MJS -- first, as to how I'd handle a person who is resisting. I imagine it would depend entirely on the specific circumstances at the time. I have not denied that the use of force can be justified given particular circumstances. There is, however, no one specific answer to such a hypothetical precisely because the totality of circumstance can not be known. I would ultimately hope, however, that I would not exceed my authority nor unnecessarily risk damage to the person I was attempting to restrain.
Let me ask these scenarios of you. You tell someone to get out of their car, they refuse. What would you do?
Person is out of their car, you attempt to cuff them, they resist, what do you do?
Basically, I'm asking, would you use a taser, kneel across their back, etc.? Again, going by your comment in that other thread, i get the strong impression that you think kneeling on the shoulder area is too much force.
That said, when was the last time such complaints were listened to from a minority community and action taken on them?
Well, they added an extra cop in some of the trouble areas, due to some recent serious incidents that have happened. People want to be safe, the city wants to address concerns....that tells me that the issues are being looked at. Of course, how many times have police responded to a serious incident such as a shooting, and the people are afraid or unwilling to help the police? See, its a 2 way street.
Like you, such officials immediately jump to the belief that any complaints are exaggerations, biased, and invalid based on the people making them. After all, if they didn't deserve to be treated however they were treated, they wouldn't have, and they were only treated within the bounds of policy, because to admit otherwise would be to admit that such officials were being derelict in their duties.
People ***** about things all the time, they list a ton of bad things, but again, people such as you, never come up with a solution. Like I said earlier, its a 2 way street.
Major cities receive upwards of tens of thousands of complaints each year, and on a typical year, only a few hundred are investigated. Except for the most egregious abuses, the worst that a cop can expect is a minor administrative punishment, when the same actions by a civilian would result in prosecution and parole, if not prison.
Proof please. How do you know only a few are investigated?
What good are complains when the police simply are not held to the standard of the law?
I never said all cops are angels. Why do you keep missing that?
How many folks have seen police fly down the streets sirens blaring to get back to their car to clock out? Or just hit the lights to blow through a yellow or red when they didn't want to obey the traffic laws. Yet dare to drive 3 miles over the speed limit in front of that same officer.
Proof please? Do you follow the cop and see where he is going?
The assumption is always that the other guy was wrong. Always.
Umm...ok *shrug*
Out of high school I joined the army, mainly for the GI Bill so I could afford to go to school. I hung around a bit as I liked it. I received nothing but the highest reviews, was promoted regularly, and by all accounts was an excellent soldier.
I am very polite, I always say 'Sir' or 'Ma'am' no matter who I'm addressing (strict Baptist upbringing more than the military on that one). I always look the person I'm speaking with directly in the eye. I am never anything but respectful when speaking to anyone in person. (I realize my writing style is terse and is often mis-construed as rude. But that reading does not adequately reflect my personality).
Yet, I have never once had a pleasant interaction with the police, from the time I was a kid until this day. Over a period of nearly 50 years and the only times I've met with the police, under any circumstances, it's been at best unpleasantly distasteful, and at worst a small dose of hell. Why?
A dark cloud must be following you. Seriously though, I have to ask, and feel free to PM me, if you'd rather not publically talk about a given situation, but I have to wonder why this is happening. I find it hard to believe that every single cop you've dealt with has been a jerk. Like I said, they're not all angels, but come on....
I know why I'm being stopped, and it has nothing what-so-ever with any valid reason. But hey, I'm wrong 'cause if only I wasn't what the cops were looking for I'd be fine. Well, that is simply not true.
Why were you stopped?
Now, I recognize that there are good cops out there. I recognize that they are the majority. But I also recognize that the bad cops are more numerous than the police would like us to believe, and I recognize that they do more damage than the average person realizes. Precisely because the average person is shielded from the reasons cops become abusive in the first place -- which leads them to develop certain prejudices and frustrations that such bad cops take out on those who in any-way represent the sources of those issues.
But the only solution to the problem is that the rest of the police force stop making excuses and start taking action. When the police unions stop protecting the bad cops and start demanding vigorous investigations and equal treatment under the law, then the problem will diminish. But until then, it won't go away because the only people who can make it go away have their jobs tied, at least in part, to denying that real problems exist.
Well, I beg to differ on that.
