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A family wants answers about what happened to their son that left him hospitalized. Early Saturday morning, police found Mace Hutchinson, 16, underneath the Highway F overpass over U.S. 65. Mace ended up in intensive care at a hospital. His parents believe the actions of Ozark police officers contributed to his injuries and slowed doctors’ abilities to speed his recovery.
“We called the police. My wife was afraid he was going to get ran over or hit,” said witness Doug Messersmith. Messersmith and his wife were the last known people to see 16-year-old boy walking, shortly before their phone call to 911. “He looked a little agitated but, other than that, he didn’t look to be falling down drunk or anything like that,” he said. By the time officers arrived, the teen was off the 30-foot overpass, lying on the shoulder below along U.S. 65, with no good explanation as to how he got there. “According to the doctors, all injuries are consistent with a fall,” said his aunt, Samantha. Mace’s dad believes it was just that, a fall, not a jump. The question is why.
“They tested his system. He was clean of drugs and alcohol. We don’t know why unless just being in shock and the whole thing in itself caused him to forget everything,” said Hutchinson. His aunt says he is undergoing major surgery for a broken back and broken heel. While he was lying on the ground, she wonders why Ozark police used an electric stun gun on him up to 19 times.
“I’m not an officer, but i don’t see the reason for ‘Tasering’ somebody laying there with a broken back. I don’t consider that a threat,” His dad says the use of the stun gun delayed what would have been immediate surgery by two days. “The ‘Tasering’ increased his white blood cell count and caused him to have a temperature so they could not go into the operation.”
“He refused to comply with the officers and so the officers had to deploy their Tasers in order to subdue him. He is making incoherent statements; he’s also making statements such as, ‘Shoot cops, kill cops,’ things like that. So there was cause for concern to the officers,” said Ozark Police Capt. Thomas Rousset. Police say although there are several unanswered questions; the reason for the use of a stun gun is not one of them.
“It’s a big concern for the officers to keep this guy out of traffic, to keep him from getting hurt,” said Rousset. Mace was still in intensive care on Wednesday night, listed in fair condition. He was scheduled for surgery again on Thursday.
Riyadh – Saudi women are prevented by male guardians from enjoying their basic rights, including travelling, working and getting married, the Human Rights Watch group said Monday.
“Saudi women often must obtain permission from a guardian (a father, husband, or even a son) to work, travel, study, marry or even access health care,” the New York-based group said.
A report, entitled Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia, draws on over 100 interviews with Saudi women to document the effect of discriminatory policies on women’s basic rights.
“The authorities essentially treat adult women like legal minors who are not entitled to authority over their lives and well-being,” the 50-page report said.
Saudi women are denied the right to access government agencies that have no female sections unless they have a male representative.
“The need to establish separate office spaces for women is a disincentive to hiring female employees, and female students are often relegated to unequal facilities with unequal academic opportunities,” the human rights group said.
In cases where permission of a male guardian is not required, government officials often ask for it.
Airport officials, for example, ask women over 45 for written permission from their guardians allowing them to travel despite a recent government’s exemption from this requirement.
A 40-year-old Saudi woman, whose name was given as Fatma A., told the group that she cannot board a plane without written permission from her son, who is her legal guardian.
“My son is 23 years old and has to come all the way from the Eastern Province to give me permission to leave the country,” Fatma said.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that enforces a ban on women’s driving.
Women in the conservative kingdom have severely restricted access to justice and have difficulty filing a court case or testifying in court without a legal guardian.
Paradoxically, Saudi women have only limited rights to make decision for themselves but are held criminally “responsible for their actions at puberty,” the report said.
“For Saudi women, reaching adulthood brings no rights, only responsibilities,” said Farida Deif, women’s rights researcher for the Middle East at Human Rights Watch. (dpa)
This article is also a response to a comment in this blog in the article “Israel 60 years of…” made someone who call himself Mohammad.
In Israel, the State like the Nazis discriminate and distinguish people by their ecthnicy or relegion, even in their cars.
First of all the youthman didnt made any crime, he was just in his country with the flg of his country.
Then soldiers arrest him and with him blindfold they shoot him in the leg, maybe for pleasure…
It is commun to israeli soldiers to do that, but this time the israeli B’Tselem humans right group got it on tape.
