Hat Tip to Lem's Place for posting this story:
Instapundit: These cops should all be fired
Update: Instapundit: Utah police officer involved in arresting nurse just got fired as a cop
I just can't fathom how Detective Jeff Payne and his Lieutenant supervisor James Tracy thought arresting a nurse in an ER could be remotely justified. Nurse Alex Wubbels is an absolute professional in demeanor (and she is also right on the law and procedure). You either have consent or a warrant to take a blood test. She had a duty to protect her patient. And this arrest put other patients potentially at risk.
While I am sympathetic about the underlying crash victim Bill Gray (he was an off duty Idaho cop and he is severely hurt) and how cops get protective of their own, at a minimum Det. Jeff Payne and Lt. James Tracy should be fired. This warrants potential criminal charges against the officers too. Nurse Alex Wubbels has been gracious and said she might not bring a law suit, provided the right things are done.
“I wonder how this will affect my Gold Cross job,” Payne says. “I bring patients here.”
Another officer replies, “Yeah, I don’t think they’re going to be very happy with it.”No wonder some cops do not like body cameras.
Payne responds: “I’ll bring them all the transients and take good patients elsewhere.”
EBL: Why did Officer Noor shoot Justine Damond, Will Minneapolis/Hennepin County ever prosecute Officer Noor?, Will Officer Noor ever be prosecuted?
Hot Air: Betrayed by own hospital police and ER Nurse arrested when she (rightfully) refuses to draw blood on patient
Heavy: Nurse Alex Wubbels Five Facts You Need To Know
TOM: More Antifa Violence in Berkeley (cops didn't act)
The Blaze: Reality check for officers over blood test
AoSHQ: Has link of this and The 4th Amendment
Hot Air: Betrayed by own hospital police and ER Nurse arrested when she (rightfully) refuses to draw blood on patient
Heavy: Nurse Alex Wubbels Five Facts You Need To Know
TOM: More Antifa Violence in Berkeley (cops didn't act)
The Blaze: Reality check for officers over blood test
AoSHQ: Has link of this and The 4th Amendment
Completely agree Evi about these cops. Not only did they get in the way of a nurse rightfully doing her job; but they make all cops look bad. One need only read the comments on YouTube to see how this hurts cops as much as nurses.
ReplyDeleteBut there is another thing here. It always pisses me off how average people see a nurse as "the help" hardly different from a waiter or a maid. This nurse has to know how to draw blood (something the officer got paid extra for knowing), administer to a trauma patient, and know the laws of the nation, state, county, and city or face criminal charges and loss of their license. If she had assaulted the patient by taking or allowing the taking of the patient's blood without consent; she could have lost her license as a register nurse. Her year's of education, training, and hard work would be gone. She couldn't go elsewhere, because she lost her credentials, not just her job. Payne and Tracy would just lose their badge and reapply elsewhere to get a new one.
People need to learn to respect nurses.
And Joy Behar and Michelle Collins are still asshats.
You do not mess with nurses in an ER. I recognize cops have difficult dangerous jobs, but these two absolutely should not be cops. It was not just a guy losing it in a moment, the later conversation between Tracy and Payne is more damning.
DeleteAccording to my wife, cops badger nurses like this all the time. It's usually heated. The difference is most don't cross that extra line. And HIPPA laws don't help. If a patient comes in with a GSW, the nurses, because of HIPPA, can't tell the cops. A few times, she's had patients come in telling nurses they just killed someone, and all the nurses can do is tell the officers they might want to check out some address.
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