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July 06, 2005

That's gratitude for ya

In yet another shining  example of Your Tax Dollars At Work™, one of the police departments down where we were at the Bacchanal on the Comal arrested a man for committing the most cardinal of sins - showing them up.

A San Marcos man was arrested after rescuing a swimmer from the swirling waters near a restaurant on the San Marcos River over the weekend.

Police say Dave Newman, 48, disobeyed repeated orders by emergency personnel to leave the water. The police report does not mention Newman's rescue of 35-year-old Abed Duamni of Houston on Sunday afternoon.

Very likely because that would raise the obvious question:  Where the Hell™ were they  during this sequence and what in Great Honkin Cthulu's name were they doing while this guy Duamni was drowning?

"I was amazed," Newman said after getting out of Hays County Law Enforcement Center on $2,000 bail Monday morning. "I had a very uncomfortable night after saving that guy's life. He thanked me for it in front of the police, and then they took me to jail."

After being handcuffed and put in a Texas State University police squad car, Newman was taken to jail and charged with interfering with public duties.

Seems Newman was taking the Tea-sip State college cops away from their very public duty of scarfing donuts & coffee.

Duamni, who said he did not see any signs warning swimmers of the dangerous currents, jumped into the water several times before the current caught him. He had just finished eating at the restaurant when he decided to go for a swim.

"I reached a point where I said, 'I'm dead,' " Duamni, who was visiting San Marcos, said from his Houston home Monday night. "There's was nothing I could do. I thought, 'That's it, I'm over, I'm gone."'

After reaching Duamni, Newman said he swam with him under a waterfall and deposited him on the shore opposite the restaurant. He could hear law enforcement personnel telling him to come back to the shore by the restaurant.

According to the report, Newman smirked and seemed annoyed by officers' requests.

I'd be smirking too, if I'd just shown a horde of trained professionals that I could do their job better than they could.

He stood in the water for about 15 seconds before swimming downstream, to avoid the turbulence from the waterfall, and across the river to the officers, the report said.

"When he came across the river, the officer stuck out his hand like he's going to help him out of the water, and he put cuffs on him," said the Rev. John Parnell, pastor of St. Augustine Old Roman Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

"Our donuts are gettin' stale, Verne!  We better teach this S.O.B. a lesson 'ere, ayup."

According to the police report and witness accounts, the crowd that had gathered to watch the rescue was upset when they saw the police arrest Newman.

Parnell and another man blocked the police officer's path to the squad car while other members of the crowd yelled at the police, telling them Newman had saved Duamni's life and should not be arrested.

They should  consider themselves damned lucky that's all  the crowd did, the tin-horned little tyrant bastards.

University spokesman Mark Hendricks said he did not know whether Newman rescued Duamni. Hendricks said it was his understanding that Newman was uncooperative with authorities.

Because never  do the so-called "authorities" ever  do anything wrong, never  are they possibly at fault, noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

When Duamni got out of the water, he saw Newman in handcuffs and asked who he was. "I said, 'What's the deal,' and the police said, 'He got you out,"' Duamni said.

San Marcos resident Bob Ogletree said he understood why emergency personnel wanted to clear the water, but didn't understand why Newman had to be arrested.

You're not the only one, Mr. Ogletree.  Lot of us wondering when it became a crime to save someone's life, as well.

In 1999, Texas State University, which owns the dam and the land around it, erected a fence to prohibit access to that part of the river. Later that year, the City Council enacted a swimming ban on that portion of the river. But Newman led a successful campaign to get the fences around the swimming hole removed and the ban relaxed.

Guess they got their pound of flesh from him, whaddya think?  Can you say "retaliation"?  "Official oppression", perhaps?

Fucking goons...

Posted by Lord Spatula I, King & Tyrant at July 6, 2005 01:25 PM

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Comments

Police = government sanctioned and supported street gang

Posted by: JonB at July 6, 2005 06:49 PM

That is just wrong. Bring the Pegasus alongside and we'll ram 'em.

Posted by: ZiPpo at July 7, 2005 01:56 PM

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