RSS
Home
Oklahoma Highway Patrol rage: petition supporting trooper flops
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Code this one: fail. A petition advocating the arrest of paramedic Maurice White, seen here being choked by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Daniel Martin, has flopped.
Launched a few days ago, the petition to Arrest Oklahoma EMT Maurice White has gained only 61 signatures. Several of them clearly are fakes, and some are comments protesting the petition's stand.
The petition reads:
EMT White ignored Officer Trooper's repeated commands to return to his vehicle. To the point, that Trooper Martin informed EMT White he was under arrest. EMT White assaulted Trooper Martin causing a scene. In order to defend himself (Trooper Martin) placed EMT White in a choke hold as he repeated his arrest. Multiple times, EMT White left his patient completely unattended in the ambulance.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol Chief, Colonel Van M. Guillotte, writes on the OHP Web site to contact him if he can ever be of service.
Please let Colonel Van M. Guillotte know that Trooper Martin's arrest of EMT White needs to be fulfilled.
The public is speaking out on this issue, both with comments on my series of articles about this incident and also on another petition. A few days ago, I told you how my coverage of Martin's actions had sparked a petition to fire Martin.
That petition so far has gained almost 4,000 signatures. And there's another difference in the two petitions: the one asking that White be arrested is totally anonymous. No sponsor is listed, and there are no details.
On the other hand, Theo Karantsalis, a Miami, FL teacher and freelance journalist, fully identified himself and provided backup material on his petition site, Fire Highway Patrolman Daniel Martin. (Disclosure: since I interviewed Karantsalis and wrote about his petition, he has joined Examiner as the Miami Courts Examiner.)
Clearly, the public is sending a message about this attack, captured by a relative of the patient on a cellphone camera and also shown in the finally-released trooper's dash cam. The story may have dropped out of the international headlines, but the doubts still remain--will Martin, who his attorney called a 'hometown hero', receive any discipline from the Oklahoma Highway Patrol?
Or should the arrest of White on charges of obstructing justice be fulfilled, as the second petition demands? The incident has brought scorn down upon cops, the OHP, and even the state of Oklahoma. Clearly, some resolution is needed.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
