I need a hug

So here's my rant for the day...

I've been following that story about the lady dying in police custody at the Phoenix airport. If you haven't heard, she was apparently headed to Tuscon to check herself into an alcohol rehab clinic. Instead she got bumped off a flight and threw a fit which got her arrested. While she was in a holding cell, she managed to strangle herself while trying to get the handcuffs from around her back. Now I understand that her family is upset, I would be too, but the husband (that was not accompanying his wife) has said that all she needed was a hug. If they had been more caring and treated her "humanely" that she would not be dead now.

In this age of terrorism and the color chart from hell, how were the cops supposed to know that the woman was simply overemotional? If they hadn't arrested her after she started screaming and throwing things, people would have been outraged that they didn't act accordingly. Now it turns out she was allegedly drunk and emotionally unstable. I say, if you knew she was having problems and was about to check herself into a rehab center, wouldn't you have accompanied her to make sure it went smoothly? Am I being overly callous in thinking, where the heck was her "caring" family that were so worried about her? NO, because if it had been someone other than an affluent white woman that had been arrested for causing a disturbance and screaming "I'm not a terrorist" in a major American airport, they would have been taken down in hearbeat with no explanation needed. Kudos to the Phoenix airport police for doing what they were supposed to do. I understand that you don't have the luxury of sitting with every wacko to find out what they're "feeling" before they do something the could hurt lots of people.

Thanks DHS at life.sa.laugh@hotmail.com