their pensions. But it is likely the nurse will get many millions in any civil lawsuit against the SLCPD.
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