“always be polite to the police”
I’m generally polite to everyone. I learned all that verbal judo stuff when I was a Deputy Sheriff (WOOSHA) but that’s not my point.
Actually, in this case, this guy was committing a crime and they probably will look up what to put on their forms and charge him with that too.
But, you see too many cases, like that kid the the puppy and that kid with the NRA T shirt, where people get charged with “obstructing and officer” entirely for being annoying, without having committed an underlying crime. To me that feels too much like keeping the peasants in their place.
Oh, I agree. Police at a traffic stop, which is about the only encounters I’ve had with them, can be rude and snotty. The worst are the women state policewomen, in my experience. It’s very annoying.
But people have to learn not to get angry back. If it gets serious, get a lawyer or whatever is called for, but whatever you do, never answer back to a cop. Always be polite, no matter how rude and stupid the cop is. It’s a matter of self-protection, as well as a duty to be polite to people.
“Actually, in this case, this guy was committing a crime and they probably will look up what to put on their forms and charge him with that too.”
Almost certainly not, or they would have charged him with the crime.
There have been several cases in Wisconsin where the police overstepped their bounds, almost exactly like this, and settled out of court. The difference in this case is the proximity to the school, which will turn out to be no difference because he was almost certainly one of the named exceptions.