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If you’re anything like me, scrolling through Facebook during statistics class is usually how I procrastinate when being taught about bar graphs and pie charts. If you’ve been paying attention to your news feed recently, you’ve probably encountered a terrifying video of a nurse in Salt Lake City being physically and verbally harmed by a police officer who was relentlessly trying to force her into drawing blood from a patient who was unconscious. If you haven’t come across this story, I urge you to watch the video to get a sense of what can happen when people abuse their power. Long story short: a man was involved in a car accident, which inevitably led to someone dying. The police involved in the case wanted to take a blood sample from him, even though he was unconscious. The nurse, Alex Wubbels, imparted the information to the officers that without consent from the patient, she couldn’t legally draw blood. After much talk between a specific cop, Jeff Payne, and Wubbels, he approached her in a decisive manner, ending the conversation, and began to handcuff her in front of her colleagues, creating a scene. He then forced her outside and insisted that she sit, under arrest, in his cruiser.
When I stumbled across this video, my heart raced and I felt instant sympathy for this woman who was clearly following her protocol and not disobeying the rules. Hearing her repeatedly cry out, “I’ve done nothing wrong” stung me, and I immediately thought of how our patriarchal society has instilled the belief of male superiority in most men, especially those with power. I think that they feel a distinct power over women and think of women as subordinate to them. Of course, this doesn’t reflect every man in power, but it’s a common theme that is dreadfully instilled in our society. Abuse is by no means okay, and what makes this situation even scarier is that this abuse was brought on by someone who is supposed to be a role model. Police officers are people that we would like to think we can trust to keep the peace, not the other way around.
It is made apparent now, days after the incident, that the officer wasn’t even required to receive a blood sample from the patient; this makes me think that he wanted some action. It feels like he wanted to scare somebody, cause some trouble, and/or generate some excitement. This is not the correct way to spice up your boring job, if this is what he was trying to do.
Courtesy: Concord Monitor
For those of you wondering the consequences of this type of action, don’t worry, they didn’t go easy on him. On Sept. 5, it was announced that detective Jeff Payne had been officially fired from his work as an EMT and, once the investigation is over, his standing with the police department will be decided. The University of Utah hospital will no longer allow nurses to discuss anything with police officers, as situations such as this will be handled elsewhere because of the occurrence.
Wubbels is speaking out about her experience, not letting it be swept under the rug. Be careful and keep your heads up, collegiettes! We are strong and powerful women, just like this nurse, who can join together to destroy this blatant abuse of power.