Would You Break the Law to See a Dying Family Member?

yeah....i completely agree with you.....i don't understand how come some people do not understand the basic humanity. Why don't they show try and be a better human beings...i respect the rules and everything and breaking rules wud be the last thing i wud do...but if its an emergency situation i will break rules if i can't help it..afterall all are just humans not God

yes i do, we are created the laws.. if laws are avoiding us for good things.. i break the laws

thats wrong n heartless...he should've at least followed him to the room n waited outside til he said goodbye then dealt with it if he was really serious about his job....but any good "person" with a heart would have just let it go. u give some people authority and they love to take advantage of it. i don't think it's got anything to do with racism...i haven't seen the video tho...but i think anything to do with a superior white person and a inferior black person automatically people use the race card...sometimes it's not always the case. i think this guy was probably just on a power trip.

really the incident you told above is of shame for the police because laws are mad for humans not against humanities. firstly that policeman may be fool or of different mind so he was behaving like that or your saying may also be true that this may be a case of racism but if these types of problem occur at professional level than there is need of change in system and person like them should be punished. and you are asking that for dying person than we can break laws because laws are not above humanities and they are made for humans so there is need to think about this.

i saw the video footage of this and it was apalling. yes he went thru a red light but according to the report he slowed down first. i think the officer was unnecessarily belligerent and discompassionate. he could have given him a ticket later if he really felt strongly that that was what needed to be done. as far as racism it is highly possible and very unfortunate. just one correction i would like to make. it was his mother-in-law. very sad and should not have happened.

one should follow the law respectfully but humanity also matters ;so i definately break the law to see a dying family mamber because the person might have a desire to meet me. i think it is essiential to fulfill the desire of a dying person.it does not matter that the person should be your family member.......

This would be a very different discussion if Moats had T-boned another car while running that red light and killed someone. The fact that fate did not place a mini-van full of toddlers in that intersection is the only reason everyone is hating on the cop. I'm sure cops hear excuses all the time and I can't blame them for tuning out. If Moats had just followed the law and waited for the light to change, he would have likely made it in time to say goodbye to his mother-in-law (which was the realtion given in the article I read, not his mother). Heck, even if he had just said "I'm sorry, I was wrong, but could you please write the ticket quickly because my mother-in-law is dying in the hospital, and I need to get there fast," he probably would have gotten out of that situation more quickly. What the cop heard was someone just trying to get out of a ticket, which happens all the time, so I'm not suprised that he did not let him go quickly.

I have to say that I probably would do the same thing. From what I heard he did a "rolling stop" through a red light. Not only were the cops nasty to him they were ugly to his wife as she tried to walk into the hospital to see her dying mother. But the police department did have the good sense to apologize to them.

there is no doubt i would break the law to see a dying family member and i think its pathetic that cop didnt show any sympathy and let ryan moats say a final goodbye to his mother probally is a racist situation and thats ashame but karma does come back around in some way or other

Those police officers are just horrible. If it were them driving seeing there family member, I would purposely not let them, just for them to get a taste of there own medicine. If I were in Ryan's shoes, I would do the exact same thing, and I think alot of people would also do the same! I feel so sorry for him, my thoughts are with him. What a horrible thing to have happened.

Hi lotter of course i will,rather if its not the matter of family member ,may be anyother person ,i will certainly break the rule to save a life.

yeah i would brake the law to see a dying famely member but only to a point i wouldnt speed if i was going to put other people in danger. but i think that police man was totally out of order there if he had any heart he would of let him see his mother and then speak to him after. i know it was wrong to fun a red light but would the police man do the same it if was his mother. i'm not sure about the racism becouse i live in the uk and there isnt really much of it here but i dont think it should of matterd if he was black or white but some people are just evil. fire the police man!!

There are many instances where I would find it appropriate to break the law. If the POLICE are our authority, and they can make devastating mistakes like this one, then by no means should we have to respect the law entirely. If people were left to their own devices, they would still practice some kind our universal ethical code, it's innate. So by implicating more and more laws, we are thereby strangling people of their natural moral instinct.

I seen this, this morning as well, And it was highly disturbing. I think most of us would want to say good bye to our loved ones. Personally i could see myself breaking laws, especially traffic laws for that reason. I agree that the officer was rather dense. But he was correct when he said that he was "just doing his job". I mean I bet people say all sorts of things to get out of tickets all of the time. The question comes down to how the officer should have handled the situation. It was obvious that the individual was going to a hospital. As such the officer should have listened to his story and maybe even escorted him into the hospital to confirm the story. In this situation the officer did not listen to the man at all. I found it funny that he was caught saying "well if you'd have just explained the situation to me" as though the man had not been doing so from the very begining. I doubt that there was any racism behind this. Some officers get caught up in the moment, adrenalin can do that to a person after all. When we get afraid we think with our hindbrain and so most logical and rational thought desists. The officer was likely thinking he had a man that was going to try and flee the scene and chances are that his training kicked in and he did his best to keep the man there. I doubt he truly heard what the man was saying at all. Not to say that just because there is a rational explanation for his behavior being "possibly" a result of brain chemicals, that the officer was not in the wrong. He was doing his job, but he should have been more observant and seen that the hospital they were heading towards provided legitimacy to the mans claims. It wasn't so much disturbing as embarrassing. Officers of the law should be better able to "keep their heads" in even the worst of situations; they should be able to think things through and put "two and two" together.

Yes I would break the law to see a dying family member and this really bothers me. I hope the cop is fired. If it was so close to the hospital the cop could have followed him there . He could have taken the license plate number and sent him a ticket in the mail. I really really hope this cop gets fired. He is not a very compassionate person and we do not need people like this on the police force.

Of course I'd break the law to see a family member. We often do things when we are very upset that we wouldn't normally do. I can't say if there was any racism involved. Regardless, police officers should have a little more understanding and compassion in doing their jobs. They are supposed to protect and serve. I think dealing with the crap they have to put up with on a daily basis causes some to lose sight of this.

I think we would all do everything in our power to be near our loved ones. Sometimes, police officers get wrapped up in their jobs so much, that they make decisions, they later regret. I'm sure the officer in the story regrets his actions, but probably for liability purposes, doesn't want to admit it. I think police officers for the most part will be reasonable if one doesn't give them excuses, or argues with them.