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How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

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Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#181
post #46

After reading the first paragraph I already knew where this was headed. White America welcome to black America. You'll be arrested for nothing at all. The first time it happens you'll be really upset and threaten to sue, and file a police report. And when you do there will be some sort of roadblock, they won't have the forms, the officer in question wasn't on shift that night, the detective is quite hostile to you, t…

>"White America welcome to black America."

Pretty much.

I was honestly dumbstruck by the naiveté expressed as soon as the action starts.

"She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately. I told her we were headed home, just across the way, when my friend and I encountered the accident; and that I’d recently broken my elbow in a similar bike accident here and deeply cared about the outcome."

It's an odd mixture of feelings to read about someone who lives in the same country I do who was able to grow into adulthood without having to learn the basic rules some of us had to learn by 4th grade.

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#182
post #46

After reading the first paragraph I already knew where this was headed. White America welcome to black America. You'll be arrested for nothing at all. The first time it happens you'll be really upset and threaten to sue, and file a police report. And when you do there will be some sort of roadblock, they won't have the forms, the officer in question wasn't on shift that night, the detective is quite hostile to you, t…

I'm glad it wasn't just me who felt like that. I'm white, middle class, and grew up in Britain as a native. But as a member of multiple minority groups, I've seen hints of this world, and it is not pretty :(

The worst part of all this? First thing I did was check the author's gender and skin colour. And then I read the article. I normally work hard to be free of the prejudice of this society we are forced to live in, and yet I realised I took this article more seriously because it was by a white male :(

That is why it is vital to understand privilege, and that we live in a society that is constantly pushing its values that we cannot help but to make such mistakes. That it doesn't matter how good your intentions are, how much of a meritocracy you think your community has, but if it isn't free from the constant pressure of our base society (ie, realistically impossible), you'll end reading something like this and trying to excuse away those thoughts I just admitted.

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#183
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is really how things went down, then suing the city seems reasonable. The rest of your comment is a little over the top though, no? Have the police in question spend years in prison? The only good cop is a dead cop? I'd imagine the OP doesn't think this way given his usual, positive interactions with the SFPD.

I agree, the rest of that comment is silly. I wonder if, somewhere out there, there exists a Bizarro Earth where people go out of their way to tell everybody about their pleasant interactions with police. I just had one last night, actually. Very friendly dude, and it wasn't the first time this had happened.

I too have had decent interactions. It's when it goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong with police. Which is why you must have a higher standard like you have higher standards with space shuttle software engineering vs. your casual game app.

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who says that they don't? How many good cops do condemn this behavior? How many of them do you not hear about? What happens to cops who condemn other cops? As typical of somebody posting a throwaway comment to an online forum, I'm not sure that you've taken everything into account when you make such a broad statement.

Every good cop who is managing to effectively stop a bad cop, means yet another bad cop. That is, we're hearing about bad cops who aren't being stopped by good ones. A lot. "Well, the good ones are out there!"; they're either ineffective, or effective, in which case the number of bad cops is even higher than we hear about. Neither of those is particularly placating.

You aren't aware of it, so it isn't so? Really? Next, you'll tell me that Fox News really is "fair and balanced".

Good police exist, and will continue to exist, despite civilian hostility and shifting definitions of what it means to be a "good cop". I'll never claim that no police are bad, or that there aren't many bad police, but I know that I'll never envy the good ones as long as the people filling this comment page comprise the majority of our population.

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#185
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where are the good cops when things like this happen? Why don't they speak out? Why don't they throw their bad-cop colleagues under the bus? Nope. The supposed good cops are bad too.

I'll respond to this in the same way that I responded to another user posing the same questions. Who says that they don't speak out about this sort of stuff? How many good cops do condemn this behavior? How many of them do you not hear about? What happens to cops who condemn other cops?

[deleted]

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#186
post #173
post #8

> 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…

> The nice guys don't last out there Because San Francisco is a war zone? Give me a break.

No, because being a cop is a shit job and it wears on those who take it on. So, the nice guy eventually becomes a prick.

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#187
post #39

FWIW I'm not going to offer an opinion on whether 20+% is a good tip, but tipping with a credit card has a lower value to the server. All tips are notionally taxable income, whether a server chooses to declare all their cash tips is their choice, when you tip with a credit card it stops being their choice - and there's no way of telling how much of the tip is diverted by the establishment.

Downvoted for encouraging tax fraud.

Upvoted for discouraging tax fraud.

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If I answer, will you explain why you've commented 25 times on this thread?

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#189

“I mean, there are a lot of young cops on the street, trying to make a name for themselves.” - oh, so it's OK then. Absolutely disgusted by this story, particularly after reading another story about a different fucked up justice system in America ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7229930 ). I did and somewhat still want to live in America for a year+, but seeing this shit daily puts me right off. So glad to be E…

Europe has similar stories of being horrible in spots too, look at french jails for example: http://www.newsweek.com/french-prisons-are-becoming-embarras...

Re: How I Ended Up In Solitary After Calling 911 For Help

#190
post #38

The narrative is totally not credible. There are gaps where its obvious that the author did something to elicit a reaction, but what that was is omitted from the story. My guess would be that the author was being a smart ass, and given the drinking more belligerent than he recalls in retrospect. No, the cops shouldn't have roughed him up just for being a pompous asshole,[1] but the author should tell the whole story.…

Because drunks don't deserve equal protection under (and from) the law, especially when phoning in an accident, amirite? C'mon, dude. Note to self: don't pitch to cops at scene of accident.

> Note to self: don't pitch to cops at scene of accident.

B-b-but I feel it’s a way to make the world around me better, to bring people joy through better food!

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