Steve
Mostly Harmless
Yeah. I blame Gerry.
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- Thread starter jks9199
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Steve
Mostly Harmless
Interestingly, that applies to both sides, just depending on which side you think is spot on.
_Simon_
Senior Master
........ wow! I'm gonna need a nap now I think.
_Simon_
Senior Master
Yep, absolutely
. Unless there's some completely objective judge that can give concrete proof. I like to see each as just being different approaches/thoughts/emphasis, rather than right or wrong. But it depends what's being discussed i guess 
Agreed. The frustrating part is that both sides (most of the time) are unwilling to look at how to objectively state their case though.
granfire
Sr. Grandmaster
entitlement issues.
Sure one is allowed to have an opinion.
That does not translate into facts.
Yeah, where's Hobbit?
@gpseymour I'm hoping you know.
The cops showed up when we were training the other night. Been training in the parking lot since September-ish, to avoid contact/risk. A grocery store opened up in the parking lot on Wednesday, and that night apparently someone called 911 about us training in the parking lot. 5 cop cars came by to respond to people training with weapons, rolled down their windows, and said "you guys are a martial arts school, right?" Both us and the cops found it hilarious. I want to point out that based on how the 911 call went down, I don't blame them for coming, or bringing 5 cars. If I was a cop, and I got a call that there were armed civilians in a parking lot, I wouldn't want to go alone.
The funny thing to me is I know exactly who called 911. Because she pulled up right next to me (I stayed outside of the car, didn't address her at all. Partially because my guru didn't address her, and partially because I didn't know if she had a gun and wasn't willing to risk getting shot explaining ourselves) to call the cops. Was there for about 5 minutes talking to them before leaving. About five steps from me. During that time, if she was looking at us, it was very prevalent that we were not doing anything dangerous to anyone. Inf act, we were going back and forth, so while we were swinging sticks we weren't even making contact with each other. At any point during that, she could have lowered her window and I would have explained we were a martial arts school. Or at any point, if I was a threat, I could have gone over and attacked her. Or she could have wondered why if we were a gang we weren't pulling out any firearms, and she didn't feel any danger being right next to us for a solid 5-10 minutes. But apparently, the better option was wasting both our time and the police's time by calling in about an armed threat, which could have resulted in a much worse outcome than it did.
I kind of wish I got the person's license plate so I could talk to her about what she did, but I know that conversation wouldn't go well even if I did get the license plate.
The funny thing to me is I know exactly who called 911. Because she pulled up right next to me (I stayed outside of the car, didn't address her at all. Partially because my guru didn't address her, and partially because I didn't know if she had a gun and wasn't willing to risk getting shot explaining ourselves) to call the cops. Was there for about 5 minutes talking to them before leaving. About five steps from me. During that time, if she was looking at us, it was very prevalent that we were not doing anything dangerous to anyone. Inf act, we were going back and forth, so while we were swinging sticks we weren't even making contact with each other. At any point during that, she could have lowered her window and I would have explained we were a martial arts school. Or at any point, if I was a threat, I could have gone over and attacked her. Or she could have wondered why if we were a gang we weren't pulling out any firearms, and she didn't feel any danger being right next to us for a solid 5-10 minutes. But apparently, the better option was wasting both our time and the police's time by calling in about an armed threat, which could have resulted in a much worse outcome than it did.
I kind of wish I got the person's license plate so I could talk to her about what she did, but I know that conversation wouldn't go well even if I did get the license plate.
_Simon_
Senior Master
Wow... unreal! Tell ya what if I saw 5 police cars rocking up, I'd be on alert haha.
Glad to hear they were cool about it all though!
dvcochran
Grandmaster
As inconvenient as it can be it is good to read stories where an encounter with LE went the way 99.99% of them go. A call for X comes into dispatch. Based on the information from the call xxx number of officers are sent to the call for the safety and protection of both sides of the equation. Officers arrive to find the actual situation is quite different from the original information.
If people could just keep this typical narrative in mind, use some common sense and professional courtesy LE encounters would go largely uneventful. But instead we get overloaded with media influence about a few extreme incidents. Most of which are much better understood when the entire story is told instead of just a small video clip. Somehow this has to change without violating the first amendment.
Steve
Mostly Harmless
Glad to hear that didn't get squirrelly. That would be pretty alarming to have five cars roll up. Reminds me of two things (at the same time... even before I've had my first cup of coffee!)
First thing is something my son said after he did a ride along with a local deputy a few years ago. In high school, he was considering law enforcement (among other things), and it is a requirement to graduate from high school around here that the kids spend a day at a place of employment to see what it's like to do a job. Afterward, he mentioned one thing that bothered him at the time. I hadn't thought about it since, but he brought it back up a few weeks ago, so clearly it made an impression. The cop "played a game" that he called "Walks like a duck." They drove around, and the cop would ask my son basically, "Is that guy a criminal or not?" and my son was expected to say yes if it "looked like a duck" and no if it didn't. Blatant profiling, and truly, that single interaction made my son realize that law enforcement wasn't for him. At the time, he was in the JROTC and also considering enlisting in the military, but that encounter soured him on all of it.
Second is something one of the cops who used to post on this forum, @Tgace, I believe (though it's been years), said about how cops are like vice grips, meaning they only get tighter. I wish I could remember who said it, but the point has stuck with me as a reasonable explanation for why cops have trouble deescalating situations.
Point is, I'm glad this didn't get weird for you. As I read your account, I thought how fortunately, it doesn't sound like the cops were afraid of you guys and didn't pigeonhole you as bad guys (i.e., you didn't look like ducks). And also, it sounds like you didn't do anything that caused them to change their minds and start clamping down on the vice grips.
Steve
Mostly Harmless
Happy Mole Day!
Apparently, according to my daughter, a mole is a chemistry term and the day is to get people excited about chemistry. She said that 6.02x10^23 is Avogadro's number, or 1 mole's worth of molecules/atoms, and it's Mole Day because of the 10^23.
She also couldn't dumb down the explanation of what Avogadro's number is, or what a mole is, so that I can understand it. So... yay chemistry!
Apparently, according to my daughter, a mole is a chemistry term and the day is to get people excited about chemistry. She said that 6.02x10^23 is Avogadro's number, or 1 mole's worth of molecules/atoms, and it's Mole Day because of the 10^23.
She also couldn't dumb down the explanation of what Avogadro's number is, or what a mole is, so that I can understand it. So... yay chemistry!
_Simon_
Senior Master
Hahaha... hallelujah, there truly is a day for all things! XD
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