Texas woman sues cops over burst Bulgarian airbag A surgically enhanced Texan is suing police over a burst Bulgarian airbag she claims went pop as she was arrested over an unpaid speeding ticket. Rebecca Van Hooser, of Arlington, was pulled over on 28 October in neighbouring Pantego for a "headlight violation". The traffic cop acted on a warrant for the unpaid ticket by …
True, the car mounted cameras have caught both bad behaviour by the public and bad behaviour by the cops. Would be interesting to see the cop car camera footage to see if he was out of order with his treatment of a citizen or if she was being a dick and deserved the rough treatment.
My impression is that there seems to be too many police forces (not police) for the population of the US. You have federal level police like the FBI, then you have state police, then there's county police, and then there's city police. Since there are a lot counties and cities in the USA, there's a lot of police forces - each with a level of training (or lack of thereof). So some organizations - I guess - would be more or less professional, but other would be a bunch of "Respect mah authoritah" yahoos who watched too many episodes of COPS. The latter are the types who get themselves into the media in a bad way.
No criticism from Australia intended - we've had problems with dodgy cops ourselves. But at least things are a little simpler: Federal police for the ACT (and Australia), and 7 police forces for the NT and each of the six states. All of these have a career structure that involves some level of basic training - training that seems to be absent from the cops in this story.
@Peter.
It is:
A) A function of how the US was created, with colonisation often outstripping the reach of government authority to provide protection,
B) A function of a desire among the American people to decentralise authority through a fear of a central authority (usually paranoid, in modern times).
Wouldn't it be better to sue the surgeons who put in the implant? I mean if it explodes like that surely there must have been something wrong to begin with. Not saying the police officer didn't use too much force but an implant should last a bit more force than that.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it.
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Any armed person who feels the need to use physical force against an unarmed person is not fit to be armed.
But there are two claims here: one against the officer, and one against the surgeon / implant manufacturer. Some ladies like to have their breasts treated pretty roughly, Mrs Coward being a case in point. Whilst Mrs Coward has no need of enhancement, mainly due to my appreciation of breasts that would be illegal in Australia, it does seem odd that anything other than a fairly major trauma (e.g. the car accident which supplied the El Reg vernacular) should cause a burst.
"Any armed person who feels the need to use physical force against an unarmed person is not fit to be armed."
I'm no lover of US police and I'm certainly not commenting on this case directly, but this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Just because I have a gun doesn't mean I have to choose between being beaten up by someone with no weapon or shooting them.
With a little bit of effort the readers and the editor could learn more about what happened or allegedly happened.
The incident took place on Oct. 28, 2011. The dashboard camera video was deleted after 90 days. The woman had to undergo a complete mastectomy of her right breast.
There is no claim that the woman was intoxicated or aggressive (The available picture shows a friendly looking woman). This leaves me to wonder what would happen to the other commentators were they to be pulled over.
Stand still with both hands at your side. Say clearly " I am compliant " and outline any medical conditions you think relevant ( think duty of care ). Carry an activated sound recorder ( and preferably have someone videoing the incident - getting harder isn't it ? ) then do your best to do as requested by the officer.
Here down-under a chap at a random public transport search point was arrested for putting his hands up on the grounds that it was " a threatening gesture " !
If violated, complain / litigate !
So there was a warrant out for her
She got pulled over for a construction and use violation
and she's complaining?
How much is her lawyer expecting to make out of this?
If she'd left alone whatever natural breasts she had, she wouldn't have suffered any implant explosion.
And she's still going to get further work done to give her a new artificial breast.
Clearly this woman is a bit of a slow learner. And now that the whole world knows her breasts aren't real, she'll be a laughing-stock for the rest of her life.
Better a flat chest that's real than Bulgarian airbags any day!
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