How stupid are people? If a cop demanded my camera I’d ask him if I were under arrest and what the charge was. If I’m not being taken into custody, he’s not getting my camera.
“How stupid are people”?
...stupid enough to vote BO for POTUS. Skies the limit on stupidity at this point.
You said — “How stupid are people? If a cop demanded my camera I’d ask him if I were under arrest and what the charge was. If I’m not being taken into custody, he’s not getting my camera.”
Yeah, and I really understand that and go along with it. At the same time, I can see someone getting arrested, charged with interfering with an investigation, refusing lawful orders, and charged with disorderly conduct and also possibly assaulting a police officer — and ending up in jail with a list of charges to defend against, along with bail to raise and a whole new set of problems one never thought they would have a few minutes prior to that event...
That’s what can happen...
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So, one should think through the steps they would go through (ahead of time) if things start deteriorating down to that level...
This guy just shot an unarmed man...by accident maybe...he brings out the taser or maybe shoots you by accident too.
Easier said than done.
My experience relates to the UK rather than the US but I imagine the situations aren’t all that different. My two brothers were on a night out and my eldest brother got into a dispute with a policeman, now I believe my brother was in the right but even if he wasn’t it’s not relevant to what happened next. He was arrested by the police and handcuffed and at that point my other brother, who hadn’t been involved remotely in what had preceded this started filming the situation, at that point the senior officer indicated to a woman officer to stop him, she approached my brother and he said he had every right to film what was happening (it was in the middle of the street, remember every street corner in the UK has 24 hour CCTV so this shouldn’t be a problem), the officer told him he had no right and at that point the filming abruptly finished.
The next morning both brothers were taken from their police cells, both of them with bloody noses and one with missing teeth to be prosecuted for assault and breach of the peace. They then asked for the return of the camera, it was returned to them in pieces, the sergeant explaining that it must have got broken in the fracas.
At this point however the story gets interesting, the cops in their stupidity smashed the camera but obviously didn’t realise they should delete the video from the memory chip. Six months later the video was produced in court, the cops were proven to be liars and all eleven charges were thrown out against my brothers, they are currently suing the police.
But the important point is that this only ended happily because of the cops’ stupidity, if they had succesfully wiped the video my brothers could have ended up behind bars for the serious offence of assaulting police officers.
So don’t always assume that your rights will be respected by the police. This might come as a shock to some people but sometimes cops lie, sometimes they even wrongfully beat up people, you really do have to be careful even if the law is (supposedly) on your side.
Since a cop just shot an unarmed man in the back, do you really need an answer.
I stopped respecting police cause they no longer respect us. I try to avoid any contact with them whatsoever.