Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't that kinda an over-exaggerated response, if you only need one of them?
Mmmm tax dollars. So tasty.
You jest, but that's actually the reason.
How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
121–130 of 816 posts
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#122I would press charges. I have seen multiple times police being shady, including one time when I was pulled over and told I could either pay the officer $40, or go into the court house for an $80 ticket. Supposedly I was speeding the road back, but I didn't even drive on the road they were talking about... Another time I turned in $2,000 I found in an envelope and asked when I could pick it up if no one claimed it. Ca…
You didn't get a receipt did you? Any time cops take anything get a receipt...
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#123Generally I disagree that litigation is ever the answer. But in this case OP should take their jobs because they don't deserve to wear the badge. I admit that I dislike cops and that I've never had a positive interaction with one. But there are some cops who legitimately want to do a good job and make their city safer. And these guys are shitting all over that.
What kind of idealistic fantasyland do you live in where litigation is never the answer?
The world where litigation versus police fails 99%+ of the time...?
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course there are others. There are also many people having pleasant experiences with cops every day - they don't make it to the top of Hacker News.
Really? Who has pleasant experiences with cops besides other cops? Honest question.
I have. I'll admit this is rare, but one time I paid the city to put up some no parking signs the day I was moving so that the moving truck would be guaranteed to have a place to park. (This is apparently normal in Los Angeles.) When the morning came and one of the spots in front of my building had a car in front of it, I called the police to have it towed. Since the moving truck hadn't arrived, the cop actually went to my neighbor's buildings and checked to see if the owner was home. (He didn't know who it belonged to, so he checked a few different buildings.) He was going to let them move their car instead of having it towed. But as luck would have it, he couldn't find the owner, so he had it towed. I can't believe he went to the trouble, and had it been my car, I would have really appreciated it.
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#125It's kind of unfair to paint all the police as the same -- it varies both by officer (hard to predict) and by department (easy to predict). I try to deal strictly with California Highway Patrol and various Peninsula PDs.
BART PD, SFPD (and SFFD), EPA PD are pretty horrible. I'd go out of my way to avoid contact with them, be wary, and use protection (a lawyer).
OPD is bad too, but by virtue of being a rich white guy I'm not really at much risk from them (except through inaction). Oakland Fire is surprisingly good.
I've called 911 for road obstructions, traffic accidents and the like hundreds of times. I've stopped for some fairly serious accidents before anyone else got there, called 911 and gave an accurate and detailed report , set up flares and blocked with my car (when victims were ejected from the car), first aid, etc.
Never once have I had a problem. In the cases where someone was seriously injured and I had better medical training than the CHP who arrived, I waited until the paramedics and ambulance got there and talked to the paramedics before leaving.
Taking this story at face value, these SFPD officers need to no longer be police officers.
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#126I remember, once, a very cynical person telling me not to call the cops, in any circumstance, unless mine or someone else's survival or long-term well being is completely dependent on it. If you see someone shot dead in the street, for example, don't call the cops; leave. You're the first suspect if you do anything else, and you'll be treated like one. I was very put out by this attitude. I'm starting to wonder if it…
While I was a student living in a "gentrifying" part of the city, I once went outside to discover my car was full of bullets. Several in the hood, several through the windows, one in the rear tire and most disconcertingly one in the driver side headrest.
When I called the police and the investigator came, I could tell I was instantly suspect #1. He began grilling me lengthily about my whereabouts the night before and who I lived with.
An officer in blue joined as well and they were basically threatening to confiscate my car until I started talking about getting a lawyer.
Of course this situation is nowhere near the authors in terms of harm or even potential harm, but it definitely showed me that ANY interaction with the police has the potential to go VERY badly for you no matter what.
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I exist whether you know it or not. I'm not a leprechaun. What is your point?
Three parties: you, good cops, leprechauns. Of the three, with whom have I ever had a conversation? (Hint: this is a singular answer!)
Can I ask a question that would help me narrow it down?
Are you mentally-ill?
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#128For those curious, this is the law which allows you to sue the police: 42 U.S.C. § 1983
"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia."
More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enforcement_Act_of_1871_(third_...
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's really easy to focus on the bad ones, but good cops exist whether you know it or not.
No one is denying that good cops do exist. The problem is that (especially for minorities in large cities) calling for the police is a gamble. That many white, suburban kids are taught from a young age that "all police are your friends, you can always go to them if you need help" and that many minorities in cities are taught from a young age "cops are people near complete immunity, great authority and guns; they are…
>No one is denying that good cops do exist.
If you'll look closely through this comment section, several people have suggested that good cops don't exist. I'm speaking to them.
I do not deny that calling police can be a big gamble.
Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help
#130> I begged them to watch out for my recently broken right elbow. They don't give a shit about your elbow nor should they. Everyone who gets put in cuffs complains about some current or former injury. I'm not sure I buy every second of your recount. but there is a big difference between a good samaritan and a do-gooder. If the cops tell you it is time to leave the scene, it's 1 AM on a city street, you've been drinkin…
"They don't give a shit about your elbow nor should they. Everyone who gets put in cuffs complains about some current or former injury."
Of course they should give some shit about person arrested, especially if that person is not danger for them in any way. I would expect cops to use only necessary force.
And if everyone complains about current or former injury, then those handcuffs are either too tight or cops to brutal. Especially if those handcuffed people, again, represent zero threat.