Interesting revelations down Baltimore way.....

[gimmethesimplelife]

Per Yahoo.com news this morning, records just released by the Baltimore Police Dept. THEMSELVES show that between June 2012 and April 2015, police arrested nearly 2,600 people that corrections officers refused to admit into jail due to their injuries. Such people are constitutionally guaranteed health care before being booked into jail (with injuries) per this article. So you might be asking, what's the point of this post, why am I so outraged?

The implication is that the Baltimore Police Department, whether or not they had anything to do with the injuries, ignored the injuries and took around 2,600 arrestees to jail with no concern whatsoever for injuries serious enough for these arrested folks to be refused booking at Baltimore jails.

Honestly? And there isn't a huge problem with police in Baltimore? I don't know how any of us could ever wave a US Flag again. Seriously. To do so is to condone this behavior, clearly indicating blatant and outrageous disregard for human life. I won't be guilty of that. Nope. Can't do it. Something in me just died - I will never cooperate with American police again. Any hope of good will was hanging by a thin thread - now the thin thread has snapped. Thank You, America. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

I've been reading the comments on yahoo.com news in regards to this story and most of them are pro-police/anti-arrestee. It's all good for people to be pro-police if they have never seen police brutality with their own eyes. I have. Seeing this changed a lot for me, now it seems permanent. I'm not saying the people getting arrested are not thugs and I'm not saying that these people should not have been arrested to begin with - what I'm saying is that ignoring injuries to this level shows blatant disregard for human life, no matter how poorly said human life is behaving in society. In other words, the police are not innocent here, either.....Rob

[Alan]

In other words, the police are not innocent here, either.....RobWhen you decide innocence or guilt from media accounts, including social media, you miss the truth.

[LDAHL]

I don't know how any of us could ever wave a US Flag again. Seriously. To do so is to condone this behavior, clearly indicating blatant and outrageous disregard for human life. I won't be guilty of that. Nope. Can't do it. Something in me just died - I will never cooperate with American police again. Any hope of good will was hanging by a thin thread - now the thin thread has snapped. Thank You, America. Rob

You keep talking about "America" as if it were a person - a sort of abusive parent figure. It won't cringe in shame at your withering scorn. It's actually a big, complicated experiment in self-government with lots of moving parts. Imperfections abound, as do glories, but ultimately it is what we make of it.

I will happily "wave the flag", and try to contribute however I can to make this an even better country.

[gimmethesimplelife]

When you decide innocence or guilt from media accounts, including social media, you miss the truth.Ummmm.....Alan, this number was per records released by the Baltimore PD themselves. I find this fact particularly damning. Just no excuse for this whatsoever. I could see this happening a few times a year given that Baltimore is a large city and has a high crime rate with a large number of arrests - but 2,600? Nope. No excuse. I will not apologize for this country on this one nor will I pretend there is no problem here. I deserve better, as do the residents of Baltimore, Maryland. Rob

PS I came back to add that we all deserve better actually.

[gimmethesimplelife]

You keep talking about "America" as if it were a person - a sort of abusive parent figure. It won't cringe in shame at your withering scorn. It's actually a big, complicated experiment in self-government with lots of moving parts. Imperfections abound, as do glories, but ultimately it is what we make of it.

I will happily "wave the flag", and try to contribute however I can to make this an even better country.For certain sections of society, getting narrower and narrower with each passing year, this experiment as you call it does work. I won't deny that. The problem is that it doesn't work all that well for much larger sections of society, with more and more people falling out of the middle class with each passing year and learning some home truths about America. Understanding this as I do, nope, no waving the flag here. Rob

[creaker]

When you decide innocence or guilt from media accounts, including social media, you miss the truth.

Agreed - although many did just that during the riots. Maybe they didn't really happen?

What do we have but media accounts? Most of us don't have direct access to this information, or it is very difficult to acquire. Do we ignore all of it as heresay? Or just the parts we don't wish to acknowledge?

There were just recent arrests of three people involved in the shooting deaths of two police officers reported in the media - I should withhold my opinions of innocence or guilt since I don't have direct knowledge of the event?

[Alan]

Ummmm.....Alan, this number was per records released by the Baltimore PD themselves. I find this fact particularly damning. Just no excuse for this whatsoever. Yes, the Baltimore PD released records showing that over a several year period, intake nurses at Central Booking discovered 2600 instances of arrestees requiring some form of medical attention, ranging from high blood pressure to physical trauma. Those arrestees were then referred for treatment prior to being incarcerated. It sounds like a good system to me although I admittedly don't have a vested interest in seeing it otherwise.

[Alan]

I should withhold my opinions of innocence or guilt since I don't have direct knowledge of the event?
No, individual opinions are fine but are a poor substitute for fact. I'm not sure everyone is capable of distinguishing between the two.

[LDAHL]

For certain sections of society, getting narrower and narrower with each passing year, this experiment as you call it does work. I won't deny that. The problem is that it doesn't work all that well for much larger sections of society, with more and more people falling out of the middle class with each passing year and learning some home truths about America. Understanding this as I do, nope, no waving the flag here. Rob

But this (and every other) country has always faced problems and challenges. There's nothing uniquely insurmountable about the current crop. Treating "America" as a sort of outside force imposing it's will on you rather than a project in which you are a participant strikes me as moral surrender. You have the right to "understand" whatever you like; but as the good sisters taught me in "parochial school" despair is just cowardice with a rationalization.

[bae]

Rob - I tracked down and read the story you posted about. It mixes facts (2600 detainees over 3 years) with conclusions without providing any context or analysis. It doesn't even describe the arrest protocols or the intake protocols. It simply goes on to breathlessly state bold and shocking possibilities of abuse and bad intent, as do the dozens of clickbait articles that link to it.

Rob - have you ever been on a ride-along with your local police, and observed an arrest? (We know the answer, no...)
Ever been on a ride-along on an ambulance on an inter-agency support call for an arrest?
Do you have your Medical First Responder/EMT-A/EMT-B/Paramedic training/certification?
What level of medical training do you think police officers are required to have?

Have you looked at the intake procedures at your local jail?

I have been on a fair number of arrest calls. We evaluate the patient, and then they either go to jail, or to treatment if needed. If we get things wrong and the patient/suspect arrives at jail and still has issues, the jail intake people redirect the patient/suspect to treatment as appropriate before they get locked up. I bet that shows on the statistics as "refused to admit suspect"...

I also know what level of medical training police officers generally have, and know that in big cities they often do not have the luxury of having a paramedic and several EMTs show up at an arrest scene... So I can well imagine that one possible factor behind the story is that they take the suspect/patient to a higher level of care (the jail intake area) or at least to someone else who can figure out what to do, rather than trying to run their own paramedicine operation out of the back of the police car.

But I understand, a "news" story on Yahoo is a lot easier to get upset about than it is to look into the facts of the situation. So by all means, refuse to cooperate with the next police officer you encounter. That'll show 'em all.

[iris lilies]

?...
But I understand, a "news" story on Yahoo is a lot easier to get upset about than it is to look into the facts of the situation....

Getting upset is the point of these narratives.

[Packy]

I'm not upset, I don't live in B'more. The other day, Thugs crashed a party, and started in on the traditionally all-black Alpha Phi Alpha Frat partiers, in a rented hall above a downtown bar, here. There were dozens of cops on the scene, in minutes. The matter was squashed. Though several dozen individuals were involved in the melee, only two arrests were made. Did you read about it?

[sweetana3]

bae, that is exactly what went thru my mind after just reading the headlines. I pretty much knew that it would not be a developed story but would just be a sensatlonal knee jerk reaction to something designed to create an impression but not to educate.

[Gregg]

I think by now Yahoo.com's "news" feed has been pretty well outed as a source for sensationalized reports that show no desire to strive for truth, only for reactions. As others have said, those are not the same thing.

[Songbird]

Yahoo.com is definitely not a good source for fair and balanced reporting....