Whatever happened to compassion and common sense?
The death of Robert Ethan Saylor makes you wonder.
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JOAN VENNOCHI
Whatever happened to compassion and common sense?
The death of Robert Ethan Saylor makes you wonder.
Comments
Compassion and common sense go out the window when you ceede your willingness to use it in exchange for security, procedure, mandatory sentencing, and fear of malpractice.
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What a shame. And so avoidable. These people should be ashamed of themselves. And perhaps the movie theater management should think about how important a movie is to disabled persons. Seeing this movie was probably the highlight of the young man's week. So what that he didn't pay another $11.50.
His aide shares the blame. You don't leave him in the theater to get the car. You walk him to the lobby and put him in a seat and get the car, but there is no way that story is true. Where was this car, miles away? The theater manager saw this guy refuse to leave the theater, talked to him, called for help, that help came, they also talked to him, the guy then assaulted them (Downs syndrome people are INCREDIBLY strong. I once saw a 5 foot tall woman twist and break a 6 foot tall guys arm because he was trying to get her to stop hitting someone) and the men then restrained the guy. Clearly this aide was not doing the job they were hired to do, but snuck off to do something else. This guy should have been with his aide who would have gotten him to leave the theater.
I agree, there's two sides to every story. I'm sure the deputies feel horrible but where was the aide? It shouldn't have taken that long to get the car (grabbing a smoke? chatting on the phone?) Did the aide know the man was prone to violence? If the theater let him stay for another movie, then what? If he truly was abandoned, as they thought, would it have been appropriate to let him sit through another movie? A sad, tragic outcome.
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The man died. " They restrained him with three sets of handcuffs. He ended up on the ground and ultimately died of asphyxiation."
Its not "heavy handed". Its moronic and inexcusable.
So you were there? Three sets of cuffs were probably used do to is size. Cuffs are strung together to actually make it more comfortable than forcing the arms together. A sad event but none of us were there.
You missed the point. It was a quote. The kid died of asphyxiation. So, do you think that they handled it intelligently?
You weren't there!.......and neither was Ms. Vennochi. "Moronic and inexcusable",...........sounds like Barak Obama when he said "the Cambridge Police Department acted stupidly" when refering to the arrest of Harvard Proffesor Henry Gates.
Oh yeah, Obama wasn't there to witness that one either.
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Thank you. It's nice to be compared with a man like President Obama.
NONE of us were there. We rely on accounts from those who were and those who were not there. Take the example of the "3 sets of handcuffs" needed to restrain the individual. Viewed in the context presented by "richstan", these could have indeed been used to minimize the effects of restraint.
The point also is that people were being attacked by this individual; they have the right to protect themselves. Perhaps a better solution would have been to call regular police officers--though presumably deputies would have received the same training as regular police.
Yes, we all feel for the hapless Down victim; but his actions bore the strength of an enraged adult, and were perpetrated on equally hapless adults who were faced with the need to defend themselves.
Restraining him may well have been justified; what needs to be learned is how was he asphyxiated? Did they choke him, or sit on him to the point he couldn't breath? It may be less an issue of dealing with the disabled than of these officers being trained properly to subdue a suspect without fatally injuring him.
Or did he have a pre-existing condition that contributed to it?
You didn't have to be there. A kid is dead.
dougkinan@yahoo.com
That added a lot to the conversation. Have you ever been in a no win situation lke that? A combative person that you can't just leave? Policing is not pretty. Never has been. They couldn't leave him. What should they have done after he started swinging. Back off? Walk away and hope someone is coming to get him? What do they do at midnight when he's the only one left there?They would have been accused of abandoning the young man.
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Thank you for the great column! So true about society wishing people with disabilities were invisible. And many, if not most of us, will end up there someday.
On a recent trip to Montreal I noticed what seemed like a preponderance of people in wheelchairs out at cafes, restaurants and bars. After a while I shamefully realized it's because people in Canada are making more of an effort to take disabled friends and family out into the world.
And of course you never see this theme in American movies or corporate media. Remember in the 70's that movie, I think with Goldie Hawn, where she dates a young blind kid and helps him break away from his domineering mother.
When's the last time you saw a US movie like that? It's been a long time since "Born on the 4th of July" and "My Left Foot"
It is easy to second guess the police and the problems associated with trying to restrain a violent or combative person, even one that is relatively passive in his resistance.
Probably The most dangerous circumstances that Ms Vennochi and most of the commentors have had to deal with is changing a flat tire on a busy highway. Even then they had the luxury of walking away and getting someone else to do the job. What alternatives should we give the police in the situation described ?