Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 159 posts

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#61

Post by dleslie »

moheeb wrote: post #34
dleslie wrote: post #4

This is why I teach my children never to speak to police officers, to avoid them as much as possible, and to leave the area should they become visibly present. And I live in Canada; when I travel to the USA on business I stay in the hotel or the venue and restrict my traveling as much as possible. I don't fear the citizens, I fear the police.

That sounds ridiculous to me. Do you use a paper towel so that you don't have to touch the door handle on your way out of the bathroom, too?

Yes, I do. I've seen too many men piss, zip and walk out without washing.

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#62

Post by fnbr »

pmalynin wrote: post #5
dleslie wrote: post #4

This is why I teach my children never to speak to police officers, to avoid them as much as possible, and to leave the area should they become visibly present. And I live in Canada; when I travel to the USA on business I stay in the hotel or the venue and restrict my traveling as much as possible. I don't fear the citizens, I fear the police.

Thats interesting, I'm not sure which part of Canada you are from, but here in Edmonton the police are very friendly and as far as I know that is the majority opinion. Personally, and even amongst my friends (which ranges from Tim Horton's Employees to CS Professors) the opinion is the same. In general, especially in parts of downtown, I feel safer with the police around. I don't, however, have the same feeling in th…

Not trying to nit pick here, as my experiences with Edmonton police have been similar, but my fiancee, who's black, has had different experiences with Edmonton police.

Nothing as negative as this, but experiences that left her disheartened (police saying: well what should do you expect us to do? when she was jumped by a number of gang members at WEM).

I also suspect that if you were to speak to Aboriginal Edmontonians, they'd have different opinions. Consider the way that the RCMP has treated indigenous individuals in the past.

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#63

Post by driverdan »

cmdrfred wrote: post #16
soneil wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's always made me sad. My ex was American - when we moved to Ireland, I made a habit of routinely (once a week or so) asking random policemen for directions to places, just to teach her that they're entirely approachable here. The closest thing we had to a bad experience, was one chap who took it upon himself to walk with us until we could see our destination, just to make sure we found it. I'd only wanted to was…

In some rural communities this is how the police behave in the US. I've seen police changing tires for people near my house countless times for example.

In some rural communities police are on a huge power trip because they're some of the most powerful people in the small town. Some are good, some are bad, just like everywhere else.

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#64

Post by trungonnews »

otterley wrote: post #59
trungonnews wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree, officers of color are usually nicer. The Asian cop who helped me retrieve the impound release paperwork was nice to me. Even waived the $100 paper work fee. But I'm still pissed about the whole situation. Wasted three hours and $300 because of some cop decided to arrest a sober person to kill time rather than patrolling the street and catching the real criminals. Edit: had to change colored to officers of colo…

I'm sure you didn't intend any offense, but for future reference, "colored" is considered archaic and borderline racial-epithet in the U.S. (I realize it's quite normal and non-offensive elsewhere.)

I didn't mean to offend. What word is more appropriate to describe cops who are not white?

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#65

Post by morgante »

WalterBright wrote: post #52

Consider it from the cops' point of view. A random person shows up and wants to "check the health" of their suspect. When asked for id, he wants to debate "why". Does he seriously think they'll let some unknown person who refuses to provide id interfere with their arrest? Would any cop in any country allow this? What he should have done is opened with "I am a licensed physician, here's my license and id. May I check…

How is that at all relevant?

He could have shown up and started cussing at them and they wouldn't have justification to beat him up and arrest him.

Cops are supposed to serve us, not the other way around. We shouldn't have to be afraid of them or treat them like volatile, emotional dictators (though that's exactly what they are).

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#66

Post by [deleted] »

WalterBright wrote: post #52

Consider it from the cops' point of view. A random person shows up and wants to "check the health" of their suspect. When asked for id, he wants to debate "why". Does he seriously think they'll let some unknown person who refuses to provide id interfere with their arrest? Would any cop in any country allow this? What he should have done is opened with "I am a licensed physician, here's my license and id. May I check…

[deleted]

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#67

Post by koenigdavidmj »

WalterBright wrote: post #52

Consider it from the cops' point of view. A random person shows up and wants to "check the health" of their suspect. When asked for id, he wants to debate "why". Does he seriously think they'll let some unknown person who refuses to provide id interfere with their arrest? Would any cop in any country allow this? What he should have done is opened with "I am a licensed physician, here's my license and id. May I check…

The author should have given that as his reasoning for blocking traffic. This doesn't justify any of the interaction after "you must obey an officer".

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#68

Post by M_Grey »

Meegul wrote: post #44
trungonnews wrote: post #10

Santa Clara city has some racist cops. I was pulled over, accused of DUI, arrested, illegally searched my car, brought back to the station for a blood test. Blood test came back with zero alcohol in my body. They treated me like I was criminal, finger printed, mugshotted. After being held for two hours, I had to pay $300 to retrieve my car from the impound. I guess we still have a lot of bad cops in the Silicon Valle…

How is it at all legal for the government to demand payment for something when you are not convicted of a crime? It's effectively a 100% discriminatory, corrupt, and unaccountable tax. Completely reprehensible.

Don't forget that the average victim of such a tax can ill afford it, and is the least likely to be able to make their voice heard.

...Which is why the system works the way it does in the first place.

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#69

Post by joesmo »

wfo wrote: post #28
joesmo wrote: post #13

I'm sorry that this happened to the author, but the author has no common sense whatsoever. In addition to suing these officers and the police department, he should probably consider getting some common sense and never approaching a police officer again. I mean, seriously, what did he expect would happen? That they would let him check the suspect? That's so incredibly far-fetched and ridiculous, I cannot even imagine…

"Common sense" is only common to the people who know it already. There are plenty of people who think the vast majority of the police are public servants trying to do their job, serve and protect. Maybe they're right. Some are. I've had good interactions with police officers and bad ones. The author was trying to do the right thing and maybe save someone's life. If a woman screams for help in a dark alley, it isn't c…

If you're in America, and you don't know this, you're either white or ignorant.

Re: To the 4 white male policemen who beat me for checking the health of [detainee]

#70

Post by [deleted] »

skywhopper wrote: post #29
trhway wrote: post #7

>“He is resisting arrest!” >They were running this weird fake dialog in the background. it seems to be a pattern how they run plausible deniability and can do whatever they want - one policeman may "see" something, like a gun, and announce it thus providing the other with full legal reason to act, i.e. shoot in the case of gun. If that "seeing" by the first happens to be just a mistake, such mistake can never be puni…

Yes they are trained (whether explicitly or informally between each other) to do this. It will continue so long as it works.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN