Doctor dies in Kenner police custody: She stopped to aid bicyclist

[amazona]

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1105513000303660.xml

"A Kenner doctor who stopped to aid a boy who had been hit by a car died in police custody late Monday after she allegedly shoved police officers investigating the accident, but Kenner police said they believe they had no role in the woman's death.

Jameela Yasmeen Arshad, 51, of 133 Chateau St. Michel Drive, was in the back of a Kenner police car with her hands cuffed behind her back when she showed signs of distress, police spokesman Capt. Steve Caraway said in a news conference Tuesday afternoon."

Many years ago I lived in this town, which is filled with scary and corrupt police officers. I am afraid to this day to say much about what I witnessed there. I will just say, without knowing anything about this doctor, I would not be a bit surprised if she were murdered and the stories told about her being "aggressive" are a total lie. Yes, doctors may have "attitude" and a God complex at times, but I doubt they are normally killed for it.

I won't comment further as it can be a small world indeed and it is impossible to avoid this town, since it is where the New Orleans airport is located.

On edit -- registration may be required, they ask for your gender, age, and zip code but do not verify so it is a very quick process.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[indigobusiness]

1. use BugMeNot.com for reg

http://bugmenot.com/

Your link connects to the story.

[joeybee12]

2. Look at her name--OF COURSE the police are to blame!

Bunch of fucking good old boys trying to teach some dark, uppity black woman a lesson!

[jwcomer]

7. more likely Arabic.

"Jameela", "Yasmeen", "Arshad", husband is "Kaleem". These are all Muslim names. Unless you know otherwise, she's an Arabic woman. Which makes the situation all the more circumspect.

[Southpaw Bookworm]

10. Both?

There are many African-American Muslims.

[BiggJawn]

3. With a name like Jameela...

It's a fair bet, I assume, that she wasn't blond-haired/blue-eyed?

"Seizure"? Don't TASERS make you look like you're having a "seizure"?

"Teacher says:'Every time a TASER zaps, Bernie Kerik's cash register rings'..."

[pschoeb]

11. She was African American

Watch video,

http://www.theneworleanschannel.com/news/4072084/detail.html

[aden_nak]

4. Grrrrr.

Hmmm, no cause of death listed so far? Well, let's play a game. Imagine for a minute that a she died in custody because of police abuse. What do you suppose the local authorities would do? Immediately accept full responsibility? Riiiiight. I hope her family has someone to independantly verify the autopsy report. And (from reading the full article) since when do doctors walk around with a stethescope and medical bag on their person at all times. That's fucking weak. It'd be nice to see the egowhore pricks on that police force sit and rot in jail with the same lot they arrested, but I suspect the odds of that are slim.

[blueknight]

5. just sad

seems like more and more people die in police custody

[Philly Buster]

6. I lived on the West Bank (Gretna) for a while

NOLA police were famous for their corruption. I assumed the entire metro area was about the same.

[amazona]

12. Kenner is much worse than NOPD much worse NT

.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Redstone]

8. I see things haven't changed in Louisiana...

the Brown People don't count as human to the white folks. Even redbone Cajuns gotta tread lightly.

Redstone

[Maat]

9. This is so sad.

And so unnecessary. And not only are we now blessed with one less decent human being, we are also without a doctor who could help the entire community, saving lives. My prayers go out to her family (and I'm praying they retain a good lawyer too!).

I'm stunned at the lack of regard for human life. And we criticize third-world countries?

[FreeCajun]

14. We're worse than colored folk; we're FRENCH...

:cry:

on edit

I hope they hang the bastards who did this to that poor woman. This country is getting really ugly thanks to the atmosFEAR.

[BrklynLiberal]

13. As soon as I saw her name, I assumed the police had a proactive

role in her death.
How sad. She stopped to be a good samaritan, and it cost her her life.

[DulceDecorum]

15. Dr. Charles Richard Drew

is a physician who is known as "the Father of the blood bank."
He was involved in a car accident on April 1, 1950,
He died in North Carolina, at the age of 46, from his injuries.

Newspaper accounts said that the nearest - racially segregated - hospital refused to admit Dr. Drew because of his color, and that vital time was lost in taking him further away to a black hospital. By the time he arrived there, he had lost so much blood that nothing could be done to save him. It seemed a cruel irony that the man who had done more so much to make blood transfusions available to people in trauma situations was denied a blood transfusion when he needed it. However, the physicians who did treat him said that a blood transfusion was counterindicated and would have killed a man in his condition -- because, as you well know, blood tranfusions KILL people who are bleeding profusely.

And now, back to Dr. Arshad.

[CBGLuthier]

17. urban legend

A murky one as even Time magazine printed it but considered to be debunked;

http://wi.essortment.com/drcharlesricha_rnom.htm


Part of the evidence that Dr. Bensley had was a copy of a letter written by Dr. Ford , in which Ford tried to lay the 'bled to death' canard to rest." Dr. Ford has been quoted as saying: "Doctor Drew’s cause of death was that of a broken neck and complete blockage of the blood flow back to the heart. Immediately following the accident in which he was half thrown out of the car, and actually crushed to death by the car as it turned over the second time, the doctors who were able to, got out of the car quickly and came to Doctor Drew's rescue, but it was of no avail because even at that time, it was quite obvious that his chances of surviving were nil." It has been hypothesized that: “(the myth regarding Drew’s Death) may be a mutation of a myth concerning Bessie Smith's ( a famous Black Jazz Singer) death in 1937. She also died in a car crash in the South, and the myth circulated that she had died outside a "white's only" hospital after being refused admittance. In fact, she was taken directly to a "black" hospital by the black ambulance driver - half a mile from the nearby "white" hospital - where she died from internal injuries.” (urban myths)

[DulceDecorum]

19. That is the Armstrong Williams version

I stand by what I said.

The article you quoted was written by Andrea Hermitt for Pagewise.

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Here is Andrea Hermitt's website.
Andrea graduated from Suny Albany with a Degree in Fine Arts in 1991. For several years she painted murals and decorated rooms for friends and relatives before realizing that she could actually get paid to do it. In all, she has been painting and designing childrens rooms for 10 years.
http://www.ahermitt.com/

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Your apology is accepted.

[hector459]

24. I hope they get a good attorney and sue the hell out of the juridiction.

Problem is there is no one who will loudly protest except maybe the Rev. Al Sharpton and I think he will not.

[Jane Austin]

25. Why on earth was she arrested in the first place?

n/t

[prayin4rain]

16. So, so terrible. Stuff like this really disturbs me. n/t

[Lisa]

18. in an emergency, physicians do shove people ...

I can imagine that there would be a fair amount of potential for conflict between a doctor and a police officer (both of whom are used to getting their own way in a crisis).

If you are in the way, or about to do the wrong thing, a responsible doctor or nurse will push you aside and start working. There isn't time to ask or apologize. When I was working in a medical clinic, the lead person took me aside before my first shift and explained that there would be a lot of yelling and barging-in, and there would be times when I'd feel very stupid, but not to take it personally. Possibly the cops didn't get "the talk"?

[justjones]

20. They probably didn't get "that talk"....

but I'm sure they got another one....the one where they learn that Negroes have no place ordering white folks around, period, no matter what "profession."

Of course, this is purely speculation. I'm not sayin' that is what happened, I'm just saying that I can imagine some bigoted white police officer have a big problem with a black women barking out orders even though that's how ALL doctors operate in emergencies. If this indeed is what occurred, and I'm just speculating, she was just doing what she was trained to do and forgot what kind of people she was dealing with.

[GaryL]

21. I lived in NO Parish

I was astounded how little of the law the cops there knew. I was a student from out of state and they kept insisting I had to obtain a license since I lived there. I constantly had to explain that my residency was in ANOTHER state. Dumb asses.

[genieroze]

22. Well what do you expect?

We can't have them uppity Negro women touchin us. (sarcasm)

[lavenderdiva]

23. delete