Want to hear a dead baby joke?

The most dangerous situations in the world are when ignorant people get into confrontations with one another, because the probability of something absolutely stupid happening skyrockets. The worst thing about it is that most of the time the ignoramuses that started the conflict are generally the one's least affected by their careless actions.

In Houston, a few ignoramuses got together and managed to make the news. A few days after his wife gave birth to their newborn baby, ignoramus number 1- William Lewis -decided that it was time to take the baby home, and he was going to do so whether the hospital allowed him to or not. A detector on the baby's ankle went off when he tried to leave the hospital so he was stopped, confronted, and ultimately tased by off duty Houston Police Department (HPD) officer, D.M. Boling, or ignoramus number 2. This all happened while the baby was still in Lewis' hands! Of course when Lewis was shocked he lost all control over his muscles and dropped the 2 day old baby, who fell about 2 feet to the concrete floor.

As horrifying as that is to imagine, the pair of fools did not cause much physical damage to the baby. The mother, who chose not to release her name (probably because she didn't want to publicly admit to relations with ignoramus number 1), said that her baby hasn't been the same since, "my baby — she had the shakes real bad. She's not as calm as she was before." But the fact of the matter is the results could have been much worse and that child is lucky not to have received permanent damage or even not to have died from that fall.

So let me break the story down just a little bit for you to truly realize the carelessness of these two men's actions. According to Officer Boling, Lewis made threatening remarks to him that there would be a hostage situation if he is not allowed to leave with the baby. Now I am not a father, but its not hard to emphathize with his outrage towards the hospital for not letting him leave with his newborn, without at least the courtesy to explain to him why. So, his feelings I understand. His actions on the other hand, are a different story. Why would you ever tell anyone that your baby is going to be your hostage if you don't get what you want? As justifiably upset as Lewis was, he placed his baby in direct harm, or at least gave others the perception of harm by making those statements.
The worse thing is, he probably didn't mean them, he was probably just a bit too eager to get his family home and put the baby safely to bed for the first time. But thats still no excuse. Sometimes, especially in regards to your family, you have to look at things logically. So I came up with a few questions for self reflection for ignoramus number 1 that might help him make a wiser choice in a similar situation next time. Was it really necessary to act a damn fool like you did because you couldn't go home ignoramus number 1? Would it have made a great deal of difference if you had made a more rational decision and left in the morning after following the hospital's protocal? I hope you realize the answer to the second question is yes, it would have made a world of difference. You wouldn't have gotten tased, your baby wouldn't have fell on concrete, and you wouldn't be in jail thinking about how your baby is doing.

Thats right folks, Lewis is in jail for the stupidity of his actions. Sometimes the justice system gets it right. But in this case, and most others, they didn't get it all the way right. Of course I agree with charging Lewis with endangerment, its fair to say he endangered his baby and should be punished to deter him from doing anything similar in the future. But what I disagree with, is the fact that he was the only one charged. Ignoramus number 2's hands were certainly not clean of the situation. Officer Boling's actions were also the direct cause of that childs fall. Now to be fair, before I make him eat his spinach, I'll give him a cookie-I realize that his actions were based on the stupidity of ignoramus 1 and if ignoramus 1 had not been stupid to begin with, ignoramus 2 would not have been secondarily stupid. If a man's giving you indications that they may hold a baby hostage, justifiably you shoud try means to get the baby out of the man's hands.
But they say the road to dumbass land is paved with good intentions. That scares me, because this particular dumb ass is a member of Houston's finest, one of the few men and women given the authority and responsibility to protect and to serve. They are trained in how to properly use their weapons, what the affects of using their weapons are, and when the use of the weapon is appropriate, and he still decided to tase a man holding a baby! He knew that once the man was tased, the father wouldn't be able to control his muscles, but ignoramus number 2 still thought it was a good idea to just let the baby fall to the ground. There was no reason he could not detain the man or at least keep the man from fleeing with the baby until the on duty police could respond and handle the situation a little more logically, and with a few more numbers. And what laws did Lewis break? I'm fairly sure that hospital protocal does not constitute any type of state or federal code, actions as drastic as tasing the man for trying to leave with his own child seem to be a bit outside the realm of hospital security, even if he is an off-duty officer. If he thought his actions in that situation were justified, then I'm inclined to believe that the only that stopped him from shooting the guy point blank, is that the taser was closer to reach for on his utility belt.
Officer ignoramus, you are a member of the Houston Police Department, and as such you are held to a higher standard of decision making even in the most tense and dangerous situations. Regularly citizens can afford to be irrationale, but you can't, your life and others depend on it. So I compiled a few questions for you to self reflect on, and hopefully they will deter you from making the same mistake in the future. Why would you send 50,000 volts of electricity through a man holding a baby and not account for whats going to happen to the baby? Did you really feel you were protecting the baby's life by doing what you did, or where you more concerned with upholding the blind and just laws of the hospital? Finally, would you have really felt you did something to help the child if the newborn ended up with brain damage from you choosing to tase the father?

Everyone is entitled to a little stupidity in their lives. Some decision they can look back on and say "Man was that stupid". NO one is entitled to this when a baby's future is what your putting at risk. Ignoramus number 2, I hope this family realizes real soon that you were negligent for what you did and then sues you. Ignoramus number 1, I hope your child grows up to be big and strong and then slaps the ash off your lips for what you did and says "now we're even".