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.
2
Support the Blog — Buy This Book!
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Put this ad on your blog!
Syndicate
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Junk Email Filter
# 13 bobbo, “if suicide were not against the law”
Bobbo. Tch, tch, tch. Committing suicide is NOT against the law. Show me one case in all of history where the corpse of a suicide has been arrested, booked, sent to jail and tried for the crime. Just one. And I don’t even require a conviction. Just a trial.
Now there are various laws and ordinances that prohibit attempting or even threatening to attempt to off oneself. 🙂
#33-hmeyers You know why that the idiot lawyer couldn’t answer simple yes/no question with a simple yes/no answer don’t you?
He’s a lawyer.
He’s going to respond to any simple question with some verbiage-laden, billable clap-trap because he charges by the word.
He’s going to respond to any complicated question with enough bullshit to buy a Lexus.
It wouldn’t occur to him to respond any other way because he’s always on the clock.
This time, short attention span, GED carrying, bull-headed idiots were on a real clock and could back it with guns.
He should be thankful that they didn’t shoot him down off the window sill. Its happened before in the projects.
(One black Olympic athlete was gunned down by police in South Africa simply because he was running. No other reason. He was running. The cop who shot him said “He was running, so I shot him.” That’s the mentality you’re up against.)
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
A kudo is waiting for the first to identify the source of the quote.
@ brian “I’m always surprised at the over-reactions and violence they actually show on some episodes.”
This is how they train us to accept it as normal, it is called acclimatisation and it will make us all happy and submissive slaves.
kinda like how children are ‘trained’ and not ‘educated’ these days.
#36 – Your quote is from the Dec of Independence. One of my favorite bits.
#34–Animby==I accept your correction even while wondering if you would accept ecclesiastical courts of the 17th Century? They did some whacko stuff.
Of note, it was one of my heroes, St Augustine, who pushed for the illegality/sin of self killing. Seems you can’t repent if you kill yourself, that always cracked me up.
Now in California, even attempted suicide is not illegal–just grounds to held against your will on a medical hold. A distinction lost by many who are behind bars.
Bobbo – there is no way to top the idiocy of religion.
St Augustine? An old doctor once told me that he (I’m pretty sure it was Augustine) was the patron saint of bad eyes! My reaction then is pretty much the same as today: WTF?
I remember asking him who was the patron saint of undescended testicles because I figured that was one saint that could take a kick.
Animby–you get Plus One for St Augustine. I tried to find your personal info but it seems the Catholics haven’t gotten around to such things. Amusing list here though:
http://saints.sqpn.com/patron-saints-of-medical-conditions/
Every “Life Story” of these Saints is rather interesting. Holy Crap. Its good to be born free of this superstition.
Yea, Verily.
Bobbo – Thank you. I got a very good laugh from that list. Several, actually.
Who knew there were 32 patron saints for people with ague?
And how come there are four saints against breast cancer but only one for breast disease? (Agatha, she’s on both lists. Probably am early GBLT saintette.)
Augustine is on your list for eye diseases and eye problems. Wikipedia says: “He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses.” I would think setting type after a few too many brews might cause many theologians to have sore eyes.
I’m going to go back and peruse the list some more. What fun! St Benedict of Nettle Rash…
“Are you about to commit suicide?”
“I’m smoking cigarettes, aren’t I?”
“Never mind.”
Good for him. Got get them… and the 400,000
#30 Bo.
Then, he could have killed himself by jumping off his couch if he did it right. So?
9,000 people die in falls in the bathroom each year. We don’t track how many people die of self-inflicted blunt force trauma (the category of killing yourself jumping off a building)but, it’s pretty rare. Handguns and ingesting drugs/poison are the leaders.
Die And==exactly so. Thank you. Unlike a fall on your head, that didn’t hurt too much did it?