Posted on 12/02/2014 5:05:57 AM PST by Kaslin
I've had a cop point a gun at me.
You can even see the picture of it – which come to think of it, was probably a bad idea. Who puts his hands over his head and takes a snap of a police officer pointing a rifle at him? But, I was in full journalist mode covering a 300 cops in riot gear running a bunch of dirt hippies from the Occupy Movement out of a park in Denver. Earlier, I had been up close to the line of cops taking pictures when they charged forward and they probably thought I was some kind of protest leader. Maybe I should have yelled, “Don’t shoot me bro, I’m a Republican,” but I didn’t think of it.
I’ve also been pulled over quite a few times because of my lead foot, which always felt more like an annoyance than a threat. You get pulled over, you a pay a lawyer, your ticket goes away. Repeat every 6-12 months.
Incidentally, that’s the first key to not getting shot by the police. Don’t think of the police as a threat. They’re really not going to randomly beat you, arrest you or shoot you for no reason whatsoever. It’s like a bee. Don’t start swatting at it and chances are, it’s not going to sting you.
In fact, when a cop pulls you over, you should have your license and registration ready, you put your hands on the steering wheel so he can see them when he arrives and you say, “Yes sir” and “No sir.”
But, but, but….what if you’ve done nothing wrong? What if you disagree with them pulling you over? Why should you treat a cop with so much respect? After all, don’t you pay their salaries?
Like the Bible says, there’s a season for everything. When a cop is pulling you over, that’s the time to be as polite and non-threatening as possible. Why? Because that cop has a gun, he can arrest you and you have no idea what’s going through his head. Maybe someone who looks like you just committed a crime in the area. Maybe one of his buddies got shot on a traffic stop last week and he’s nervous about it. Maybe you just look a little bit like Dave Chappelle and he never forgave him for quitting his show. It doesn’t really matter. If you think a cop needs to be taken down a peg or two, that’s a job for your lawyer to handle in a court room full of people, not a job for you to handle when it’s your word against his.
Along similar lines, move slowly, cautiously, obey the officer and don’t do anything that makes a cop think you’re a threat. You shove your hands in your pants, you could going for a gun. Jerk your cell phone out of your jacket? His brain might be screaming, “He has a gun! Shoot, shoot!” If you start whipping around a “toy” gun, well then you’re just begging to get shot. If you run from the cops, the adrenalin is going to be through the roof when they catch up to you and people full of adrenalin are more likely to shoot you. You don’t even have to run. You start jumping around, screaming at the officer, resisting arrest or generally just getting agitated and guess what? The cop is going to get agitated, too. That’s bad because a calm, cool, cop who feels safe isn’t going to pull out his gun, but a cop who gets agitated is more likely to shoot you in the chest. Of course, it goes without saying that if you attack a police officer, or for that matter, ANYBODY carrying a gun, you might get a bullet between the eyes. Maybe you shouldn’t be shot. Maybe a police officer should have used a stun gun or waited for back-up, but that’s not going to be much consolation to your family at your funeral.
Oh, but what if you REALLY hate cops? Well, if you REALLY hate cops, the best way to minimize the number of interactions you have with them is not to break the law. Just to give you one great example from the news, if Mike Brown hadn’t robbed a convenience store, would he be alive today? Absolutely.
You can take that even further if you like. If you dress like a thug, people – including cops – will respond to that. Back in the day, when I decided to put my psychology degree to work in a group home, I remember one of the kids complaining that every time he walked through a store, he heard them call for “security” to look at different aisles. As he said that, he was wearing saggy pants with a bandana on his head (Wasn’t my call on letting him dress like that), so was it a surprise that he was treated with suspicion? Incidentally, since he was actually WAS A THIEF, their system seemed to be working.
This applies to cops, too. They’re going to look at you differently based on whether you’re wearing a suit or look like a member of the Crips. Is that unfair? Not at all, because if you want to send the world the message that you’re a thug by the way you dress, then maybe it makes sense to pay attention to that message. The police certainly will and if a cop is looking at the “thug life” tattoo on your arm, then you need to be that much more polite to keep him from getting edgy.
Whether you think cops are mostly good guys doing a tough job (I do) or trigger happy, racist meatheads looking for people to push around, the calculus doesn’t change. Good guys can and do kill people. Trigger happy Neanderthals don’t behave like that most of the time because they can’t get away with it. Either way, you don’t want to be the one who gives them ANY REASON to pull out their gun.
Telling people to be polite, not make any sudden moves and obey the police isn’t exactly rocket science, but 99.9% of police shootings wouldn’t have happened if people followed those basic rules and the other 0.1% of cases, like the Akai Gurley case, are tragic accidents. The police should always be held accountable for bad behavior or shooting people unnecessarily, but people interacting with the police also have responsibilities that shouldn’t be shrugged off just because they ended up on the wrong end of a gun.
For the cops, it’s like having a “Dumb Ass” detector. You just got detained by a man in uniform carrying several weapons. You say “yes sir/no sir”, he knows you’re not a dumb ass. If you don’t...
I did too.
No, actually, he doesn't. He has a gun, a badge, and a uniform to enforce the law, and to protect himself. He has absolutely NO obligation, or even suggestive mission statement, to protect YOU. "Protect and Serve" is just feel-good propaganda.
Ask the Supreme Court about it if you think otherwise.
YOU have a gun to protect YOU.
“LMAO! That’s gotta be a photoshop, right?”
Likely so since there are no spelling errors.
Correct... I’d defer to the officer automatically.
Of course unless I get pulled over, (I hope NEVER) I’d have no occasion to actually talk to an officer.
Don't be a 12 year old with a BB gun. Don't walk into stairwells with your girlfriend. Don't answer the door with a Wii controller in your hand. Don't walk through Walmart with a BB rifle over your shoulder. Don't sell cigarettes on street corners. Don't reach for your cane in the bed of your pickup truck. Don't reach for your wallet. Don't try and drive away from plain clothed police officers who don't identify themselves. Don't drive around in cars that are not the same make and color as the one a murder suspect is believed to be driving.
My respect is limited to title ...... no officer, yes officer. No trooper, yes trooper..... As you state respect is earned. I respect the fact that a LEO or FLEA can create havoc an anarchy in my life be they honest or dishonesty. Choice of action is mine in the encounter, final decision is his imo. My tag line... When I was a deputy sheriff, career military and contractor I lived that tag line. Still do today as its got me this far in life.
Stay Safe !!
No sweat.
In a just world Bergdahl would be in jail. In WWII he would have been in front of a firing squad.
I had a gun pointed at me after being vehicularly profiled. I was pulled over by a trooper on a highway (I assumed for speeding) and he approached the car while I was looking for my license. When I looked up there was a revolver in my face. Turns out my car matched the description of a car used in an armed robbery. Things diffused considerably when he saw I was traveling with my wife and that there was a baby in a car-seat.
My father’s wisdom (and he would have known, but that’s another story for another time): There are only two sorts of people you should never argue with, a cop and a judge.
So did I in 68. Something about the 60s.
If Mike Brown were at work, or at school, or doing something productive around the house, he would most likely not have been shot.
If you place yourself in bad situations, bad things, sometimes tragic things happen.
Agree generally, but unless an officer has done something to immeditately lose that respect, there's nothing wrong with giving them the benefit of doubt. If "sir" is simply too submissive for you, you could always say "yes, officer" or "no, officer."
At any rate, a trooper lights me up. Michigan Ave at that point has 6 lanes and a concrete curb, no place to pull off. Honestly, I was thinking of the officers safety not wanting to stop dead in the middle of a lane on a busy street so I proceeded to the next light and turned off and pulled over. I sat there wondering why he wasn't getting out of his car for about a minute, then 2 more cars come screeching in, lights and sirens. I'm ordered out at gunpoint. Once I explain myself, everything calms down and I take my butt-chewing for not stopping immediately... they thought It was stolen vehicle or some other debauchery. To this day, I still believe I was doing the right thing, but I can tell you this, I won't do it again. Having a gun pointed at me pisses me off, I don't care for it at all.
Oh and believe it or not, after about 1/2 hour of checking everything, they let me go home with a verbal warning. He didn't want to deal with towing my truck and all the BS associated.
Police Officer: 'if you don’t want to get shot...just do what I tell you.'
Reason.com ^ | 08/19/2014 | J.D. Tuccille
Posted on Tuesday, August 19, 2014 1:37:57 PM by Rusty0604
Same thing kind of happened to me and a friend. We were in her car but I was driving home at about 2 in the morning from a night out when the red lights hit me. Before he got to the car he saw there were 2 women in it and only had his hand on his gun. An identical car had been stolen not an hour before he stopped us. Because of the time of night he followed us home and waited til we got in the apartment. ;)
At the same time, every day approx. twenty black males are shot and killed by other black males. And about once a day one small black child is killed by stray bullets coming from the gun of a black male. The vultures don't descend on those cases. Now why is that?
Was driving home late one night and had a flat tire. I’m jacking up my truck when a Highway Patrol car pulls over and lights me up.
I stop jacking and start walking back to his car ... with the tire iron in my hand. I suddenly stop and think about how this must look, drop the tire iron and raise my hands.
He gets on his loud speaker and says he is only keeping the semis away from me, so I don’t get blown off the jack. Nice guy.
The time I was lying face down in the street, hands behind my head, while a cop stood over me with his gun drawn. Well ... lets just call that a misunderstanding.
Since then, I've been pulled over about half a dozen times for various driving offenses of which I was 100% guilty of all of them. I simply repeated the same procedure each time...yes sir, no sir all in a calm tone.
But that was the only really nasty cop. The other times the policemen were professional and a few almost apologetic. I've only had to pay one traffic ticket. But the rule is: be nice to the cop, and he might let you off without a ticket. So far, so good.
Many years ago I was pulled over by a NY state trooper for speeding who chewed me out for immediately pulling over where there was limited area to stop. A week later another trooper lit my car up. I turned on my right blinker and drove three hundreds yards where I could safely pull over. The female trooper had her gun half drawn and was screaming at me why didn’t I immediately pull over. Also its bad advice to immediately get your drivers license when pulled over. Keep your hands on the steering wheel and wait for him to approach. When asked for the license then tell him you are retrieving it from wherever.
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