Police should never be permitted to direct medical professionals to do
anything to a person in their custody unless it is to save their life. Medical professionals should be hyper-trained on how to tell police “hell no” and to report their requests to an independent agency for investigation.
There are other types of scenarios where out of control cops bully doctors and nurses into doing illegal things, two that I have read about:
- forcing a suspect to be subject to anal cavity search by a doctor at a hospital after a traffic stop
- forcing hospital staff to run blood tests on an awake, non-consenting suspect
Everyone who has ever dealt with the medical world for a personal or family problem understands that there are few “sure things” and that something that worked miraculously for someone’s problem might not work for yours, even if they seem like the same problem. Allowing police a position to direct medical care is utterly outrageous and irresponsible.
That said, what was done to Elijah McCain is one of the sickest, most unacceptably fucked up nightmare scenarios I’ve ever heard of. The initial interaction was a result of racist police who then had their victim murdered because they never saw him as a person, just another potential criminal.
There are other types of scenarios where out of control cops bully doctors and nurses into doing illegal things, two that I have read about:
- forcing a suspect to be subject to anal cavity search by a doctor at a hospital after a traffic stop
- forcing hospital staff to run blood tests on an awake, non-consenting suspect
Everyone who has ever dealt with the medical world for a personal or family problem understands that there are few “sure things” and that something that worked miraculously for someone’s problem might not work for yours, even if they seem like the same problem. Allowing police a position to direct medical care is utterly outrageous and irresponsible.
That said, what was done to Elijah McCain is one of the sickest, most unacceptably fucked up nightmare scenarios I’ve ever heard of. The initial interaction was a result of racist police who then had their victim murdered because they never saw him as a person, just another potential criminal.