Driver needed help, not abuse of power

At 9:30 p.m. March 30, one mile south of Fairfax, I missed the stop sign at the Airport Road because of the dense fog. I skidded across the road into the ditch. I was bleeding from my forehead when the Linn County Sheriff's deputy arrive. After the deputy looked at my insurance papers and gave AAA our location and gave my phone back to me, he would not allow me to complete the call with AAA and twice he yelled at me inside the car, “You don't talk to other people, you talk to me.”

I'm 75 years old. I wore a neck brace and told them I have a spinal cord injury. They ordered me out of the car three times. The third time I was so weak they had to half carry me to the road.

Another deputy gave me three tickets totaling $532.50. I needed help more than anything else, but I got abuse instead.

This is the worst case of abuse of power that I have ever experienced. What troubles me most is that this atrocity could happen in America, the free country that I love.

Michael Snider

Iowa City