Man sues police, jailers for refusing treatment for frozen feet

When a nurse finally checked the guy's feet, "she says, 'Oh my God, I've never seen anything like that' and tells the guards to get a wheelchair. 'We have to take him to the ER immediately.'" The man is seeking more than $50,000 in damages. (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Comments

[Torgo]

I hope he sues their a$$es off.

[RockyMtnMac]

"Whether he was a murderer or a jaywalker, it doesn't matter," Hajek said. "He has a right to medical care."
*sigh*....don't we all...
And on another note, I hope these guys all lose their jobs over this. To not even bother to look at the guy for that long, is crap.

[Emperor Norton the 1st]

I'm glad to see the Tap-Dancing Prevention Unit remains intact and effective.

[Saxo_Grammaticus]

Reminds me of a case in my neck of the woods a few years ago. County jailers watched a poor street drunk die from alcohol withdrawal right in front of them. The more the poor drunk pleaded, the more they laughed.

[NitroPress]

This guy has feet almost as wide as mine.

[Lilith]

Just looking at his feet make mine hurt!

[Krash]

Wanna Bet that between the Sheriff's politics and the municipal employee unions, the only people who will suffer from this debacle are the Plaintiff and the county Taxpayers.

...and you wonder why I hammer at this issue.

Those asshole jailers will still have a job when they've already killed a diabetic in their care. Disgusting!!!

[jojo]

Sad! This department hasn't figured out that you call EMS and send them to the hopsital for treatment. The hospital calls when they are released and THEN you pick them up again...otherwise the department is responsible for the bill! We have a bunch of people who do something to be arrested and then "come up" sick so they don't have to pay for the medical bills....

[pms]

The boy who cried wolf? Guess, since he had a warrant from previously giving police false information, they just didn't beleive his feet hurt. Oh well, they do say that smoking is bad for your health, so here's another case to prove that.

[AMcA]

The inhumanity of it all.

I say we disband police departments nation-wide. Without the oppression of the police, people will become law-abiding.

Why can't anyone see the wisdom of that?

[Emperor Norton the 1st]

I ONLY obey laws because of police. Without them i'd be smoking pcp and raping ducks at City Park.

[American Veteran]

These filthy typical pigs ought to be left out naked on Medicine Lake till it thaws and ignored when they whine for help.
Any scumbag pig who does what they did does it because they LIKE DOING IT.

[kevy]

I agree, they should all lose their jobs. But alas, they won't.

[Boba Fett]

This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed at home,
This little piggy had roast beef,
This little piggy had none.
And this little piggy went...
"Wee wee wee" all the way home...

Sorry, saw those toes and couldn't resist...

Hope he didn't lose any..

[sometimesilie]

"I ONLY obey laws because of police. Without them i'd be smoking pcp and raping ducks at City Park."

LOL! Laugh of the day!

[me2]

Its to bad that when people sue police, cities, states, etc. its the taxpayers that end up paying. The laws should allow us to sue the people themselves, then maybe things like this would stop.

[LimeGreenLizard]

Wow Emp, you actually made me laugh.

[buddy]

cops like to be treated special but not be held up to a higher standard. bring the cops up on criminal charges

[Emperor Norton the 1st]

See? Im playing nice :)

[johnjohn]

Well, I will say it, these MF's will be the first up against the wall come the revolution!

[Duck Woodiedick]

Does anyone out there have any more info about what actually happened to this guy's feet as a result of the frostbite? The article doesn't really talk about what kind of shape he ended up in. Did he lose toes? Chunks of feet? I would think his final condition would have a definite bearing on what kind of settlement he'd be seeking.

[RockyMtnMac]

On second thought, every injured worker we have ever had were told to "ice it, elevate it, and take some Advil", regardless of the severity - so this guy actually did receive standard health care....

[BernieB]

@Emperor N: Don't you do that anyway??

[Emperor Norton the 1st]

Bernie: Only when i'm not incapacitated by laughter after reading your witty retort. Oh wait, I guess I don't then.

[Phranqlin]

That's cold.

[thomas]

These oinkers would fit in nicely down in New Orleans.

[kestrelmas]

I think they need to come shovel my entire street without shoes. It wasn't plowed this morning and I gave up trying to get my car unstuck every four feet (after only getting 12 feet in a half hour).

Had to get a ride in to work with a guy with a truck. >.> Stupid western NY...

[wank]

Once again we see the kind of people who become cops.

[Emperor Norton the 1st]

That's a chicken/egg sitch, there, wank. Obviously alot of hyper-agressive individuals will gravitate towards law enforcement, but might it not also be true that constantly dealing with human beings in their worst moments might not begin to erode the capacity for empathy for strangers? Would dealing with sexual deviants, violent prone individuals, liars, thieves and the creme de la crap on a daily basis not affect your own social skills after time?

I think perhaps the problem lies in the fact that the reform system creates cycles of crime that escalate things into a no-win situation for cops and robbers alike. Couple this with the fact that police are agents of the state, which means that they need not compete in free market situations that naturally weed out the incompetent.

In the end we perpetuate this cycle of antipathy when we allow our own rhetoric to abuse strangers in any situation, especially anonymous ones. Through consensus this creates a social reality that justifies individuals, like cops, to carry this antipathy out on both concious and subconcious levels. The latter can be the more destructive, because it is generally not subjected to the self-disciplinary and introspective aspects of our concious mind.

[thomas]

Get some rest Emp.

[Charles]

Jails in America commonly withhold care and basic human rights from inmates, it's the guards' power trip.

[primus]

Remember this the next time some spokescop is talking about how they will solve the 'drug' problem; they bring the same sort of mental horsepower to that problem as they demonstrated in this case. Cops should not EVER be listened to. Why would you listen to hired goons without a high school education?

[me2]

You know, if this had happened in another country the human rights groups would be all over it. But when it happens here in the US most people don't care.

[Get Real]

He was out side for two hours throwing snowballs.

Survivor man would have built a lean-to and had a fire going.