Speaking of egos and overly emotional men, I watched a YouTube video last night. It was bystander footage and police body cam footage of an incident between an Oklahoma State trooper and an ambulance crew.

The ambulance crew were transporting an elderly woman, who was probably having a heart attack, to a hospital ER. She was not stable, but following routine procedures, the crew left the lights and sirens off so as not to further traumatize her.

The trooper, who was responding to a call elsewhere, came up behind the ambulance with lights and sirens on and became very angry that they did not pull over to the side of the road.

It didn't make any practical difference, because he passed the ambulance with ease, made it to his call, discovered he was not needed,.and then tracked the ambulance down before they made it to the hospital. He stopped the ambulance, wanting to ticket the driver for failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.

The crew chief in the back patiently explained to the cop that they had a critically ill patient who needed to get to the hospital. The more he explained, the more red-faced and furious the trooper became.

He ended up choking the ambulance crew chief for well over 20 seconds, even though he was doing nothing to physically resist the trooper.

Then the elderly woman's family became involved, because they had been following behind the ambulance, obviously anxious about her condition. The trooper threatened to arrest them too, even though all they were doing was begging him to stand aside and let the ambulance take their mother to the hospital.

(It might or might not be coincidence that the trooper was white, and the ambulance crew, patient, and family were black.)

Eventually, the trooper calmed down and allowed them to proceed to the hospital, where he said he would go ahead and arrest the driver and the ambulance crew chief. He must have reached his senses (or had some sense talked into him) before that, because no arrest ever took place.

But the paramedics sued in federal court, which is how all this came to public attention.

I watch a lot of videos like this, because I have a deep interest in police brutality and criminal justice reform. Police officers I watch on video everyday exhibit extreme emotional behavior like this. They lose it when people question their authority or even slightly bruise their egos.

And people say women have a problem with being too emotional?

Sure, Jan.