Posted on 07/26/2015 5:53:03 PM PDT by Kaslin
Late one night, during high school, I was driving home when several police cars zoomed by. Curious about what was going on, I followed them down a residential street, where they pulled up to a house.
I drove by and saw some officers walking up the sidewalk, but couldn't tell what they might be after. So I pulled into a driveway, turned around and drove back. My curiosity still unsatisfied, I then looped around the block to make one more pass.
Wrong decision. One of the cops pulled his car up behind me, turned on his lights, jumped out and ordered me to get out of my car. When I did, I was surrounded by men in uniform, one of whom screamed profane threats and invective in my face. I quietly endured the abuse, and when they finally let me go, I considered myself lucky not to have been beaten or arrested.
The police would have had trouble finding a reason to arrest me, since driving on a public street is not illegal. Nor was I interfering with what they were doing. But my unassailable legal position was not foremost in my mind at that moment.
What was foremost is that they had guns, batons and badges and could do pretty much whatever they chose without fear of punishment. Had I argued, I have no doubt the encounter would have ended badly.
I was breaking no law. The cop who threatened me, however, was guilty of assault -- which Texas says occurs when someone "intentionally or knowingly threatens another with imminent bodily injury." Since he had a gun on his hip, he may have been guilty of aggravated assault. But it didn't matter. He and his colleagues acted as though they were in the right, and self-preservation dictated that I pretend they were.
The lesson imprinted by the experience was one I already understood, even if I had never thought much about it: Some of the scariest people are the ones who are supposed to keep us safe.
I've had only a few unwanted contacts with police since, and I've been very careful not to antagonize them. Even when I was ticketed for failure to come to a complete stop at a stop sign -- which I was quite sure I had -- I didn't argue.
When I went to traffic school for that citation, the instructor confirmed my instincts. "When you're stopped, I'd strongly advise you not to talk back," he said with a smug grin. "If you do, any cop can find five or 10 things to write you up for."
Sandra Bland probably understood the nature of this reality. She cooperated with the Texas state trooper who pulled her over for her trivial failure to signal a lane change on a mostly empty street.
But when she failed to grovel sufficiently, he demanded an explanation -- and didn't like the one he got. Soon he was angrily yanking her out of the car, taking her to the ground and handcuffing her. Why did the confrontation escalate out of control? Not because Bland violated the laws of Texas, but because the cop felt unconstrained by them.
In many instances, police can trample on citizens' rights with impunity. Stopping and frisking without legal justification was the practice in New York City until 2013, when a federal judge intervened. Some Chicago cops tortured suspects, and for years they got away with it.
The only reason police brutality has come to light via video cameras is that some officers are so used to committing it that they never dream of being held to account.
It's no secret that they can and do get away with lying. A prosecutor I know once marveled at how often motorists leave illegal drugs on the front seat, where they can be easily spotted by police during stops. His implication was that the cops conduct illegal searches and afterward invent stories to make them appear legal.
Video cameras expose some of this behavior, but they're not necessarily enough to change it. The officer who stopped Bland knew a dashboard camera was recording him -- yet he proceeded to flip out.
He acted on a view that too many cops have and that civilians learn at their peril: The police are obligated to enforce the law, not obey the law.
The woman was combative and mentally unstable.
In the real world we live in, some thugs have badges.
It messes up our ability to trust all of them because you never know what one you may have to deal with.
And while some may point out every field is like this, almost no other job allows the thug to use deadly force on you and not be liable for it. Or be a trusted witness of the court right off the bat.
I agree with this. It happens, though, to all races, not just blacks.
Actually she was not combative until he flipped out.
Ping.
I don’t agree. She seemed fine. She didn’t grovel, and was a bit resistant, but so what?
Neither of which is a crime.
“Stopping and frisking without legal justification was the practice in New York City until 2013...”
A baldfaced lie. Why give any credence to a liar?
When she told him she wasn’t putting her cigarette out it escalated. She was combative from the start. Nervous, mouthy, out of state. ...might be on drugs and/or transporting. Wasn’t in too good a shape mentally. She stretched her neck in jail.
I don’t think that there’s much doubt that the cops are far quicker to get the guns out and use them then they used to be.
Sounds like we watched two different videos. As for the cigarette, she was in her own car. The only reason he had to order her to put it out was so that he could demand she step out of the car and he could arrest her. He was mad because she answered his question instead of quivering in submission. He was on a power trip. He needs to find a different line of work.
Well here we go off to the races....the fact the officer was removed from road duty for failur to follow established DPS proceedures means nothing to you what so ever.
And yes she hung herself.
Have you ever been burned by a cigarette?
It’s SOP that cops tell everyone to put out the cigarette.
No matter what her history was, anyone would be depressed in her situation. She was sitting in jail for the 3rd day, apparently having trouble getting someone to bail her out. She was charged with assaulting an officer, something I question because if I remember correctly she was wearing a maxi skirt and it would have been awfully hard for her to kick anyone. Maybe I remember her clothing wrongly. Regardless, the whole thing escalated unnecessarily and ANYONE would have been depressed about it. That doesn’t mean anyone would have committed suicide, but it does mean SHE would probably not have committed suicide had this not happened.
I’ve been (intentionally) burned with a cigarette. It took 20 years for the scar go away.
BS...I’ve been pulled over smoking and have never once been asked to put a cigarette out.
When the police are “Baltimorized”, people with smartass, hostile and sometimes racial attitudes begin to act as if they don’t have to comply, can antagonize the officer and act as if they are victims when they are not. They are baiting the officer and whining when the officer does not back down.
I doubt it was standard operating procedure for traffic tickets. It is SOP if they are going to get the person out of the car and arrest them.
The cop could have said, “It is your car and you are free to smoke in it at any other time, but standard operating procedure that I am required to follow is that I must ask you to put out your cigarette. THAT might have calmed her down. He told his coworker later that he tried to calm her down, but in no way did he actually do it. He escalated it with his demanding, power-trip ways.
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