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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

#541

Post by csense »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #467
javajosh wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't have a police state! We have one of the shittiest justice systems in the world that protects bad actors and gives our police unlimited power to abuse their office without fear of repurcussion. However, freedom of speech is still very well protected, and therein lies our hope for peaceful resolution. And you know what, if Aung Yung Suu-Ki is any indication, even if we did live in a totalitarian state, there w…

> I don't believe that a state born of brutality can be anything other than brutal. This is kind of a funny sentiment. Can you name a state that wasn't born of brutality?

Um...we peacefully purchased Alaska from the Russians.

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

#542

Post by csense »

omegaham wrote: post #492
laura2013 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

recording of police is illegal in many cities - and i mean the voice recording. unless there's an app that lets u record without sound i'd say do not record.

Secret recording is illegal in 12 states, the ones that are two-party consent states. These states require all parties to know that they are being recorded. Openly recording the police is prohibited in two states - Illinois and Massachusetts. Every other state, you have the right to record the police, as long as you do it openly. Now, there are a few things that go along with this. You are not allowed to interfere wi…

Oddly enough, police in one-party states want to keep the status quo. Because it means they don't have to get a warrant to record suspects' communications with police/informants.

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

#543

Post by rdl »

vonklaus wrote: post #523
rdl wrote: post #125

It'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…

Glossing over some of your assumptions, I find I agree whole-heartedly with your conclusion.

SFPD seems to have gotten a lot worse between 1999 and today. All the good officers I knew back in 1998-2000 were in their late 40s, so probably retired. I don't know what has happened to the department otherwise.

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

#544

Post by growupkids »

herbig wrote: post #240

Back in November, I was arrested in Brooklyn for running a red light on my bike while on my way to work in Manhattan. Normally you're given a ticket and let go, but in this instance, the officers took issue with the fact that I was not carrying ID. Both officers told me that I "could be arrested for not having ID." For clarification, I asked if it was a city, state, or national law, and the officers adamantly maintai…

I'm terribly sorry this happened to you. For what it's worth you can sue, and you can get money for your trouble and maybe even cause the police department to change it's policies. I did it back in 2000 with the MPD, it took almost 8 years in the courts but eventually I got justice. If you roll over, the bad cops will just keep doing what they do. You'd be surprised at all the law firms that will take your case for free.

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

#545

Post by Crake »

dllthomas wrote: post #410
herbig wrote: post #240

Back in November, I was arrested in Brooklyn for running a red light on my bike while on my way to work in Manhattan. Normally you're given a ticket and let go, but in this instance, the officers took issue with the fact that I was not carrying ID. Both officers told me that I "could be arrested for not having ID." For clarification, I asked if it was a city, state, or national law, and the officers adamantly maintai…

I find it sad that the officer could be a "joke around the precinct" - presumably incompetent and apparently eager to abuse their power - and still be an officer.

Result of using gender quotas, maybe? Does anyone know to what extent the NYPD relaxes its standards for people who aren't qualified but are "under represented"? If there's a bias in the hiring phase, there's likely to be similar laxity in the firing phase, too.

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

#546

Post by ctide »

dllthomas wrote: post #522
ctide wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never worked in an office before?

You don't see that there's a distinction when the behavior in question involves abuse of a position of power?

No, I don't think it's uncommon that incompetent assholes end up in positions of power and aren't pushed out.

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

#547

Post by Zigurd »

mahyarm wrote: post #441
Fizzadar wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the link, really interesting/enlightening read. I would hope, at least, that Europe's police officers are on the whole less pointlessly violent (though, as Peretz points out the majority of SF police probably don't act as such).

I've heard of similar bad behavior from spanish and french police forces in general. I wouldn't be surprised you see it in almost all of the southern european countries. When you start getting into germanic/english/scandinavian countries you start hearing the opposite, but even then you hear of controversial behavior during big political protests in england & canada. I'm not going into the eastern european countries…

I think you have a well thought-out comment in general, but, like in many many cases on many topics, you have overlooked how much of an outlier the US is.

Look at the US prison population. What kind of policing and prosecutors and courts are needed to feed a system like that?

As Stalin said, "Quantity has a quality all it's own."

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

#548

Post by whatusername »

jrs235 wrote: post #386
Zancarius wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We don't have a police state! We have one of the shittiest justice systems in the world that protects bad actors and gives our police unlimited power to abuse their office without fear of repurcussion [sic]. Struck a nerve? You're absolutely right. We're not a police state--yet. But if left unchecked, the powers in control of the democratic process inevitably degrade into totalitarian rule. We're seeing a glimpse o…

How do you kill a frog? You put it in a pot of water and in very slight increments you slowly and systematically turn up the heat so the frog doesn't feel or perceive the change even as it boils to death.

Great Story -- more of a myth though: http://conservationmagazine.org/2011/03/frog-fable-brought-t...

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

#549

Post by csense »

kybernetyk wrote: post #260
bsimpson wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where were you last night? Shooting holes in my own car so I could waste 20 minutes of your time. Why do you ask?

Wrong answer. Never try sarcasm or irony with cops. Either they don't understand it - or they just don't want to. All it does is getting you into trouble.

> Either they don't understand it - or they just don't want to.

You missed an option: They willfully misunderstand it because they're looking for a promotion or they have to make their arrest quota.

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

#550

Post by grecy »

gameshot911 wrote: post #354
herbig wrote: post #240

Back in November, I was arrested in Brooklyn for running a red light on my bike while on my way to work in Manhattan. Normally you're given a ticket and let go, but in this instance, the officers took issue with the fact that I was not carrying ID. Both officers told me that I "could be arrested for not having ID." For clarification, I asked if it was a city, state, or national law, and the officers adamantly maintai…

I actually see a silver lining in this story. The worst thing an officer of the was able to do was inconvenience you for a day. Compare that to pretty much another other time in recorded history, and indeed still many places today, and you could have been locked up for far longer for pissing off someone in an authority position. Now obviously this is a ridiculous situation and the officer was on a powertrip, but you…

It's telling that you're comparing America in 2010+ to bad times in the past and developing and undeveloped countries.

Surely America should be compared with Developed (1st world) countries if it's to be considered one...

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