Ryan and Tamisha Moats Recount Their DPD Run-In on Good Morning America

By Robert Wilonsky Mon., Mar. 30 2009 at 8:00 AM

Categories: Crime

ABC News

Ryan and Tamisha Moats on Good Morning America this morning

The Ryan Moats-Robert Powell run-in keeps on running -- this time to Good Morning America, where Moats and his wife Tamisha sit down for an exclusive with Robin Roberts, though not before a lengthy recap that includes the dash-cam footage and Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle's apology. During the course of the interview, Tamisha Moats says that Powell did indeed pull a gun on her: "He could have shot me. He was pointing the gun at me and saying don't take another step."

That said, she'd also accept the officer's personal, one-on-one apology: "It would be comforting if we heard an apology directly from him. But we definitely would accept his apology because, you know, he's a human being." Says Roberts by way of introducing the nearly nine-minute package, "A city and a family try to move on."

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From the DPD website: "Since its creation more than 120 years ago, the Dallas Police Department has created an atmosphere of ethical, caring behavior." Guess somebody forgot to tell Powell this! "The men and women of the Dallas Police Department will work with the citizens of Dallas to provide the highest level of quality, professional service that the City of Dallas deserves." This certainly does not reflect the attitude and actions displayed by Powell. Nothing about that traffic stop was either ethical OR caring. Maybe it should read that the Dallas Police Department is dedicated to intimidating and belittling the citizens of Dallas by way of threats and will see to it that you are advised of how miserable we can make things for you. At any time you feel you have been mistreated by a member of the Dallas Police Department, speak up and you will be told, 'shut your mouth!'. We strive to maintain an authoritative stance over our citizens will accomplish this with repeated threats of going to jail.
I can definitely see both sides of the arguement here. Moats clearly broke all sorts of traffic laws on his way to the hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital, when he told the cop the reason he had done this, the cop could have used some common sense and allowed him to be with his family. If the officer deemed it absolutely necessary to give Moats a ticket, this could have been done with better discretion. He could have written the ticket while Moats was inside the hospital with his family and issued the ticket at a later time, rather than have him wait outside while his mother in law died. The cop was obviously on a power trip and abusing his authority to talk down to this man like he was an incompetent piece of shit. Unfortunately this happens every day. A lot of cops think that their badge and gun gives them the right to treat others as if they are underneath them. The cop at one point tells Moats 'his attitude sucks'. What about Powells attitude? Oh but he's allowed to talk to people that way cause he's a bad ass cop, right? To many cops behave this way! To hear the way Powell talks to Moats, one would believe he was a murder suspect or a rapist. Just another example of a douchebag cop using his authority to make himself feel tough. Put these two toe to toe in an alley in DFW and I'd put money Moats would beat the brakes off that pussy. One can only hope that one day Powell will get back what he gave and have some bully intimidate and humiliate him while he is in a vunerable and precarious situation. Your day will come Powell, along with all the other rogue cops out there that think their badge gives them the authority to belittle and degrade good innocent people. These pussies don't take into consideration that there are situations that their badge don't mean shit!
I am so sick and tired of everybody that gets caught breaking the law (ESPECIALLY FOOTBALL PLAYERS!) screaming they have been done wrong. Did he break the law? yes. Is he entitled to special treatment? No. end of argument. Why the hell should ANYONE apologize to him?
What's stupid are people who think traffic laws are "up for interpretation by the individual" Because, obviously, many people here think STOP means.. "if you are so inclined, and if you aren't in a rush" f� lulz!
Forgot #4 Stupid people and it you want to use my name, spell it right dummy
Can people please stop feeding the 4chan retards? Anonymous and TehMudKipz are just responding "for the lulz."
I'm self righteous, but last I checked, thats not illegal, running stop lights, stop signs, and failing to pull over for a police officer.. well, is. ;)
Just because people disagree with you and some other commentators doesn't mean they're a corrupt cop, self righteous, or a racist. It means I see things different than you do, nothing else. Talk about self righteous gale!
"Well, if he's fatally wounded already, then the officer can probably take his time." Lol you are correct but you get the point. Next time anon and whoever else have something serious happen to them at 3:00 in the am and time is of the essence don't go over the speed limit for even a split second, come to a full stop at every stop sign no matter how deserted the streets are, etc. etc. How idiotic and inhuman to expect that...The funny thing is there aren't many people saying the guy shouldn't have gotten a ticket, primarily that whether the guy got a ticket or not the situation could have been handled very different and much better.
My take on those posting in favor of Powell, fit in one of these categories: 1) cops, the crooked kind 2) people who are so self righteous that they think they would never break a law, no matter what the circumstances. 3) racists In 30 years of driving, I have only gotten 2 tickets. But, there were several occassions that my son went into severe allergic reaction and I had to rush him to hospital to save his life. If I would have been stopped by a cop like Moats, my reaction would have been so much worse. I think Moats showed nothing but grace to someone who was going out of his way to either be a jerk or try to get Moats to throw a punch. Those in category #2, should try to put yourself into Mr Moats shoes for just a minute. There is no good reason to take up for this timebomb. I do not want to be driving in Dallas knowing there are "powells" in the police cars. Kunkel, please can his ass now!
I feel really bad for Moates' wife losing her mother...but am I wrong to say....she's hot!!
If it takes Officer Powell 13 minutes to write up one ticket, he is way too slow for the job. I got a speeding ticket recently (and I deserved it--I wasn't paying attention when the speed limit changed from 40 to 30), and I had that ticket in hand and was on my way in 5 minutes. Of course, the officer in my case didn't lecture me for 13 minutes about my attitude or threaten me with a night in jail or say anything about his ability to screw me over. Those added flourishes tend to drag things out.
A black friend (I'm white) of mine (one of the nicest and smartest guys on the planet) told me that the police would sometimes pull him over for no reason (aka Driving While Black) and treat him exactly the way they treated Moats. He said that Moats was an idiot but that kind of crap is pulled by our area police on a regular basis.
You are soooooooo right TehMudkipz, the world is coming to and end. OH the HUMANITY!!!
Now that the public seems to agree that you don't have to be held accountable for any laws you break because the officer you deal with is a jerk.. Short lines for everyone at the courthouse! Better yet, instead of tickets, they're now handing out apologies!
Anon, get real. He had his hazards on and was cautiously going through the lights/signs. Nice try.
Anonymous, even if you want to defend the officer-are you his lawyer, by the way?--for enforcing the law without using any discretion, there is absolutely no way in the world you can spin how he treated Moats. He was consistently rude and ill-tempered and continued to personalize the encounter. There is never an situation for an officer to tell anyone "I can screw you over." That betrays a corrupt, abusive mindset and it should--and probably will--be met with severe discipline. The fact of the matter is that the officer that the world witnessed on that videotape is a jack ass and a bully. And an idiot. Is that a fireable offense? We'll have to wait on that.
So.. It is the consensus of the Un-Fair park peanut gallery that if en-route to witness the demise of your mother-in-law you do not have to stop at red lights, stop signs, or pull over when signaled to so do by the police. Wonderful, I look forward to sharing the road with you people.
"I am smart enough to follow simple traffic laws. Something the state of Texas assumes even a 16 year old is smart enough to do." And when the city of Dallas hired Officer Powell, they assumed he was smart enough to use better judgment. The city was wrong, and now Powell will be fired.
"How about someone in a hurry because they have a fatally wounded person in the car?" Well, if he's fatally wounded already, then the officer can probably take his time. "What signal is there to tell other motorists or pedestrians that "this dude is a nutcase and is NOT going to be stopping at the intersection"" Probably the fact that he stopped long enough to make sure no one was coming before going through the intersection. Not even Powell disputes that.
Lazygrad.. Police don't "screw me over", I am smart enough to follow simple traffic laws. Something the state of Texas assumes even a 16 year old is smart enough to do.
Only emergency/police vehicles have the legal right too bypass traffic laws. This is part of the reason these types of vehicles are equipped with lights and sirens. What signal is there to tell other motorists or pedestrians that "this dude is a nutcase and is NOT going to be stopping at the intersection" Think of it next time you're in your car or walking across the street. How many times a day do you assume that people are going to stop at the red light while you cross on green. Ask yourself if you were crossing an intersection, and you were hit, injured, and/killed by another motorists who was running lights because they were en route to see their mother in law die.. Would it still be ok? Would you still be defending them?
"......he is combative and refuses to comply with the requests of the officer." That is complete bullshit. You are either lying or don't have a clue as to what really happened.
TehMudkipz, Let's hear what your tune will be the next time a cop "screws you over"
Officers have the authority to use their judgment and common sense to resolve situations in the way that best serves their community. They can give warnings or let people go if circumstances demand. They're not robots, but people entrusted with a duty to exercise good judgment as they enforce the law. What if it was a pregnant lady in labor who'd run the red light? How about someone in a hurry because they have a fatally wounded person in the car? Those people would also have broken the law but as a police officer you have to be prepared for unusual circumstances. You don't deal with them in the same way as a normal person, and you don't treat them like criminals. It's not just common sense and decency. Although that plays a big part, these officers are trained to take all of that into account. This officer did a very bad job. TehMudkipz, this is obviously too much for you to conceptualize though, so apologies to you.
Guy runs a red light, refuses to pull over, runs two stop signs while being followed by the police, then once he gets to where he is going (as in, not pulling over) he is combative and refuses to comply with the requests of the officer. And for all that, all he got was an apology from the police chief. Oh boo-hoo, lets all feel sorry for him and caress his fragility.
Go back to \b\, TehMudkipz. We have enough trolls of our own here.
Oh.....and on top of that HIS WIFE'S MOTHER WAS DYING! That's why she RAN out of the car.
Yes, he broke the law and told the Officer that his mother-in-law was dying. That's where the arguement begins. The officer didn't need to prolong the wait, he could have hurried and wrote the ticket. But instead he spent 13 minutes treating him like a child. Ever heard of common sense?
He broke the law yet the only people being held accountable for their actions are the police. That should be the news, not another law breaking celeb pissing and moaning as if he got beat down by Nazi Stormtroopers. All he had to do was pull over, stay in his car, and shut his mouth. He did none of this.
"Remember the old quip about freedom in America. How those in other countries get locked up willy nilly. Much like assumptions that Mexico is a hot god forsaken land--when that is TEXAS, we've got this all wrong." Yes, you can spend time in prison for a plant not only in Texas but in America.
If you think that this thuggery by Dallas police is an isolated incident, think again. I was arrested at my home for making terroristic threats for writing an article about a school where I used to work. Yes, that's true. I wrote, and continue to write, articles detailing the wrong doings of this particular Oak Cliff charter school and its operators. A police officer who works at the school came to my home while on duty at the school and had me arrested for making terroristic threats because I said that I was going to continue to write the articles. This particular police officer's child had been a fourth grader in my classes at this school the previous year and the child had received numerous behavior referrals to the principal's office. The police officer works off-duty security at the school and has a vested financial interest in seeing that the off-duty job continues. This case is sad on three levels: One is that the officer was on paid time at the school and drove two miles to my home to do the bidding of the school. Two is that the appearnce of inpropriety can not be missed in the fact that I had written numerous referrals on her child in the previous school year. Three is the fact that the police officer and the school's principal are best friends. At one time the only picture on the principal's desk was of this particular police officer. The officer, her children, and her ex-husband attend the church that the principal's husband leads as pastor. I spoke to the Dallas City Council about the officer's conduct on February 25, 2009. I also filed an internal affairs complaint against the officer on that date. Something must be done about the abusive, rouge, for-pay policing that is infesting our city. I'm sure that Chief Kunkle will right this wrong situation. J. Dunn
Jim Webb, the courageous Senator from VA has introduced a proposal to review our criminal justice system. The US has 5% of the world population and 25% of the worlds prison population. Remember the old quip about freedom in America. How those in other countries get locked up willy nilly. Much like assumptions that Mexico is a hot god forsaken land--when that is TEXAS, we've got this all wrong.