美國鳳凰城機場警方在2007年9月拘留一名媽媽時導致她意外死亡。今早﹐那媽媽的家人決定向機場警方作民事索償。當日﹐警方將那媽媽獨自關在拘留室﹐用手銬將她雙手反鎖在背後﹐再用鐵鏈將手銬鎖在長鐵椅上。結果﹐在沒有警員看管的情況下﹐那媽媽意外地被背後的鐵鏈勒死。
警方堅持那媽媽的死是意外﹐又堅持警方沒有做錯﹐只是按照警方手則辦事。筆者當然相信這是不幸的意外﹐相信警方沒有故然殺死那媽媽。但用"按照警方手則辦事"來做免責理由真是不負責任的行為。一名媽媽在拘留室死了﹐拘留所負責人不單不用認錯﹐還堅持沒有做錯﹐真是美國警方的一貫本色。
人性和道德不容許有人性的人用"只是按本子辦事"為免責理由。難道我們可以接受日本皇軍士兵強姦殺害中國人後用"我們只是按本子辦事"為免責理由嗎﹖做錯事就應該認﹔做錯事還要用"只是按本子辦事"來辯護﹐美國鳳凰城機場警方簡直是一堆沒有勇氣又沒有人性的人類渣滓。
Links:
CNN news﹕Carol Anne Gotbaum
Thoughts on woman who died at Phoenix airport
美國再有虐待被拘留人士個案--被拘留四日﹐無水﹐無食物﹐無廁所
Source: Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) — The family of a New York woman who died in police custody at the Phoenix airport in September filed an $8 million claim against the city Wednesday, the first step in filing a wrongful death suit.
The claim was immediately rejected by the city in a letter to lawyers for the family of Carol Anne Gotbaum, who died Sept. 28 in a police holding cell at Sky Harbor International Airport after being arrested for disorderly conduct. She was on her way by herself from New York to enter an alcohol treatment center in Tucson.
The claim, the legally required precursor to a lawsuit, seeks the money for Gotbaum's husband, Noah, her three children and her estate. Gotbaum's husband is the son of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum.
"On that day, members of the Phoenix Police Department used excessive and unreasonable force on Carol, as if she was a dangerous criminal, rather than as the sick, intoxicated, and vulnerable person she was," the claim states.
An autopsy report released by the Maricopa County medical examiner's office concluded that Gotbaum accidentally hanged herself on her shackles while in the holding cell. The report said intoxication from alcohol and prescription drugs were contributing factors.
Gotbaum family attorney Michael Manning wrote in the claim that police erred by putting her alone and shackled in a holding room.
"In the process, they ignored the warning signs that their own policies, procedures and training materials told them could result in Carol's death," Manning wrote.
Police have contended that Gotbaum's death was accidental and that officers who took her into custody did nothing wrong.
Wednesday's letter from the city's legal department to Manning said the claim that police should have responded differently was wrong.
"The thrust of the Gotbaum family claim is that the City of Phoenix police officers should have been more supportive than Carol's own husband, more knowledgeable than her own family, and should somehow have known that she suffered from a private condition that she deliberately hid from the public," said the letter signed by attorney Stephen Craig.
"But the Gotbaum family has publicly admitted, not only that Carol hid her medical and mental condition, but that the officers responded to Carol exactly the way her husband knew they would respond because they did not have critical information known only to the Gotbaum family," the letter continued.
The city letter included transcripts of phone calls Noah Gotbaum made to the airport the afternoon of his wife's death, telling officials he was concerned about her whereabouts because she was depressed and suicidal.
The Phoenix Police Department will probably refuse settling in any way, said Sgt. Andy Hill, a spokesman for the agency.
"The promise that was made to the police officers involved by the city legal unit when this all began was if those actions by those officers were justified and were professional, that they would go to the furthest extent possible to protect those officers," Hill said. "That is what's happening today."
My comments on gadling.com:
a) "This is true but it is just as true that if she wasn't allowed to travel alone in the first place she wouldn't be dead."
Well, if we look at it that way, I guess it is also true that she wouldn't be dead if she wasn't born in the first place, or if her parents weren't born in the first place, or so on...
But seriously, while her traveling alone is related to her death, the chain put around her neck is the direct cause for her death. And who chained the handcuffed woman to a bench in a locked room?
When a parent leaves a twelve-year-old child alone in the house and the child dies in a kitchen accident, the parent will be arrested. Why should the police be left off the hook for causing a death? Just because they are following procedures, no matter how inhumane the procedures are?
In the hypothetical situation above, at least, the child is not powerlessly chained to a metal bench.
b) We read the same story - she died in an accident choking herself. I certainly didn't mean the police "put" the chain around her neck. Sorry for the confusion.
What I meant to say was that if the chain were not there, the chain-choking death would not have occurred. Without the chain, maybe she could have banged her head against the wall and died that way (and possibly, this was the reason the police decided to chain her handcuffed hands to a bench -- unfortunately, this "protection from herself" did not work out as planned). But then, we would be speculating. So we can only assign blame based on what actually happened: Without the chain, no chain-choking death. Any other factor (her husband's not being there, her temper and tirade, etc.) is secondary and indirect. Therefore, the main blame (if not all the blame) should be assigned to the police.
I hesitate to blame the husband or the family for the accident, for these reasons:
1. The woman was an adult; I doubt the husband is legally empowered to keep her in the house.
2. The husband could certainly have flown with her. And he could have gone with her everywhere. But when would she get agitated and lose her temper? Should he go with her to the locker room and the bathroom, too? Where to draw the line? What if she insisted to go alone?
3. Trust is important for recovering mental patients. If she said she was fine, what was the husband to do? I guess the husband could have tailed her.
Even if the husband had gone with her, no one can tell whether he could have calmed her. What if he couldn't control her? What if he got angry as well and started arguing with her? What if they were both arrested? What if they were both handcuffed and chained to benches? What if the airport police used the stun gun on both them and they both died with a bad reaction to the stun gun? The point is that in speculation, anything could have happened - so it's futile to speculate. We can be certain only about what happened. So what if she had a history of difficulties, so what if she flew alone, so what if she lost her temper, so what if she was detained; none of those really matters. The only thing that matters is that if there were no chain on the woman or if the police kept an eye on her, she would not have choked on the chain and died.
I bet this is not the first time that someone has been detained by airport security for "making a scene" - and I would bet that not all of them have a history of mental difficulties. People get agitated and angry (though some more so than others), especially with so many unreasonable rules at the airport these days. If a hundred "normal" people were handcuffed and chained to a bench, I won't be surprised if one of them tried to "get out" or into a more comfortable position. Carol Anne Gotbaum happened to be one who tried to "get out" and she died in a freak accident. So, maybe the "mental difficulties" factor is to shift the public's attention from "the city's problem" to "her problem" and "the husband's problem."
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