There is a story out this week that raises the interesting question: what does it take to be fired as a police officer in El Paso. Police Sgt. Raul Ramirez was captured on television arresting KVIA-New 7 reporter Darren Hunt and photographer Ric DuPont in April. The abusive arrests and use of excessive force by Ramirez appears to be insufficient to remove him from the force. Instead, he will demoted and allowed to continue to enforce the law.
Ramirez was punished for a separate, unexplained incident in November. The department is still investigating the Hunt/DuPont incident.
In this video, Hunt and DuPont were covering an overturned 18-wheel tractor-trailer blocking all three westbound lanes on I-10. Ramirez ran over and began screaming at them — saying that he was going to arrest Hunt. When DuPont pointed the camera at Ramirez arresting Hunt, he screamed “Don’t pull that trigger, boy.”
Ramirez also reportedly threatened nurse Jason Gales who had stopped to help the injured. Gales objected by saying, “You don’t have anyone taking care of him.” But Ramirez reportedly responded “I don’t care, you have to leave.”
For the video, click here
For the full story, click here.
Sig Heil, Sig Heil. This guy outta be buried.
This reminds me of a case in Detroit that just found a Newspaper journalist guilty for Resisting and Obstructing an Officer. She went through a police line and took pictures. She was arrested and he camera was erased. If memory serves me, she was working for the Citizen Journal out of Wayne County, MI.
Going to the full story link I was interested by the comments. A rough guess is that 50% supported the officer, with the usual answer being that you must quickly obey a policeman’s direct order, without questions. Given that Texans supposedly pride themselves on their independence, this rough, unscientific study leads me to believe that too many Texans are enamored with the need to follow authority. Perhaps the Texan strain of independence is a myth that covers up the inability of many there to question any kind of authority, thus making them excellent fodder to feed totalitarianism.
On a different subject,
Enjoy this PRIME day, 5/7/09. It will come around only a few more times this century!
Bron98,
Are we talking about the Prime Rate?
Prime day? 9 isn’t a prime number, and neither is 2009.
Score:
MrPlow 1
Bron 0
(Bron, dude, seriously, as an engineer you shoulda caught that one!)
AY,
You still wonder why I loathe your home state so much? It almost has to be something in the water that makes dipsticks like Sgt. Raul Ramirez.
But you’re okay . . . for a Texan.
Did you get those Flying Monkeys I sent?
The force is with him.
I was just checking to make sure you all were on your toes. A friend of mine sent that to me and I had to laugh because she has a PhD in economics.
So from that I will now acknowledge the superiority of those minds in the legal profession to those of economists.
Although maybe Mr. Plow is an economist.
Well we all know the best way to get 12 opinions on economics is to put 10 economists in a room together.
Buddha,
I am with you on this one. This is just one more example why we should ask Texas to secede from the Union.
OFF TOPIC
Drew Peterson was indicted today in Illinois for Kathleen Savio’s murder. He is being held on catch this a 20 million dollar bond.