2014-08-19 19:26:31.700504+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments
Ho. Ly. Shit. If you want to know everything wrong about policing in the United States: Washington Post: I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me.
Ya know, parents who beat their kids generally have the best of intentions.
Or, RT Molly Crabapple @mollycrabapple:
When cops say they have to beat people cause they're insulting or threatening, I think of all the street harassers I've left untouched
[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2014-08-20 14:19:15.908013+00 by: Larry Burton
The job description is law enforcement. When push comes to shove the cop must shove as hard as required to enforce compliance. I have no problem with that concept. I have problems when force is escalated or continued after compliance is achieved.
#Comment Re: made: 2014-08-20 15:08:49.584825+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]
So I'm still thinking about how to wrap this up for the front page, but my big problem is that the cops quite often are unaware of or deliberately flouting the law. An example: Danny Sullivan: When I Was Handcuffed, It Wasn't A Racial Thing - It Was A Police Thing.
#Comment Re: made: 2014-08-20 16:26:05.58686+00 by: Larry Burton
I read the article and I've seen the type of behavior described. I suspect the author is actually pretty much of an asshole and the police genrally only give the courtesy they are required to give to an asshole.
Here's a cops explanation of why people see cops as arrogant.
#Comment Re: made: 2014-08-20 16:54:32.011862+00 by: Dan Lyke
I'm down with sympathy for the difficult job that police officers do. I have no sympathy for using authority to hassle people just because they can (ie: the extrajudicial punishment described in Danny Sullivan's article), or for ignoring laws and basic tenets of cooperative behavior just because they can (again, Danny Sullivan's description of the cop rolling the stop sign, although anyone who's a pedestrian or a cyclist knows that you have to be extra careful when there's a police cruiser around).
And, really, if they're having that much trouble with witness cooperation, then we probably either need to reconsider the laws that we're asking them to enforce because those laws are not serving the community, or they need to reconsider how they deal with witnesses.
Back in my 20s I was a witness to some excessive speed (that wasn't, in the end, cited), and had a cop giving me shit, and when his partner told the cop to stop said cop responded that I wasn't being subservient enough. Fuck, dude, I'm a witness, not a perpetrator, we all saw what happened, the fact that I'm somehow not displaying the proper amount of bowing and scraping here along with my observation seems like you're just trying to piss me off and make me uncooperative.
Of course now I know that I shouldn't have even cooperated to that extent.
#Comment Re: made: 2014-08-21 02:56:34.681558+00 by: Larry Burton
Oh, don't take my police apologist writings as ever condoning an abuse of authority I just know that to do the job we task them with having the authority they have is necessary and to place them into constant contact with the dregs of society is going to have a profound effect on their perspective.
I know it is necessary for the police to maintain control in all situations and that if I wish to have any control over the situation myself I will not challenge their control. That doesn't mean I lay down and let them do as they please. I will not consent to a search and I will not talk any more than is required by the situation. Of course, if a man with a gun is intent on searching my car without my permission I'm not physically standing in the way of that.
Court is the place to settle any dispute with the way an encounter with the police turns out.
#Comment Re: made: 2014-08-24 03:17:57.548351+00 by: dexev
#NotAllCops
???