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Why police lie under oath

nytimes.com

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Re: Why police lie under oath

#91

Post by YokoZar »

shitlord wrote: post #52
Firehed wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why have speed limits at all then? I've heard anecdotes of professional drivers getting out of massive speeding tickets because they know how to handle a vehicle at that speed (and presumably had the good sense not to be driving way faster than traffic if there even was any) and its certainly possible to get a speeding ticket when traveling under the limit if conditions do not permit. Seems to me that they should be…

> Why have speed limits at all then? Probably because not everyone (and especially teenagers) has "the good sense not to be driving way faster than traffic"

Then why not make that the crime, rather than speeding in and of itself?

Re: Why police lie under oath

#92

Post by gonehome »

youngtaff wrote: post #90
gonehome wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally agree with this, but it gets tricky when you factor in social services. If a society decides that it should support health or medical services with public funds then there is a line of logic that conditions based on that support (such as a seatbelt laws, drug laws, or even banning soda) should be allowed. I don't agree with this, but if I was arguing for that side that would be how I'd frame it. The seatb…

In a car accident you want to stop people form being thrown around the car, hitting each other, steering wheels etc. 'Judy Knew Her Killer' is a good example of why even backseat passengers should wear belts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEa8j98eR9g On a motorbike you want the rider to separate from the bike, if a bike is rolling and the rider is attached to it they are going to get really mangled.

I didn't mean to imply that the motorcycle rider should be strapped to the bike, but rather that if the seat belt law is about safety the legality of motorcycles seems a bit hypocritical.

Although your point about not injuring other passengers within the car could be part of it.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#93

Post by quellhorst »

csense wrote: post #55
Firehed wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why have speed limits at all then? I've heard anecdotes of professional drivers getting out of massive speeding tickets because they know how to handle a vehicle at that speed (and presumably had the good sense not to be driving way faster than traffic if there even was any) and its certainly possible to get a speeding ticket when traveling under the limit if conditions do not permit. Seems to me that they should be…

> professional drivers getting out of massive speeding tickets That seems unlikely. > Why have speed limits at all then? To reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. To give people a baseline for safe speed. If most people's usual driving speed is "10 mph over the limit," then the effective speed limit is simply N+10 mph, where N is the number on the signs. > tailgating It's easy to deal with this effectively on…

If taking your foot off the gas still doesn't work you can also squirt the vehicle behind you by cleaning your windshield.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#94

Post by politician »

nitrogen wrote: post #88
politician wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not fair; she could easily look at the number of policyholders versus claims broken down by vehicle type. I'm sure the numbers looks as bad as she describes.

Note: Mz is a "she".

Thanks, fixed.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#95

Post by youngtaff »

gonehome wrote: post #92
youngtaff wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a car accident you want to stop people form being thrown around the car, hitting each other, steering wheels etc. 'Judy Knew Her Killer' is a good example of why even backseat passengers should wear belts - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEa8j98eR9g On a motorbike you want the rider to separate from the bike, if a bike is rolling and the rider is attached to it they are going to get really mangled.

I didn't mean to imply that the motorcycle rider should be strapped to the bike, but rather that if the seat belt law is about safety the legality of motorcycles seems a bit hypocritical. Although your point about not injuring other passengers within the car could be part of it.

I guess it's about harm minimisation and if you banned motorbikes, I guess you'd have to ban cycles too.

There were moves in the EU a few years back to limit engine capacity of bikes.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#96

Post by KMag »

Anechoic wrote: post #56
mst wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you propose to preserve police discretion under such a system?

By "discretion" to you mean officers revealing private/personal info or images (such as going to the bathroom)? In that case, you allow the officer to turn the system off for preset intervals (say, 5-10 minutes), with the understanding that if an arrest or alteration were to coincidentally happen during that shutdown period, the officer's account would be treated with extreme skepticism - and multiple occurrences of…

Turning of a chest-mounted camera while going to the bathroom? If you have to loop your penis up in front of your chest and back down to use the urinal, just wrap it back around waist instead, to avoid having it appear an camera. The most private thing they're going to catch is the sound of you passing gas while using the restroom.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#97

Post by mercurial »

Disclaimer: my experience with US police officers is limited to being asked questions by a couple of cops at the airport and watching The Wire.

Assuming that cops do actually have quotas, and that their bonus are tied to achieving these quotas, this effectively creates a for-profit police force. Which mechanically leads to aberrations like the DEA agent mentioned in the Caswell case[1] who was paid taxpayer money to find private properties for seizing. And who watches the watchmen?

Note this situation is not unique: in France, the former right wing government put a heavy emphasis on crime statistics, and since the new "left wing" interior minister seems to follow the same policies, it's probably still the case.

1: http://whowhatwhy.com/2013/01/17/carmen-ortizs-sordid-rap-sh...

Re: Why police lie under oath

#98

Post by welder »

I've witnessed a police officer lying under oath. I think it was a combination of bad recollection and justifying the lies as minor compared to the overall situation.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#99

Post by neilk »

When I worked on a student newspaper in Montreal, a photographer of ours was once detained by Metro (subway) cops and beaten in a back room.

I did the followup and a cop read the police report to me over the phone. It detailed how the photographer had aggressively interfered with the police in the performance of their duties, quoting the French profanities he had uttered.

Problem: the photographer was a unilingual English-speaker from Ontario.

When they told me that, I got a little too excited about getting them to give me these exact quotes from the report. The police officer suddenly said he'd call me back. Fifteen minutes later, he called me back, opening with "aaah, actually we don't know exactly what he said."

This isn't even the most interesting case of cops lying that I know of, but you always remember your first.

Re: Why police lie under oath

#100

Post by dasil003 »

mitchty wrote: post #76
csense wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> professional drivers getting out of massive speeding tickets That seems unlikely. > Why have speed limits at all then? To reduce the frequency and severity of crashes. To give people a baseline for safe speed. If most people's usual driving speed is "10 mph over the limit," then the effective speed limit is simply N+10 mph, where N is the number on the signs. > tailgating It's easy to deal with this effectively on…

Sadly sometimes tailgaters don't get off your ass if you slow down. I slowed down to 30 once on a 70mph stretch before one guy finally passed while flipping me the bird. My new rule is to just floor it to get other cars in between me and them.

Wow. To paraphrase Team America: that guy was an asshole and a pussy.
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