Brickbat: God Damn the Pusher Man

Puhhha / Dreamstime.com

Eugene Wright says he was walking from his home to his car when two Meadville, Pennsylvania, cops grabbed him, handcuffed him, and took him to the Meadville Medical Center, where he was forcibly injected with Haldol and Ativan. The cops and medical personnel had mistaken him for another Eugene Wright who had showed up at his doctor's office earlier that day threatening to harm himself and others.

Comments

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

Fortunately, the genuinely targeted Eugene Wright saw this on the news, realized he was next, and was able to effect an escape after leading his pursuers to their doom in an industrial facility whose lax equipment safety standards had slipped past OSHA due to recent inspection personnel cuts.

[Brandybuck]

Tuttle, Buttle, same thing.

[Telcontar the Wanderer]

...what?

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[chemjeff]

Oh LOL. From the article:

The suit says the hospital later apologized to Wright and gave him a $50 gift card for Montana's Rib and Chop House. The suit says the following day Stairways Behavioral representatives went to Wright's home to apologize and give Wright a $25 Wal-Mart gift card.

Yeah, $75 worth of food and groceries will totally make up for being cuffed and drugged! Like totally!

[Crusty Juggler]

Salt in the wound.

[Duke of url]

Just wait till he gets he bill!

[Conchfritters]

Those gift cards would have done more good in the hands of Chicago teachers.

[Scarecrow Repair & Chippering]

That amazed me too. I'd like to know how that was decided, what brainiac committee thought tow cheap-ass gift cards would be anything but salt in the wounds. They must have figured they could get off cheap because the guy worked at an auto parts store. I bet the jury's going to have a field day with that little episode. Christ, the doctors probably spend that much on gas for their Porsches and Benzes for the daily commute.

[I am the 0.000000013%]

Bonus!

[Crusty Juggler]

Don't wanna be a thug, don't be havin' the same name as some crazy sock cucka like a thug.

[Brandybuck]

So what explains your name? Oh wait, you ARE the crazy sock cucka!

[Jerryskids]

The law is an ass and you gotta be careful with that ass, Eugene.

[Juice]

Hmm.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Two Wrights don't make a wrong.

[Longtobefree]

According to the story, they do.

[Adans smith]

No,just a plane.

[Radioactive]

but 3 lefts on the other hand do make a right...just sayin

[Mark22]

[He said] the cops and medical personnel had mistaken him for another Eugene Wright

That's just what you would expect a paranoid schizophrenic to say, isn't it!

/sarc

[BigT]

Careful with that needle, Eugene!

[Jerryskids]

It's just a little pinprick.

[loveconstitution1789]

I smell a lawsuit brewing in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

There is probably no qualified immunity for these cops as their conduct violated clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.

That being police cannot grab you, arrest you, force medication into you without a warrant.

[loveconstitution1789]

After clicking the link, I see that the lawsuit is percolating.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Meh, it will be settled with no admissions of guilt.

[Longtobefree]

Well, it turns out that they can and did.
Getting away with it might become a problem, but they sure as hell did it.

[loveconstitution1789]

Cops do love their shoot first ask questions later tactics.

In this case shoot drugs into someone's system under threat of being shot. What a drug cucktail.

[TrickyVic (old school)]

""I smell a lawsuit brewing in Meadville, Pennsylvania.""

No kidding. Causing a medical error by force should justify one. Also, the provider that gave the Haldol could be charged with malpractice for not ensuring that was the correct patient leading to a medication error.

[croaker]

$1 million from each cop involved's personal assets
$2 million from each "medical professional" involved
$10 million from the police department
$10 million from the medical "facility"
And as a bonus, every cop involved gets a suppository of PCP and LSD.

[Radioactive]

do the cops have to pay for the suppositories? asking for a friend

[Barrie]

Even if the cops had the right guy, they still should not be forcing someone to take drugs against their will.

[some guy]

I'm assuming the cops have already been charged with aggravated assault, kidnapping, some sort of controlled substance charge and about a dozen other little add-ons to ramp up the possible penalties. Right?

[Longtobefree]

No.

[croaker]

Right. Please put down the crack pipe.

[?rboles de la Barranca]

They're out looking for the next Eugene Wright on their list. There can't be that many.

[Longtobefree]

Population of 13,388 at the 2010 census.

[Longtobefree]

Seriously? No description? Just a name? A population of 13,388 at the 2010 census? It's a wonder they ever found the (wrong) guy!
So if you see cops and a psych doctor standing near your car, pretend you left something in the store and go call your lawyer?
I have NEVER been in any kind of medical facility where every single person I dealt with did not ask for and confirm my name and date of birth. But then, I was never accompanied by guys with guns, because all those facilities are nice safe gun free zones, where bad things can never happen to you.

[Brandybuck]

Population of 13,388? He should just move.

[Rod Flash]

After a shot of Ativan and a hit from the velvet hammer, they could probably have put him back on the street and he'd never have been sure what happened. Assuming they figured out their mistake before he came back down.

[My Dog Bites Better Than Yours]

It's not the cops and doctors fault, really. "Hey! You got the wrong guy!" is just the kind of thing you would expect a crazy person to say.

[My Dog Bites Better Than Yours]

It's not the cops and doctors fault, really. "Hey! You got the wrong guy!" is just the kind of thing you would expect a crazy person to say.

[target]

I wonder how this would have went down if this guy had an allergic reaction to the medication leading to his death.

[I am the 0.000000013%]

Then they would have for sure had the correct person.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Uhh, ok, that's not usually how a committal works, but maybe Pennsylvania does things different.

[crufus]

Mistakes happen. The Terminator killed three other women before finding the correct Sarah Conner, while these cops only only kidnapped and drugged one incorrect Eugene Wright.

At least they didn't give him an enema to search for drugs.

[Inigo Montoya]

The cops showed surprising restraint given they thought they had the right Eugene Wright. I remember a story here at Reason about 2 years ago. This woman called 911 to report her husband and father of her kids had been depressed for weeks and was now talking about suicide. The cops showed up and shot him to death. Problem solved, in their eyes.

This could have easily gone down that way. Instead, the wrong Eugene has a bad memory and a good lawsuit going forward, and the correct Eugene has plenty of real world justification for any paranoid thoughts he might have been having.

[Longtobefree]

The only thing worse than being paranoid is finding out you're not.