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Published: March 30, 2009
We all know about the awful tragedy involving Ryan Moats and a Dallas city police officer.
The officer in this case, Robert Powell, grossly abused his power in detaining Moats while his mother-in-law lay dying in a hospital bed. During the 17 minutes or so, Powell had pulled his gun on Moats and prevented Moats from seeing his mother-in-law before she passed on.
Well it seems that this has not been the first time for Officer Powell.
Apparently less than a year ago, Powell had a run-in with Maritza Thomas, wife of LB Zach Thomas.
Powell pulled Mrs. Thomas over for making an illegal U-turn. She was then also cited for failure to show proof of insurance, running a red light, having an improper address on a driver’s license, and not having a registration sticker on the windshield. The latter four were later dropped.
In this case, Powell decided that it was necessary to handcuff and arrest Mrs. Thomas in lieu of simply writing her tickets.
While it is not technically an abuse of power for Officer Powell to arrest Mrs. Thomas, it is unheard of and uncalled for.
An officer has the right to arrest the driver if he feels as though the person was being unruly or if he/she has unpaid parking tickets, etc.
This was not the case as Mrs. Thomas has no prior record and is nothing more than an upstanding citizen.
Mrs. Thomas’ mother, Teresa Lozano, was in the car with her and offered to go and retrieve the proper documentation, but Powell dismissed her and even went as far as to unbuckle his holster and grab his gun.
In all, Mrs. Thomas was detained for about 5 hours in a holding cell while being threatened to be held overnight. She was forced to abandon her mother and her car was towed. Her mother was forced to ride in the tow truck and later posted bail for her daughter.
The Thomas’s decided not to file a complaint because they didn’t want to “cause a stir,” and that Zach believe it could just have been “a guy having a bad day” but now say they plan to file a complaint.
“This is no way compares to what happened to Ryan Moats and his family,” said free agent linebacker Zach Thomas. “But we wanted to tell our story, not knowing how many other people have been affected by Officer Powell. We know the vast majority of the Dallas police force are good and professional people, but this guy just seems excessive.”
Officer Powell is obviously someone who joined the police force simply to wield the power that comes with the position. He is the exact opposite of what the police force needs and unfortunately gives the good men and women of the Dallas police force a bad name because of his inexcusable actions.
He must be removed from the force and all of his power stripped before his harsh ways are elevated to the next level and he does something even worse and hurts someone more than he already has.
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