Having a stroke while black
 

Boston police delayed his medical care for over 5 hours while he went untreated in their jail, undoubtedly making the injury suffered from the stroke much more severe.

The city has paid out 1.3 million to compensate the man for BPD's callousness.

Of course, local hospitals took the police's word at face value, delaying appropriate medical care for another 7 hrs:

https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/10/12...uct-settlement

Kind of a few weird things here as well. The Copelands never actually sued the Boston PD. Their lawyer just contacted them and the city offered them the $1.3mm

In all honesty, that doesn't seem like all that much to me. His hospital bills alone (he spent months in rehab) would have to be in the 10's of thousands.

The internal investigation also didn't fault the officers for thinking he was a drunk. They only faulted them for not getting him faster care after the police left him to take a piss and he fell and hit his head. After that they let him lay there for 5 hours before he threw up. Then they called the paramedics.

All-in-all negligence is pretty rife in this one.

But what does it have to do with him being black?

A city cutting a deal when they know they'll lose is pretty common. It's better for everyone to not run up legal fees and just cut a check.

Yes, it's noteworthy that the police officers involved would not be punished, especially considering their claim to "smell alcohol" is almost certainly a total fabrication.

A black man sitting in a car on the side of the road? Obviously he must be crime-ing.

Once again, what does this situation have to do with him being black?

Generally them cutting a deal is in response to a lawsuit though. There wasn't anything filed at all with the courts. The city just threw them an offer.

That's the question posed. Did they treat him like **** because he's black? Did they assume he was drinking just because he was black? Did they leave him in a cell after they watched him fall and hit his head because he was black? Did they make assumptions based on his color? Tough to tell.

To go one step further...there is nothing to suggest race was a factor, as best I can tell. When there is no supporting evidence, we don't usually say "tough to tell".

The man had a lawyer. I'm assuming he sent a demand letter, or at least had a meeting with the city in which the threat of a lawsuit was obvious if they didn't settle.

Plenty of legal dispute are settled before anyone files with the court.

LoL You should read the paraplegic thread then. There's no supporting evidence he is a drug dealer yet you all won't shut up about it.

In this case, the way he was treated in comparison to others would be the evidence. I don't know how what those stats are like in Boston. I know that according to a ton of black baseball players Boston is racist as hell.

That's why I said, tough to tell. There's no real way to prove it.

*shrug* Maybe. I don't know. The article I read only mentioned that the lawyer had contacted the city. It didn't provide more context.

There isn't even reasonable suspicion in this case, that racism was involved. Then again, there isn't any in the paraplegic thread, either. Seems like a pattern.

You're right, there isn't reasonable suspicion he was dealing drugs in the paraplegic case. This is definitely a pattern.

In any case, the city settled. I would like more details on that because I'd think it would be more.

It has to do with the assumption the cops made, and whether they would have made the same assumption about about a white guy. In this particular case, most people would think the default position is that if the cops find a guy barely conscious by the side of the road, you call an ambulance first, then decide what to do with him. And apparently they didn't give him the breath test that any cop can give to any suspected drunk driver.

Add to that the fact that the Boston police have a long history of racist behavior.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/05/25...-larry-ellison

So, you agree, no evidence of racism has been displayed in this case, then.

Cool. Nice change. :thumbsup:

You seem to think racism requires yelling the n-word at top volume. That's rarely the way it works.

You seem to think that the way it works is that no evidence is required to prove that it applies to an individual case.

No evidence is required to prove a guy is a drug dealer. What's the difference here? Why are the cops given a free pass?

I don't know if this is racist or not. I only know it's extremely negligent. Even if they found a man passed out on the side of the road, and it was from alcohol, the correct answer isn't to slam his ass in lockup, imo.

It's to call an ambulance, see if he has alcohol poisoning, ask him questions to see if he smells like alcohol or is too intoxicated to speak\move\etc.

How did they get him in the car?

But the real questions haven't been asked yet, like...

How fast was he moving toward the officers?

Did the officers claim they were threatened by an unconscious black man?

Did he break an officer's leg when he fell and hit his head?

Was he being aggressive, or not following police instructions while he was unconscious?

Inquiring minds want to know!

I don't think anyone has proven the guy in the other thread is a drug dealer, we've just pointed out some very strong (and very obvious) reasons to suspect that he is.

/derail

He is black. Given the police record of dealing with unarmed black people...

Looking out the window of your own home (Atatiana Jefferson)
Eating ice cream while watching TV at home (Botham Jean)
Shopping at Walmart (John Crawford)
Sleeping in your own bedroom (Brionna Taylor)
Walking home (Mike Brown)
Yelling on a sidewalk (Eric Garner)
Standing next to your car (Terence Crutcher)
Having car problems (Sandra Bland)
Asking for help (Jonathan Ferrell)
Holding a hairbrush (Sean Bell)
Holding a wallet (Amadou Diallo)
Holding a cellphone (Stephon Clark)
Saying "I can't breathe" (George Floyd)
Asking a question (Randy Evans)
Having air fresheners hanging from your rear view mirror (Daunte Wright).
Reading a book (Keith Scott)
Carrying a bag of sandwiches into your house (Casey Goodson)
Visiting a friend (Andre Hill)

... its the only evidence needed!

LMAO. Of course. :thumbsup:

Welcome to the ISF. :)

Shorter racists of JREF ISF:
All blacks are criminal thugs.
No Cops Are Bastards.

Huh? :boggled:

I'm glad it's not just me who is :boggled:

Happy 2nd birthday.

Or happy being so obtuse that you do not acknowledge the forest because "I can't see through these damn trees!"

Happy actual day of your birth.

welcome to the real world.

What is the evidence of racism?

After the fact

That African-Americans are routinely denied medical treatment when slightly paler folks aren't.

Do the basic google research a ten-year-old can do and get back to me.

LMAO. Any evidence of racism in this case?

Apparently the evidence can be found by doing a Google search that any ten year old can do.

Edited by Agatha:

Edited breach of rule 12

Fact: Some people are idiots.
Fact: Cops are people.
Fact: Some cops are idiots. (I worked with a few).
Fact: Poor training results in poor results.
Fact: It isn't always about race!

This type of situation has been played out all over North America many, many times and will continue to do so until they stop training cops to follow procedure and start training them to think for themselves. Of course - mistakes will still occur. That's a fact of life.

From my observations - cases like this usually involve people experiencing mental confusion and sleepiness or physical symptoms like trembling, shaking, and abnormal perspiration due to complications arising from diabetes and cops mistaking that for signs of impairment.
Of course - head injuries also create the same type of symptoms but sometimes have the added confounding issue of violent behaviour.

A man named Ron Tabak was riding his bike to a friends house for dinner and was either sideswiped by a car or fell and struck his head. He was found laying on the ground and taken to a local hospital. Vancouver City Police came into contact with him after the hospital called about a violent patient.

The hospital staff said they could find nothing to cause his violence. Between the hospital staff and cops they made the decision that he must have been high on drugs or stoned because he was slurring his words and acting erratic. His condition worsened in cells and after a few hours he was taken to back to the hospital. After blood tests were done showing no impairment - a brain scan was done and a large blood clot was found in his brain. He unfortunately died before surgery could be performed.

Ron was a famous rock star (Prism) who was white and rich, and racism had absolutely nothing to do with this tragic case.
The cops felt horrible. One resigned voluntarily even though no blame was attached for their actions. It was a tragic error by the hospital nurses and doctors and police.
Vancouver police started receiving specialized training in doing quick checks for sign of injury or diabetes before or after arrest - but the situation still occurs. Why? Because cops are people and people make mistakes.
Life is not perfect - and neither are cops.

Do cases like this arise due to some form of prejudice? You bet! But - IMHO - only a very narrow minded bigot who hates police; Or, a self aggrandizing social justice warrior, would assume the reason for all cases of screw-ups is because of racism.

You left out:

Lying on your back with your hands above your head in broad daylight shouting that there is no gun, just a toy truck (Charles Kinsey)

I base my opinion on what I have observed, and on the appaling track record of white cops killing (mostly unarmed) black men.

What is your standard for evidence? Let's go to Holmes, our consulting detective, for advice. Absent any evidence of any kind that the officers were well motivated to act in a negligent manner, in spite of training and experience, and to forego basic due diligence, one may conclude their failure lies among one of several possible explanations, all damning. When all other alternatives have been eliminated, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the case ("You mean, some white men are baddies?" :scared:)

Still wavering? In Silver Blaze, the solution was not in the physical evidence available, but in the evidence that was missing (famously, "the dog did not bark"). In a nutshell, scenario testing led to the solution. Once again, and similar to before, we find the failure to act in a logical, humane or due manner, as officers of the law and as fellow citizens (failure to succor), is damning.

As we explore the cultural context, perhaps to uncover some alternate explanation, we instead find a cultural narrative that has lasted since the "Age of Discovery" (colonialism) until today, with each successive generation creating policy out of the same reasoning, only changing in form given external conditions. Every generation, however, finds they are blameless, and all evils were done by "somebody else". We also find, no surprise, that none less than Hitler admired the USA for its highly efficient "final solution" for native populations, deeds worthy of emulation that he improved upon. This greatly increases the suspicion that Holmes is indeed correct.

Oh, whatever is a modern trickster to turn to? Race? Unscientific. IQ as basis for equality? Careful what you ask for, as the West is currently experiencing a negative Flynn effect, with declining scores from Norway (fons et origo of "perfect" immigrants?) to the USA.

With the evidence he was drunk?

Maybe the cop was the one having a stroke, since he was smelling alcohol that didn't exist in reality.

I will concede it's entirely possible that this cop wasn't racist and would have also lied in an arrest report involving a person who wasn't black.

If this had been "while being a CIA agent or a diplomat," it would have been a sure sign that he was being attacked by a pulsed microwave energy weapon.

This really sucks. I wonder if he was a heavy hand-washer with alcohol wipes, and that's why everyone, cops and hospital workers, misidentified what was going on? A long time ago I reeked of rubbing alcohol that I was using as a cleaner and got a hard once-over from a cop. I mean it's a possibility, that I hope to be the case more than both police and the whole freaking hospital being racists.

FWIW, the victim here doesn't care for crackers much, either:

Occam's razor is that the cop was lying in order to bolster his arrest report. I doubt the hospital smelled anything and just uncritically accepted the story from the cops that the man was wasted when he got dropped off at the ER.

The police called an ambulance when he fell so I'm more confused on how he ended up in an emergency room instead of a hospital bed. He fell over and hit his head, even if he was drunk that's still a cause for medical care. He sat in the emergency room for 7 hours after waiting 5 hours in the jail cell. So this is 12 hours later. It's pretty safe to say no one smelled a ******* thing and this is just a series of complete and total incompetence, in the best case scenario.

Yeah, something about being left to die for 12 hours and being crippled for the rest of his life due to lack of medical help must have chapped his ass. Irrational for sure.

Not to be crass, but by the time he got to the er he likely smelled of urine and maybe even feces. I’m sure a lot the drunks smell similar.

LMAO. Of course.

Excellent analysis.

In your opinion, why do you think the cops didn't assume he was sick, and instead assumed he was intoxicated?

One guess would be that they encounter a lot more passed out drunks than stroke victims? Poor training? Bad assumptions? Perhaps he was acting "drunk", in their eyes? Just shooting from the hip, here.

But no, it must have primarily been because he was black and also they just wanted to harm a stroke victim. Amirite? :rolleyes:

That pulled over on the side of the road without hitting anything? Possible I guess.

I could make a good argument that racism is a result of poor training.

We're getting there! Bad assumptions based on?

Several things can make you "act drunk" but you said he was passed out. How do you unconsciously act drunk? The appropriate response would be to assume he isn't drunk until you confirm he is or isn't.

Do I think they purposefully wanted to harm him? No, not at all. Do I think it's possible that racism could have effected the way they treated him? Sure. It's definitely possible.

Weirder is the hospital playing along. Does this hospital have a history of mistreatment, or did they just happen to have a bunch of white supremacists on staff that night, the same night Officers Adolph and Mengele were on patrol?

I mean, I can see the cops being callous to someone who apparently looked like those "white addicts nodding off" all over the place. But hospitals usually have multiple personnel checking on anyone unconscious. Seems like an awful lot of people were either Aryan Brotherhood or recklessly incompetent all at once that night.

Finally! One of these threads with some verifiable racism in it. :thumbsup: