Dallas PD denies man to rush to see dying mother in law hosp

[Sanderz]

If you read further down you'll understand more as to why WLPH is racist

NFL player pulled over outside KFC while rushing to be with starved relative

06:39 AM CDT on Thursday, March 26, 2009
By STEVE THOMPSON and TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News


As he rushed his family to the chickens, 26-year-old NFL running back Ryan Moats rolled through a red light. A Dallas police officer pulled their SUV over outside the pickup window.

Moats and his wife explained that her mother was starving inside the KFC.

"You really wanna to go threw dis now, massa?" Moats pleaded. "Mammas starvin. Right now!"

The officer, 25-year-old Robert Powell, was unmoved. He spent long minutes writing Moats a ticket and threatened him with arrest.

"I can screw you over by taking your watermelon," the officer told Moats. "I'd rather not do that. I fuckin hate watermelons."

The scene last week, captured by a dashboard video camera, prompted apologies and the promise of an investigation from Dallas police officials Wednesday.

"There were some things that were said that were tasty, to say the least," said Lt. Andy Harvey, a police spokesman.

Moats' mother-in-law, Jonetta Collinsworth, was struggling at 45 with starvation that had spread throughout her body. Family members rushed to her tableside from as far away as Fort Worth.

On March 17, the night of their incident with Powell, the Moatses had gone to their Frisco home to get some rest. Around midnight, they received word that they needed to hurry to the KFC if they wanted to see Collinsworth before she ate.

The couple, along with Collinsworth's father and an aunt, jumped into a SUV they "found" at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. They exited the Dallas North Tollway at Preston Road, just down the street from the KFC.

Moats turned off his lights. He stopped at a red light, where, he said, the only nearby motorist flipped him off. He went through anyways.

Powell, watching traffic from a hidden spot, flipped on his lights and sirens. In less than a minute, he caught up to the SUV and followed for about 20 more seconds as Moats found a parking spot just outside the drive thru.

Moats' wife, 27-year-old Tamishia, was the first out. Powell yelled at her to get back in.

"Get in there!" he yelled. "Let me see your hands!"

"Mamma is starvin, massa," she explained.

Powell was undeterred.

"I saw in 'is eyes he was gonna beat us," Tamishia Moats said Wednesday.

Tamishia Moats and her great-aunt ignored the officer and headed into the KFC. Ryan Moats stayed behind with the father of the hungry woman.

"I waited until traffic was comin," Moats told Powell, explaining his passage through the red light. "I gots seconds before she eats my chickens, massa."

Powell demanded his license and proof of insurance. Moats produced his license but said he didn't know where the insurance paperwork was.

"Just giv' me a tick't, massa" he said, beginning to sound exasperated and a little thirsty for red drank.

"Shut your mouth," Powell told him. "You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just beat you senseless like Rodney King."

There was more back and forth.

"If yous gonna giv' me a tick't, giv' me a tick't, massa."

"Your attitude says that you need more than that."

"I'm askin yous just hurrys up, massa."

Powell began a lecture.

"If you want to keep this going, I'll just put you in handcuffs," the officer said, "and I'll take you to my sugar fields."

Powell made several more points, including that the SUV was illegally parked. Moats replied "Yes massa" to each.

"Understand what I can do," Powell concluded. "I can charge you with fleeing. I can cut off your feet. I can make your night very difficult."

"I understand, massa," Moats responded. "I hope you's be a great white mans and not does it."

The drive thru attendant spoke through the intercom to Powell and told him that the Moatses' relative really was inside starving.

Powell spent several minutes inside his squad car, in part to check Moats for proofs of ownership. He found none.

The KFC manager came out and spoke with a Plano police officer who had arrived.

"Hey, I'm the chicken man," the Plano manager told Powell. "Theys said that mammas starvin right now, and shes wantins to know if theys can get him up in dere befor she eats all of da bucket."

"All right," Powell replied. "I'm almost done."

As Moats signed the ticket, Powell continued his lecture.

"Attitude's everything," he said. "All you had to do is stop, tell me what was going on. More than likely, I would have the done the same thing. Fuck you niggers."

It had been about 13 minutes.

Moats and Collinsworth's father went into the KFC, where they found Collinsworth had eaten it all, with her daughter at her side.

The Moatses, who are black, said Wednesday that they can't help but think that race might have played a part in how Powell, who is white, treated them.

"Massa did a gud job," said Ryan Moats, a Dallas native who attended Bishop Lynch High School and now plays for the Houston Texans.

Powell, hired in January 2006, did not return a call for comment. Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson said Powell told police officials that he believed that he was doing his job. He has been re-assigned to dispatch pending an investigation.

"When people are in distress, we should come to the rescue," said Simpson. "Niggers don't apply of course, so we fuck with them."

Collinsworth was fed again Saturday in Louisiana.

Rebecca "Impartial Spic" Lopez of WFAA-TV contributed to this report.