Chattanooga police charges dropped

In an action requiring a quick decision, Chattanooga police and the district attorney stepped forward and dropped seven felony charges and all other charges against a man who was rushing his wife to a hospital.

The story attracted national attention after the man's wife suffered stroke-like symptoms. From the stories, most of the confrontation between the driver and the officer occurred in the hospital's emergency-room driveway, as the man attempted to carry his wife in for treatment.

Among the officer's claims was one that the man carried his wife directly into a treatment room without permission of the hospital staff. The husband, described in a CNN news story as a "trained emergency medic", obviously wasn't going to sit down in the emergency room and wait for a triage nurse's coffee break to end. He was smart, and he did what he needed to do.

The cop should have sized up the situation and stood by with his ticket book, while the emergency was being handled.

Local police officers and deputies need broad and good training, and they need the discretion to address each individual situation appropriately. What training do they get, so that they can respond appropriately to a similar situation in McHenry County?