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Title: Cops take 'suicidal' window ledge smoker to psych ward
Source:
NY POST
URL Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/ ... he_butt_vuYLCQZ7Vo5RVC7pyzNYMJ
Published: Dec 19, 2010
Author: KATHIANNE BONIELLO
Post Date: 2010-12-19 12:22:37 by abraxas
Keywords: None
Views: 104
Comments: 5
What were they smoking? A pair of blundering cops mistook a downtown man's cigarette break for a suicide attempt, a lawsuit claims. A lawyer enjoying a puff on the sill of his second-floor apartment window says he was wrestled to the floor by cops who hauled him off to the loony bin. Mark Moody said he was taking his usual nicotine break on the window ledge of his Peck Slip home on a hot August day with a cigarette in one hand and a cellphone in the other, a scant 12 feet off the ground. He was shocked when a police car rolled up and two cops jumped out. "Are you about to commit suicide?" one cop asked. "If I was going to commit suicide, this would be a pretty dumb place to do it," the 40-year-old trial lawyer scoffed. "If I jumped from here, I'd just sprain my ankle." But the officers, who never said what prompted their concern, insisted Moody come downstairs. Moody refused, explaining he was sitting on the sill so he wouldn't get smoke in the apartment. He even waved over a cabby he knew from the neighborhood, hoping the hack would confirm that the window is Moody's regular smoking spot. But three ambulances and four other patrol cars pulled up before the cabby could move. "An army of people arrived," Moody said. Before he knew it, a beefy officer was inside his apartment, lifting him out of his own living-room window from behind, Moody said. The cop slammed him on the living-room floor while another kneeled on top of him and cuffed him, he claimed. "I still don't know how they broke in," he said. "I never used to keep the chain on, but now I do." The attorney was thrown into an ambulance and taken to Beth Israel Medical Center. The on-duty psychiatrist apologized before quickly discharging him, Moody said. "I talked to him for three minutes, and he said, 'Look, I'm really sorry. I apologize on behalf of the city,' " Moody recalled. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said, "Police responded to a 911 call of an emotionally disturbed person at the location. When police arrived, they observed the male sitting on the ledge talking erratically. Police Emergency Service officers were called, and the person was removed to the hospital for observation." Moody, who The Post found still takes his cigarette breaks sitting in his open window, sued the city and the police officers for $400,000 in damages on Dec. 8 in Manhattan federal court. "I wasn't doing anything," he said. "Maybe it should be a crime to smoke a cigarette, but at the moment it's not."
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#1. To: All (#0)
Moody enjoying a smoke at his window........
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
When I lived in NYC, people would have gathered with the cops, shouting "jump, jump you damned coward" Times have changed.
This is true.......cops used to need a warrant to break into somebody's house and cuff 'em and stuff 'em and haul them to the loony bin. Not in this case: "Before he knew it, a beefy officer was inside his apartment, lifting him out of his own living-room window from behind, Moody said. The cop slammed him on the living-room floor while another kneeled on top of him and cuffed him, he claimed." I love the irony of cuffing and stuffing an attorney having a smoke......I feel confident he will prevail in his suit against the city.
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
He's clearly suicidal. After all, he's smoking a cigarette -- lung cancer! And talking on a cell-phone -- brain cancer!
"If ever this vast country is brought under a single government, it will be one of the most extensive corruption, indifferent and incapable of a wholesome care over so wide a spread of surface. This will not be borne, and you will have to choose between reform and revolution. If I know the spirit of this country, the one or the other is inevitable." - Thomas Jefferson
lol.....nanny state to the rescue!!
"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ... We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of." Edward Bernays, Father of Public Relations
#2. To: abraxas (#0)
#3. To: Cynicom (#2)
Times have changed.
#4. To: abraxas (#1)
#5. To: Turtle (#4)
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