Used to be a time when police were, for the most part, guys that had done some time in the Service.
Guess they were considered ‘rough around the edges’ and they maybe tended to ‘bully’ people around but you never heard of the shootings like we have been having.
I think a lot of the trouble started when ‘they’ started requiring some College, dropped the physical standards to accommodate women and ‘brains’ that couldn’t perform, then had to start hiring minorities of all sorts so you end up with Barney Fife looking type deputies on the SWAT team.
This particular story seems fishy as to WHY was the guy getting out of the truck?
Seems funny to order him out for a license plate violation.
I am not nor have ever been a cop but isn’t observance common practice?
Apparently it was an open bed (if he was able to exit the vehicle and get his cane - which had to be accessible if he needed it) -
I think on initial confrontation as walking up to the vehicle you kind of look in the bed, out of habit if nothing else.
And I don’t make it a practice to get pulled over but the few times I have, the ‘rule’ had been stay in your vehicle and don’t argue with the guy - his ‘job’ was to ticket or warn you for some infraction and your ‘job’ was to make him feel NOT threatened by you.
I’ve had a DL since the ‘50s and am sure though things have changed, the basic ‘rules’ remain the same.
I know I will get ‘flamed’ for it but I feel most of OUR problems started with the idea of not being able to protect your property under the guise of ‘you can replace the truck’ so no sense shooting someone that is in YOUR YARD, stealing it or the tools or such in it that allowed you to work and pay taxes to be able to support yourself and the idiots that are robbing you.
Then the police started resembling the Military with tanks, high powered weapons and the loveable SWAT teams.
Cops in ‘my day’ may have been a bunch of ‘dumb vets’ but you would hardly see 40 cops standing around waiting orders to run into a building that someone was shooting from or some other such thing.
Maybe not as smart but.....
Oh yes, I always used to think calling Police cops was an insult BUT from the actions of a few, I have taken a different view on a lot of things, if nothing else, when are they going to start seriously policing themselves?
My understanding is that 'cop' was never meant as a pejorative in common usage, as its origin was a British acronym for 'constable on patrol'.
Having said that however, if the 'good' ones don't get a pronto handle on the lunatics/cowards/thugs among 'em, it's not going to end well for many of them, indiscriminately.
No it doesn't.
#1. The driver was an old man...
#2. There could be numerous reason why he exited his truck, such as he was tired of waiting after the cop walked back to his car to play with his MDT, to talk to his girlfriend on his cell phone, or possibly waiting for wants and warrants to come back, or the cop could have simply turned his back for a moment, etc., etc,..
The reports never indicated the old guy disobeyed a command to stay in this vehicle...If that occurred, you can bet it would have been repeated in the articles.