Once again

We have yet another incident of police brutality making headlines in the US. This isn't explicitly brutal in that the usual police brutality tactics of pummelling someone into the ground, or battering people with batons, but this is negligence at its worst. In November, it was the shooting of the UCLA student with a taser gun, and the killing of a black guy in New York on his bachelor's eve do. So what do we have this time.

We have a woman, Sofia Salva, whose car is stopped by Kansas City police officers, Melody Spencer and Kevin Schnell. She's wanted on a variety of minor charges. When the police start questioning her, she tells them she's bleeding and she's on her way to the hospital. Basically, she's three months pregnant, and she thinks she's about to have a miscarriage. So do the boys in blue call an ambulance? No siree, they take her into custody. The next day, she has a miscarriage.

It's not just the fact that a woman who desperately needed medical attention was locked up, but the disdain with which she was treated. Sofia Salva did not matter to these officers. The woman was just another statistic to be locked up, another notch to be added to the department's belt. The whole thing was recorded on the squad car camera, and Kansas City Star got a copy of the tape under freedom of information laws, and have a harrowing transcript of the encounter. It's distressing to watch. To serve and to protect?