Officer in Moats case resigns

<em>Posted by ESPN.com's Paul Kuharsky</em> <p>The officer who mishandled a traffic stop of the Texans' <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=8491" target="_new">Ryan Moats</a> as the running back's mother-in-law was dying <a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/fb/texansfront/6353561.html" target="_blank">has resigned</a> from the Dallas police force, John McClain reports.</p> <p>In everything I have seen and read about this case, Moats has handled himself with class. He didn't call for Robert Powell to be fired, indicating he expected the police department investigation would come to the correct conclusion and handle things properly.</p> <p>The case got a load of publicity because Moats is in the NFL. If it was you or me, we could have done a lot of screaming and complaining and jumping up and down waving our arms and not drawn much attention to Powell's behavior.</p> <p>Police officers face dangerous situations every day that we can't imagine, and we'd like all of them to be resolved safely safely.</p> <p>Let's hope the result of the well-publicized Moats incident is that the small percentage of law enforcement officials who are tempted to go on power trips like Powell did instead consider the consequences and factor common sense and compassion into the way they handle things.</p>

More...