POW Report reader, David Jensen, kindly shares the following interesting story written by him and his wife MJ Cadle. [Full disclosure: POW Report attempted to reach out to the Ketchikan Police Department for more information but didn't receive a response before this article was published.]
Something very strange happened this [Wednesday, December 13th] evening at the airport ferry.
I have been processing and I still do not understand and still think this was very wrong, as does my husband.
I was sitting in my car waiting when a taxi pulled up. Two men got out, no ID that they were police and so I thought it was strange when they put latex type gloves on. I could hear a lot of yelling from the taxi though I could not understand it. When the ferry came, they hauled what looked like a heavy bag out of the taxi and put it on the ground still looking like a sack--turns out it was a man in handcuffs with a mesh covering over his head.
He had no shackles on his legs though I did not see him kick out. They hauled him up because he was not cooperative. One of the escorts had his hands full with small bags, so the other man had to forcefully pick the person up (I assume it was a man). Then they each grabbed an arm and made him walk towards the ferry ramp all the while the person in cuffs was yelling loudly enough that I could hear him in my car over the roar of the ferry and car engines, not to mention I was a good 100 feet away.
This was just as passengers were disembarking from the ferry.
The standard practice is for boarding passengers to wait at the top of the ramp for disembarking passengers to finish leaving the ramp because the ramp is not much wider than one person and their bag. But these escorts just forced their way down the ramp making everyone move around them. As they forced their way down, my thoughts were that this was so unsafe. If the man decided to fight or lash out or got away and ran up or down the ramp; innocent bystanders would be injured in this very tight and confined space with the only one way out--up or down a very narrow passageway.
If passengers were forced to escape down the ramp there would have been injuries what with the narrow confines, slope of the ramp and luggage on wheels. Using a weapon to subdue him in this crowded confined space would have been so dangerous to all around. My husband and child were about the third and fourth people off the ramp and had to step aside from these three men to pass.
My daughter's head is at the height of the handrails. All it would have taken was for the man to push sideways and she would have seriously smacked her head.
My Questions are:
Why didn't they take a vehicle across? Why wasn't the man in ankle shackles to minimize his risk of getting away or attacking others? Why didn't they wait in the taxi until all passengers were off the ramp before going down? Why didn't the escorts have any visible ID so we knew they actually had a right to take this man, in this way? Why did they take a taxi? It can't be cheaper than a government vehicle. Everything about this was wrong. I (and I am sure everyone that was forced to step aside) am so grateful this man did not lash out as he could so easily have done.
These guys took him to the airport ferry in a cab and dragged him down the ramp against everything and everybody. They endangered over a hundred people. I am sorry but I can't say what I really think of people that don't care.
Thank you to David for the share, if more information comes out regarding this public incident I will update the story.
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