Monday, June 22, 2015

Minute Rant: Cop Murders Ex-Wife And Fellow Officers Console Him

Phillip Seidle lives in Neptune Township, New Jersey. In May he and his wife divorced and a nasty custody battle ensued, and last week Phillip Seidle shot his ex-wife in front of their daughter and his co-workers.

Oh, and before I forget, Phillip Seidle has been on the Neptune Township Police force for twenty-two years so those co-workers were fellow police officers.

It all began with Seidle chasing his wife through town in his car — his seven-year-old daughter with him — ended after Tamara Seidle crashed a parked car. Seidle then slammed into her car, got out of his vehicle, took out his service weapon, and began shooting into his ex-wife’s car. He then placed the gun to his own head and paced around the scene, with his daughter still in his car.

This all went down quickly, but Asbury Park police officers — in the area responding to an unrelated car accident — witnessed the events, and were finally able to talk Seidle into letting his daughter out of the car. But, once she was safe, Seidle fired more shots into his ex-wife's car before turning the gun on himself once again and shouting:
“You guys don’t understand. I’m tired of paying alimony. I don’t get to see my children.”
This all happened in the space of half an hour; for thirty minutes police officers watched an armed man rant in the street, shoot his wife to death, threaten to kill himself, and yet they never fired a single shot at him. And so one would wonder if they had done so, would Tamara Seidle have survived, because for thirty minutes she was left bleeding and dying while officers “talked” to Seidle.

Sadly, it gets more disgusting. Police officers were able to convince Seidle to surrender, and at that point several of his fellow officers hugged him and patted him and consoled him, and then allowed a fellow officer to sit by his side in the patrol car on the way back to the station.

Not quite the “rough ride” Freddie Gray took. And the half hour it took to wait out Seidle’s surrender is quite different than the roughly two seconds it took police officers to shoot Tamir Rice to death for brandishing a toy pistol.

And yet people wonder why we are beginning to question who becomes a law enforcement officer?  Why we question their tactics and motives? People are wondering why everyone talks race in these crimes when we see black men shot down in the streets, choked to death in the streets, beaten to death in police vans, but a white police officer who shot his own wife in full view of his colleagues, gets the surrender while his wife dies?

Something is terribly wrong here ….

6 comments:

  1. Yep, something is rotten in Denmark alright. Way too much "got your back" crap going on in our police departments. And this one is pretty blatant.

    One can only imagine the lifelong trauma that poor child will have to endure because of his macho bullshit.

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  2. So very very sad for all concerned.

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  3. that kid is now screwed for life. and WHEN is the cop going to jail for MURDER?

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  4. I'm assuming Siedle is white? Would the outcome have been different if he'd been a black officer?

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  5. I'll play Devil's Advocate for a minute:

    How the police treated this guy (regardless) of his profession IS how they should be treating most. While not ideal for the female victim, police do aim and shoot all too frequently and all too soon. That they showed even a little restraint is somewhat amazing.

    For the rest of it: the back-patting, etc, it's odd at best. And it does look like favoritism.

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  6. Had he not being wearing blue, he would have been shot on the spot and his wife might well be alive now.

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