Brickbat: Hard Delivery

Alicephotography / Dreamstime.com

A woman who was forced to give birth on the floor of the Macomb County, Michigan, jail is suing for violations of her civil rights. Jessica Preston was in jail awaiting trial for driving on a suspended license. She says jail staff did not call EMS until her baby was crowning.

Comments

[Rat on a train]

She was in jail for driving on a suspended license. They probably felt they had already got away with abuse, why not more.

[Inigo Montoya]

The cop who did this deserves opprobrium. I hope the mom asked the name of the arresting officer so that she can honor him by naming the baby. And when he tells her, she can say, "Great! So my baby will be named Pig."

[Fist of Etiquette]

Macomb County Corporation Counsel John Schapka denies claims that Preston's rights were violated.

"There is no constitutional right to be born in a hospital, or any collateral right to be born outside of a jail," Schapka said.

Being an asshole is also not an enumerated right.

[Inigo Montoya]

The standard answer when a government agent has screwed up royally is supposed to be "no comment."
Where do they find this garbage? Even ambulance-chasers must be embarrassed to have this guy in their profession.

[Kivlor]

"There is no constitutional right to be born in a hospital, or any collateral right to be born outside of a jail"

No, but that would almost certainly fall under a "duty of care" which you have to any person in your custody.

[Sometimes a Great Notion]

^This

[loveconstitution1789]

The Mom was a serious law breaker for driving on a suspended license and could not be released on O.R. or a ticket to appear and now this baby was sneaking INTO the jail.

This shit will not be tolerated by Macomb County, Michigan Sheriff's Deputies.

[SQRLSY One]

Good thing that she was apparently NOT an illegal human, or they'd have snatched that baby right away from her, taken it a few hundred miles away, and promptly lost track of whom it belonged to!

In a "PAPERS PLEASE" society like ours, if your (papers) / (license(s)) are SUSPENDED (as opposed to being lost or non-existent), then apparently, you're still not quite yet an "illegal human" to the point that they can steal your baby, you are merely a "suspended human", where they can keep you in jail till your baby "crowns".

Good to know! Thank Government Almighty that they don't yet steal your baby for being a "suspended human"!

[Inigo Montoya]

I have to wonder why she was driving on a suspended license in the first place. Was it to thumb her nose at the authorities? More likely she had no other way to get to work, and she had to work so she can pay off what et fine and court costs went along with the license suspension.

These people take the cake. It's like in the old days, where you want to prison for being in debt, like happened to Charles Dickens' father. It never occurred to the idiots that a guy in prison isn't working and therefore isn't able to make payments on the debt. Here we are some 150 years later, and government is just as dumb as ever.

[sarcasmic]

I have to wonder how she got caught. Or actually I don't. I've known a few people who got their licenses suspended for this or that reason, and then got caught driving afterwards. How did they get caught? They were lousy drivers. Some people simply suck at piloting metal boxes on wheels.

[Conchfritters]

Yep - I had my license suspended for a year, and I still needed to get around. During that 12 month span I drove everyday, and was hyper vigilant about not speeding, coming to complete stops at stop signs, etc. It's fucking insane though that the penalty for driving on a suspended license is almost the same as first offense drunk driving.

Fucking asswipes. Her water is broken? She is screaming in pain? Contractions are probably one on top of the other, and you wait until the kid is coming out of the birth canal before you call for help? Fuck you - you deserve to be mistrusted and hated by the public.

[loveconstitution1789]

Hopefully, you didnt submit to breathalyzer test which is why they suspended your license? I would be disappointed if you took the test, had a BAC that got you suspended anyway, along with a DUI conviction, and fines and fees.

[Conchfritters]

Hell yeah I did the breathalyzer- this was 25 years ago when I was young and drunk. But after meeting with my attorney (a former prosecutor) I now know exactly what do do if that situation happened again. I still have the attorney's business card - he told me if I'm ever in that situation again, don't say a word, show the cops the backside of the card, which in legal speak says "I'm exercising my rights under the Fifth and Sixth Ammendments. Fuck off and get me my lawyer."

[loveconstitution1789]

Exactly! Never take that breathalyzer but never refuse.

The law demands license suspension for 'refusals'. If you just remain silent and dont say "no", then a court determines if your silence was a refusal. A lawyer can tear shit apart plus you have not provided evidence of alcohol in your system to be used against you for a DUI conviction.

Its a huge flaw in DUI convictions and lawyers know about and cops dont want you to do it.

For a DUI conviction, you prety much have to tell on yourself by saying your drunk, acting drunk on the police cam, or take a breathalyzer test.

[perlchpr]

Yeah...

I had a GMC Suburban that got utterly fucked by a driver, while it was parked in front of my house.

Actually, yeah. That's how I woke up the morning of Obama's first inauguration. It set the tone for the next 8 years, honestly.

Anyway, woman, possibly intoxicated, driving on a license suspended for DUI, came zipping around a corner far too fast for both her driving ability and the friction capabilities of her car, and plowed into the back of my truck at some ridiculous velocity. She was pretty clearly one of those "not really suited for this task" people.

I reworked that Suburban into a pickup truck, (the frame hadn't been damaged) and then it got hit again, by another drunk, parked in front of my house. I dunno how fast the car was going on that one, but it was a Toyota Corolla, it only struck a glancing blow, and it moved the entire truck 10 feet forward. So it must have been a pretty good shot.

[loveconstitution1789]

You need some Oak trees in front of your house.

A line of them creates a "tree fence". A pattern of trees like a pinball machine creates a game.

[Wizard4169]

My last traffic accident, I got rear-ended by a woman driving on a suspended license. To add insult to injury, I got hit because I slammed on the brakes when I saw a cop approaching the intersection on the cross street with his flashers on. If I hadn't stopped, I probably would have gotten T-boned by the cop. (That almost happened to me once, too. I stopped just short of an intersection before a cop blasted through, running lights but no siren in the business district in the middle of a bright, sunny day. A block down the street, the cop did slam into a senior citizen. Luckily the old guy was driving a classic geezermobile Grand Marq, and didn't get banged up too bad.)

[perlchpr]

It's the same problem socialists have. They're somehow never content to just milk the damn cow. They wanna have roast beef for dinner. And then they're all pissed off that they can't have any milk with breakfast the next day.