Police arrest diabetic Mr. Universe, thinking he was drunk when he was in insulin shock.

[LiberalHeart]

Oops. There's the muscular Mr. Universe trying to get some sugar when he realizes he's going into insulin shock, but he ends up arrested instead. And officials are following through with the charges:

http://newsgrinder.blogspot.com/2007/04/police-arrest-diabetic-mr-universe.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. because the police state foisted upon us can, it will.

damn the bushista regime.

[LiberalHeart]

2. I don't get why they don't just back down at this point. Poor guy.

[Iwasthere]

3. More and more bully cops out there

than ever before... incompetent bully cops and precenct offices. This field seems to attract the worse lately. Granted this is only a few bad apples but the numbers are certainly growing imo.

[DCKit]

6. There need to be some psychological standards for people who carry guns

I'm white and middle-aged, but boy-howdy, do I have some stories about cops.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

8. when the anti war protest BEFORE Iraqnam took place in Chicago,

the response was chilling, scary, and overwhelming. we saw a police state in the making. dozens of police, black-clad, armored, weapons, and clubs, and mace, and tasers and more at the ready, all wearing masks and helmets.

It reminded me more of Nazi Germany than Chicago. And that was years ago.

now, the police are acting like a body onto themselves, so much so that two very public events, the video of the bartender being beaten by a cop, and another video of four businessmen being beated by six cops, seemed more normal than abnormal.

apparently the videos were too much though. Chicago's police chief resigned yesterday.

[jobycom]

4. Longer story about the incident

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/03/mr.universe.ap/index.html

I'll be surprised if they go through with the charges. Dude is diabetic, a celebrity, and on the board of the American Diabetes Association, which means he'll not only fight the charges for himself, but he'll fight them for The Cause. Unless Redwood City, California, just enjoys throwing cash away, I suspect they'll drop this. If not, they deserve what they'll get.

[Lurking Dem]

5. I remember a story I read

a long time ago about cops handcuffing a belligerent man they thought drunk to a lamppost where he died. He had a MedicAlert bracelet identifying him as a type 1 diabetic, too.

Back in the day (as my son is fond of saying) I almost passed out from low blood sugar standing in line for Stones' tickets. I tried to get back to the car (why, I don't know - I didn't have any food in it) and collapsed in the parking lot.

A cop ran over to me and all I could think was he was going to think I was on drugs. But the first thing he did was ask if I was alright. I managed to get "sugar" out and he asked if I was diabetic. I nodded and he ran to this car and got me a candy bar.

Which is to say, there are some GREAT cops out there. I wish those who weren't would learn something from guys like this.

[DemBones DemBones]

7. Here's a better one: cops stopped my doctor's car

on Ash Wednesday a few years ago because they wanted to know what he and his son had on their foreheads (ashes, of course!) and why the boy was wearing a white robe (because he'd just served as an altar boy at Mass and was going to pull off his robe and leave it in the car when his dad dropped him back at school.)

Driving While Catholic. . .

The news media have done stories about Ash Wednesday for years so you'd think that even in a city that's largely Baptist, people would be a bit better-informed.


Of course, being arrested for drunkenness when you're sick is worse than just being stopped for a moronic reason. It has been known to happen to people with hypoglycemia as well, and probably to people with a variety of other medical problems.