There is a problem with the police in this country. A large part of that problem is that a lot of police cannot stand when someone refuses to comply with their orders, even if that person is exercising their valid legal rights. It is, without a doubt, a problem that disproportionately impacts people of color, but despite what some officers may tell you at a traffic stop, it is not only people of color who are impacted.
As reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, a police officer violently attacked Alex Wubbles, a nurse at the University of Utah Hospital, after she refused to allow him to take a blood sample from an unconscious patient, even though the officer didn’t have a search warrant and the patient was not suspected of a crime. NBC News had video of the incident.
Utah nurse arrested for refusing to give a patient's blood to police https://t.co/AmrsG8YvsI pic.twitter.com/i2wDRZkoJy
— NBC News (@NBCNews) September 1, 2017
It’s fairly disturbing to watch this officer drag a woman from her workplace and handcuff her because she wouldn’t let him perform an unconstitutional blood draw on an unconscious man. The officer, Detective Jeff Payne, claimed that Utah’s implied consent law allowed him to take blood without the need for a warrant, but the Utah Supreme Court overturned that law in 2007. Which is something a police officer trained as a phlebotomist to take blood samples as evidence, as Payne is, really ought to know.
After his big show of what a tough guy he is, Payne didn’t charge Wubbles with a crime, because she had clearly not committed one. While Payne was removed from the blood drawing program, he remains on active duty while an internal investigation of this incident is ongoing. I think I’d rather have Steven Segal on the beat than this guy. If you think I’m exaggerating this incident or that the above clip is being taken out of context, the full 20-minute video of the incident is available on YouTube,
I’m a Spider-Man fan, I have been basically my whole life. And, not that you’d know from this summer’s otherwise excellent Spider-Man: Homecoming, when Peter Parker was growing up, one of the most important lessons his Uncle Ben taught him was that with great power there must also come great responsibility. Sure, it’s just a tagline from a comic book for children, but it’s a lesson police officers should really learn. Maybe if police departments start imparting on officers the importance of using their authority responsibly instead of abusing their power, they can begin to regain the public’s trust.