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.
Perhaps what you said happens sometimes. But in the video with Ms. Bland it was the officer doing the baiting.
Bland was social activist and no stranger to negative contacts with law enforcement, as evidenced by over $7000 dollars in court fines and fees. Any reasonable person could easily imply that she desired confrontation.
Folks from Texas answer this please? If I move from Missouri to Texas how long do I have to get my plates switched to Texas plates?
In Missouri, you have one month. We have a problem with our neighbor to the east, Illinois. They have no personal property tax on vehicles. So people very much like Bland buy cars in Illinois, register them in Illinois to a family member and then drive them in Missouri. I suspect the same for Bland when she moved to Texas, she did have a Texas DL.
How do Texans feel about those the evade the taxes that they, the law abiding Texans pay, the same taxes that pay for the road she was breaking laws on, the same taxes that would have been paying her damn salary working for the “new job” at the university? That should have been paying for the DPS trooper who pulled her over?
No Bland was no heroine. She got high, got mouthy, got arrested and couldn’t deal with the consequences.
Things are tough all over.
You bring up interesting points. Bland was not a perfect person, but none of that is relevant to the evidence. You have framed a potential motive for her to escalate it, but then you offered some motive for the cop to escalate it as well. I suppose they both had motive. But the evidence is still the evidence. To me it looks like the cop escalated it.
I do not believe blacks are more targeted than whites but at this point, with all the false information being fed to the public by the liberal media, you cannot entirely blame blacks for being apprehensive. Cops would be wise to show extra patience because of that, not extra combativeness. They are the ones with guns and the power to arrest.
We may find this kind of cop thug behavior was exactly what happened in the Waco police massacre of the bikers.
Cops or cop bootlickers have come right out and said the bikers deserved it simply for being there. A routine political action meeting held every other month for the last 20 years. Then have it one time in Waco and they get massacred.
I used to be supportive of the dangerous job the police have but more and more I see they are just as bad as the criminal thugs. Only difference is a badge and a uniform. Different gang. Different name.
Not all of course and probably not even most but enough that it’s impossible to tell who the good ones are.
She sure was
Most of them are good though, just as there are good and bad teachers or good and bad teachers.
I just looked at your homepage. Funny you have the Kalifornia flag there and not the New York flag
I was talking with a guy at the gym who had been a cop in New Mexico, and a sheriff's deputy in MA. Good guy. At one point, I asked him what percentage of cops had major authority problems versus what percentage were regular guys doing a difficult service. I was rather surprised by his answer--he said first, "It depends on where you are. Big cities are worse." (No surprise there). Then he said, "Mmmm... about 35%." So, from a guy on the inside, 1 cop in 3 has at least some attitude problem.
One data point only. As a consumer of police services via the occasional stop-sign type traffic ticket, I'd have guessed a little lower.
Exactly. She did nothing illegal. And being polite to a cop is not required.
He had no right to tell her to put out her cigarette.
Did you know, before feminism, LA cops had to be tall, 5'10”? That's above average height. That's what cops are (or were), the big boss in any situation they are involved in.
Now days, they must follow goofy rules that allow 5'3” females to be the boss. Everyone is losing the fear/respect for cops. Do you remember when feminist said they would show how it's done because men are too patriarchal? Look what's happening now, lol.
That's S.O.P. for police in this circumstance. A lit cigarette can serve as a weapon, flicked into the eyes, e.g., or a distraction, while the smoker reaches for a gun.
Yes, they have a well-established right.
“Now days, they must follow goofy rules that allow 5’3” females to be the boss.”
And most 5’3” females can’t physically restrain most 5’7”or larger males so they have to resort to a weapon of some sort. It wouldn’t be PC for the male cops to use their physicality when the female cops can’t, so...
I actually think there is a place for using intimidation. I just don’t think the place is on minor traffic stops.
That’s interesting about the height thing. Liberals always think they can fix away human depravity. Even if that were possible (it isn’t) their solutions are always looney. The Founders of this country knew we could not and that the answer was checks and balances as well as respect for religion and morality (the private sector of checks and balances). We will always be fighting crime on the one end and corruption on the other. Anyone who says one side doesn’t exist is fooling themselves.
You obviously don't watch a lot of Hollywood movies, there's always some short chick who can whip three guys at once.
Most of them are not criminals, but they are commies for big government spending.
Does that attitude you carry with you weigh you down much?
It seems sometimes people forget we are all human and we are not made perfect simply because of a job title.
Oh christ on a crutch...was it a semi automatic cigarette or fully automatic?....did she have a cigarette arsonal in the car with her...like a fully loaded high capacity pack...or even god forbid an entire carton?
I’ve seen this lame ass argument popping up from bootlickers....a cigarette can be a dangerous weapon....and like the others...I will gladly laugh in your face.
And I’ve never been asked to put out a cigarette during a traffic stop...and if I was I’d laugh and think it was a joke.
What kind of pussy is scared of a lit cigarette?
It could be this..or it could be that....well...WAS IT?
No....so drop it....it’s a stupid line of reasoning.
A lit cigarette can serve as a weapon...
If the cop is a pussy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.