I am utterly sickened to my core reading this story and the story in the PD yesterday, especially as I think of the frequency with which I drive our streets with my 5 year old daughter.
There are numerous questions that the city and the police department must answer, namely:
- Why was this not made public until now?
- What is the relationship between this situation and Forrest Whitehall’s subsequent move to Petaluma’s PD?
- What training has been mandated for Sebastopol’s police to ensure this situation never happens again?
- Why was Whitehall’s gun drawn to begin with? Is that typical for a suspected DUI?
- Where are comments from the current police chief, as well as former Chief Nelson?
The sentence “Despite this, Hickey, Fenske and Whitehall have a discussion about what they could charge Callaghan with” and the fact all charges were subsequently thrown out indicates conspiracy and potential corruption in the police department.
This story cannot go away and the department owes a massive explanation to the public immediately. This strikes at the heart of any trust between citizens and officers. I hope Mr. Callaghan and his family receive as large of a payout as possible for this sickening crime committed against him, while his daughter screamed in the car for her sick father who needed HELP and not violence! Disgusting.
Maybe the city council should have a talk with the chief of police about having a discussion with his officers about this. Ya think!! Besides the fact that the man could of died and he and his daughter are now seriously traumatized, the city of Sebastopol is being sued Again. That should be just great for the already tight budget!
Easy to play Monday morning quarterback now and blame the police for overreacting. But if Callaghan was drunk driving and not having a diabetic episode, would you view the police actions the same way?
He was swerving all over the road, didn’t stop when the police turned on their lights. Continued weaving, unable to keep the truck in its lane, final crashing into a ditch all with his 6-year-old daughter in the car! He wasn’t coherent enough of his own daughter safety to pull over? He wasn’t coherent enough, of the people, families, children walking along Main St that he likely would have killed them had he drifted just a little farther? Pure luck he crashed into a ditch before hurting his daughter or the public. And he wasn’t coherent enough, that if he just pulled over when the police turned their lights on, this all would have been treated as a medical emergency, no harm no foul.
So you’re the police officer seeing all this play out, and when you confront the driver, he is uncooperative, which now today we know the reason, but at that moment all you have is an uncooperative person who actions demonstrated no concern for the public or his daughter. Why would the police officers not think they have to take forceful action?
Callaghan might be the greatest guy, greatest father in the world, but at that time, his actions weren’t
That doesn't excuse that fact that once the police offices found out what was really going on they put their heads together and came up the idea to falsely charge him and take him to jail. "his actions" were due to a medical emergency!
Good point. I don't disagree with you. If I was to guess at their motivations, its we live in a suit happy society and they were trying to protect their ass
I hear from insiders that Captain Hickey is also involved in an incident which led to the arrest of another local innocent man, and its about to hit both the local and NATIONAL PRESS as well.
I hope this leads to better training. I wonder why the officer was so quick to use a taser on what looks like non aggressive behavior. A taser is a "less lethal" weapon, there are deaths and serious injuries that can happen. I suspect police training is too fear based and inadequate. Instead of de-escaling situations, situations are escalated. I have had family in law enforcement and they never received training on how to recognize and handle altered mental states due to medical issues like diabetes or seizure disorders.
Sorry my comment wasn’t too clear. My comment was really two different items.
The first one, which you are referring to, was more in response to the other commenters that found the police behavior unacceptable. I was just trying to point out or wonder, if the incident was one of bad behavior (drunk driving) and not one of a medical nature (diabetic shock), would the commentors feel differently about the police actions? My hunch if it was a DUI, no one would care or feel sorry for Callaghan.
My second comment was about actual actions that happened. Reckless driving, endangering the public and his child, and not doing what the police requested. It doesn’t matter the reason
Man. This was one totally egregious police action. I hope the City’s insurance company settles this one quickly.
On another topic I was stopped dead in my reading when the article’s author wrote: “The legal filing describes this incident like so: . . .” Like so? Like so?? How about “as” or “as follows”? Not “like so”, never “like so”. Sheesh.
As I thought: The phrase "like so" is derived from the Middle English word "so," which itself originates from the Old English "swa". "Swa" meant "in this way," "in such a manner," or "to that extent". The word "like" initially meant "with the body of" and evolved to signify "similar to". The combination, "like so," essentially means "in this manner" and is used to indicate a way of doing something, often when demonstrating or illustrating.
I am utterly sickened to my core reading this story and the story in the PD yesterday, especially as I think of the frequency with which I drive our streets with my 5 year old daughter.
There are numerous questions that the city and the police department must answer, namely:
- Why was this not made public until now?
- What is the relationship between this situation and Forrest Whitehall’s subsequent move to Petaluma’s PD?
- What training has been mandated for Sebastopol’s police to ensure this situation never happens again?
- Why was Whitehall’s gun drawn to begin with? Is that typical for a suspected DUI?
- Where are comments from the current police chief, as well as former Chief Nelson?
The sentence “Despite this, Hickey, Fenske and Whitehall have a discussion about what they could charge Callaghan with” and the fact all charges were subsequently thrown out indicates conspiracy and potential corruption in the police department.
This story cannot go away and the department owes a massive explanation to the public immediately. This strikes at the heart of any trust between citizens and officers. I hope Mr. Callaghan and his family receive as large of a payout as possible for this sickening crime committed against him, while his daughter screamed in the car for her sick father who needed HELP and not violence! Disgusting.
Why is Sebastopol failing to police the police and then spending our taxes to defend them when they run amock?
Maybe the city council should have a talk with the chief of police about having a discussion with his officers about this. Ya think!! Besides the fact that the man could of died and he and his daughter are now seriously traumatized, the city of Sebastopol is being sued Again. That should be just great for the already tight budget!
Just noting that the current Police Chief was not in charge at the time of this incident. And my guess is there have been plenty of discussions.
Oh yes, I totally know that. I hope your right about the "plenty of discussions" part.
Easy to play Monday morning quarterback now and blame the police for overreacting. But if Callaghan was drunk driving and not having a diabetic episode, would you view the police actions the same way?
He was swerving all over the road, didn’t stop when the police turned on their lights. Continued weaving, unable to keep the truck in its lane, final crashing into a ditch all with his 6-year-old daughter in the car! He wasn’t coherent enough of his own daughter safety to pull over? He wasn’t coherent enough, of the people, families, children walking along Main St that he likely would have killed them had he drifted just a little farther? Pure luck he crashed into a ditch before hurting his daughter or the public. And he wasn’t coherent enough, that if he just pulled over when the police turned their lights on, this all would have been treated as a medical emergency, no harm no foul.
So you’re the police officer seeing all this play out, and when you confront the driver, he is uncooperative, which now today we know the reason, but at that moment all you have is an uncooperative person who actions demonstrated no concern for the public or his daughter. Why would the police officers not think they have to take forceful action?
Callaghan might be the greatest guy, greatest father in the world, but at that time, his actions weren’t
That doesn't excuse that fact that once the police offices found out what was really going on they put their heads together and came up the idea to falsely charge him and take him to jail. "his actions" were due to a medical emergency!
Good point. I don't disagree with you. If I was to guess at their motivations, its we live in a suit happy society and they were trying to protect their ass
I hear from insiders that Captain Hickey is also involved in an incident which led to the arrest of another local innocent man, and its about to hit both the local and NATIONAL PRESS as well.
I hope this leads to better training. I wonder why the officer was so quick to use a taser on what looks like non aggressive behavior. A taser is a "less lethal" weapon, there are deaths and serious injuries that can happen. I suspect police training is too fear based and inadequate. Instead of de-escaling situations, situations are escalated. I have had family in law enforcement and they never received training on how to recognize and handle altered mental states due to medical issues like diabetes or seizure disorders.
But he wasn’t drunk driving. You just invented a scenario that didn’t happen to try and explain actions that did happen.
Sorry my comment wasn’t too clear. My comment was really two different items.
The first one, which you are referring to, was more in response to the other commenters that found the police behavior unacceptable. I was just trying to point out or wonder, if the incident was one of bad behavior (drunk driving) and not one of a medical nature (diabetic shock), would the commentors feel differently about the police actions? My hunch if it was a DUI, no one would care or feel sorry for Callaghan.
My second comment was about actual actions that happened. Reckless driving, endangering the public and his child, and not doing what the police requested. It doesn’t matter the reason
OMG!!!
Ditto
Man. This was one totally egregious police action. I hope the City’s insurance company settles this one quickly.
On another topic I was stopped dead in my reading when the article’s author wrote: “The legal filing describes this incident like so: . . .” Like so? Like so?? How about “as” or “as follows”? Not “like so”, never “like so”. Sheesh.
As I thought: The phrase "like so" is derived from the Middle English word "so," which itself originates from the Old English "swa". "Swa" meant "in this way," "in such a manner," or "to that extent". The word "like" initially meant "with the body of" and evolved to signify "similar to". The combination, "like so," essentially means "in this manner" and is used to indicate a way of doing something, often when demonstrating or illustrating.
I’m a fan of “like so” so be warned. I wonder what its derivation is.
Apologies for jumping on you. I'm actually curious. What don't you like about "like so"?
I kinda liked the “like so”….
Are you kidding Kristyn? Surely you are?