#followingdoctorsorderswhileblack

[sarcasticcynic]

Black patient hooked to IV arrested after going on walk outside hospital

Shaquille Dukes says he was racially profiled and arrested outside a hospital.

Latest episode in the continuing saga that is #LivingWhileBlack:

24-year-old African-American Shaquille Dukes was at a hospital recovering from double pneumonia. In accordance with his doctor’s recommendations, when he was feeling up to it he went for a walk around the parking lot with a couple of visiting friends. He was still connected to his IV. He did not leave the property. A (white) hospital security guard nevertheless accused Dukes of trying to steal the IV to which he was attached:

“I don’t care what they told you. As far as I’m concerned, this is hospital equipment and you’re attempting to steal it. ... He’s stealing hospital property, basically, by leaving. I don’t care if he was coming back, that’s stealing.”

The guard called the police, and Dukes and his friends were arrested.

The incident was caught on video. The police chief reviewed the video, and announced that the officers had “handled it in the best way they could,” and in particular that they were justified in arresting Dukes and his two friends for “disorderly conduct” towards the security guard. Evidently it’s a crime to be upset when someone falsely accuses you of stealing and calls in the police.

If you’re black, that is.