Mark Moody said he was taking his usual nicotine break on the window ledge of his Peck Slip home on a hot August day with a cigarette in one hand and a cellphone in the other, a scant 12 feet off the ground. He was shocked when a police car rolled up and two cops jumped out.
“Are you about to commit suicide?” one cop asked.
“If I was going to commit suicide, this would be a pretty dumb place to do it,” the 40-year-old trial lawyer scoffed. “If I jumped from here, I’d just sprain my ankle.”
[…]
Before he knew it, a beefy officer was inside his apartment, lifting him out of his own living-room window from behind, Moody said. The cop slammed him on the living-room floor while another kneeled on top of him and cuffed him, he claimed. […] The attorney was thrown into an ambulance and taken to Beth Israel Medical Center.The on-duty psychiatrist apologized before quickly discharging him, Moody said. “I talked to him for three minutes, and he said, ‘Look, I’m really sorry. I apologize on behalf of the city,’ ” Moody recalled.
[…]
Moody, who The Post found still takes his cigarette breaks sitting in his open window, sued the city and the police officers for $400,000 in damages on Dec. 8 in Manhattan federal court.
At least he didn’t get tazed. Or shot.
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While it’s good that the police were concerned, I don’t understand why police in this country almost invariably seem to be hyperactive Neanderthals (I may be unfair to Neanderthals) whose only way of responding to ANY situation is with violence and over-reaction. Why couldn’t they have just asked the guy what he was doing and then go about their business. They could even have (although it might have been beyond their scope) told him to go inside. But to go into his apt, cuff him and take him to the psych ward – the police reactions are always so EXTREME.
Do you watch Cops? I’m always surprised at the over-reactions and violence they actually show on some episodes.
I think the answer to this is FEWER cops. Maybe if there were less of them they would concentrate on the important things and less on busting people for weed, drugs, or chicken shit traffic tickets.
Brian you are a dreamer. We won’t have less cops until we run out of money to pay for them … the same goes for prisons. It takes money to pay for a police state.
Great example of said “chicken shit” tickets put upon us by power hungry idiot LEO’s:
2 guys given a $90 ticket for not-wearing safety vests while in a boat saving a deer. BTW they are not required by law to wear them. Read the article for the details.
http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2010/12/17/good-samaritans-face-fine-after-rescuing-deer-from-icy-water/
Cops on Steroids
Baseball has no monopoly on foul balls. The NYPD’s own drug scandal keeps simmering.
http://villagevoice.com/2007-12-11/news/cops-on-steroids/
They should do something about the ridiculous pensions FIRST, then work on the manpower issue.
#7 Are you saying that your police are as badly treated as ours in the UK? (I am, of course, referring to the ones who do police work and not the ones that work 9-5 doing anything but Protecting and Serving!)
Great. Some jerk cops get a hard-on and the citizen tax-payers are out $400,000.
F*ck it, let it come out of the cops salaries.
I have zero sympathy for these jerks.
‘…male sitting on the ledge talking erratically…’
Of course, he was talking erratically – he’s a damned lawyer! Probably intellectual property.
Hope the dirty rotten lawyer wins, and gets more!
More fallout from, “If You See Something, Say Something.”
You know, if suicide were not against the law, the cops would have had no grounds to even ask him the question, must less to break into his apartment.
Pro’s and Con’s to all we do.
He was smoking tobacco.
Prima facia evidence of suicidal action in the eyes of government.
In California, a doobie would have saved him from the police action.
$400,000? WTF is wrong with people. They apologized. Everyone has to sue someone these days. I bet the lawyer came up with 400k so he can take his 40 percent share.
“You want a raise?”
“Go write some tickets!”
He should only sit out on a ledge when he’s not Moody.
To make matters worse, he was a Mark.
Common-sense is a rare commodity these days.
“Police responded to a 911 call of an emotionally disturbed person at the location.”
Proof that the “If you see something, say something” campaign will work REALLY well. Because ordinary Joe Schmoe off the street won’t misconstrue some benign act as suspicious at ALL. Fine job there Janet Napolitano.
You see, if we all had a bit more common-sense, there would be less of this government gestapo stuff. AUUGH!
I live in a small town of 2400.
The Chief of police didnt LIKE one of his Subordinates.
FIRED HIM on the spot.
Our officers are on CONTRACT.
Unless he did something AGAINST his contract, he CANT be fired.
Sued the town, $500,000.. I figure thats about 10 years wages, for the person FIRED.
Cowboy cops over stepping their authority again. All should be fired and never again able to “serve/overstep” in a law enforcement capacity.
Assholes are just assholes, cop assholes are assholes with a gun! Yee-fucking-ha.
#11, all people who think like you should have two choices voted on them by everyone else:
1) you and ONLY everyone who thinks like you can have their taxes raised to pay the $400,000 plus expense
2) you and everyone who thinks like you should just disappear from the face of the earth
I vote for choice 2
“Are you about to commit suicide?” one cop asked.
“If I was going…yada yada yada
What if he had simply said no?
probably anyone smoking a cigarette should get counseling for suicidal tendencies ….
Everyone repeat after me: “Sieg Heil!”
Ah… suicide prevention. I remember the last time our local PD “prevented” a suicide. They shot and killed an unarmed man in the back of the head because he refused to speak to them.
#27–die and, surely a troll: what do you think would happen if any human being did a swan dive to concrete from 12 feet up?
Humans have been known to die falling from waist up to their desk surface 18 inches away.
Fragile thing this egg shell surrounding our brain.
#24, I am with #11, so go fuck yourself, asshole!
Local cops are dangerous motherf*ckers. Watch your ass. They have a lock on crime. They know it better than you do.
Example: Let’s say someone gets busted for having 10 pounds of heroin in their car. By the time it gets to trial the “perp” is charged with having one pound. Bad enough. Good for a long sentence. Where’s the other 9 pounds? Does the perp say to the judge, “Gee, I actually had 10 pounds”?
What do they do with it? If you don’t already know, you are either not an ex-con or you’ll just never know what I’m talking about.
Where do you guys get all these imaginary details and conjecture your head inserts into every story?
You don’t know this guy. You don’t know the cops.
One thing I do know …
“Some jerk cops get a hard-on and the citizen tax-payers are out $400,000.”
This crap has to stop. Who is our government to volunteer our money away. This lawyer is not entitled to your or my money and I don’t care that the cops inconvenienced this guy.