This is a really pathetic case, IMO. Cops work a thankless and dangerous job but they should be aware enough to asses a situation like this vs. a truly dangerous and/or reckless situation. Steve said it well previously that the cops are here to "protect and serve" and I add, they are on the job on our dime.
While it is true that when all is equal, the police have the command of the community there are in. However, they serve on the taxpayers dime, and as a taxpayer, I want the cops in my community to do their jobs. I expect when people go astray of the law they are arrested or fined as they should be. But, when a situation calls for compassion, I expect cops should be able to see that and act upon it. Do we think if this was a guy hustling his pregnant wife to the maternity ward this would have had the same outcome? In my eyes, it's the same type of situation, and cops should be able to see that, and I trust most do. The fact that Ryan Moats in black is all the more disturbing, because you have to believe profiling was involved.
I read this Moats article and one I will paste below in the course of a few days. Basically, there are so many zoning ordinances on sex offenders in Miami-Dade County, that the only place some of them can live and not be in violation is under a bridge. Humans forced to live under a bridge by overzealous politicians trying to look "tough" on crime. Is this the kind of country we live in now a days, where cops profile black guys trying to get a final minute in with dying relatives and we pass laws to force people who have paid their debt to society to live under a bridge?
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/nat...icleid=1161620