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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

#581

Post by anologwintermut »

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…

That sucks and is rather unfortunate. However, while according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, you are not legally required to carry ID, they say "Lastly, an officer cannot write you a summons if you do not provide i.d; instead he must arrest you. That means that if you are stopped for a violation such as loitering and do not provide i.d., you will be arrested"[0]

So, there were three outcomes once you ran the light and they had you: 1)they let you go without a summons because you don't have id (in which case getting out of summons would be easy). or 2) they detain you until you are id'd most likely either by a) escorting you to your apartment to get ID or b) arresting you. ( Note, option 3 doesn't exist: taking what ever name you give them for a summons, clearly shouldn't be an option as if you give someone else's name, they are in trouble.)

[0]http://www.nyclu.org/oped/column-showing-id-nypd-our-times

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

#584

Post by vacri »

maratd wrote: post #161

When a cop gives you instructions to leave, you leave. Not because the cop is right, but because this shit happens. And if you're naive enough to think that this shit won't happen to you, try not complying with a cop's instructions. Doesn't matter where in the US you happen to be. It's that simple. Look, here's a simple rule. In every interaction with the police, ask if you can leave. If you can, count your lucky sta…

Good advice. The other thing to remember is that standing on principle with the police is rarely going to change anything anyway. In some circumstances it will, but usually trying to prove anything to a police officer is basically saying "I'm better than you, see", which isn't a great thing to throw into the equation.

The officer isn't going to have an epiphany because you knew law better than them, go off and take up Buddhism. You're not going to get more of your life back if you stand there and argue. If you can leave, leave. There is rarely anything to be gained by continuing a confrontation - especially if there are no or few witnesses.

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

#586

Post by adventured »

cgag wrote: post #569

So what do we do? Tons of us live here, we should be doing something. Squad up and protest? There has to be a decent number of us who have flexible ours, how about we team up and manually surveil officer Kaur for a week? Is there someone would should be calling to complain to that will hurt this persons career? I don't know what to do, but this city is tiny and there are a lot of us, surely we can have some effect. M…

The primary reason this isn't happening, is an intense fear of the police state and what it can (and often will) do to any given individual person either just out of typical abuse or intentional malice.

Seattle had / has such a vile police force it had to be put under Federal control.

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

#587

Post by thret »

growupkids wrote: post #544
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 f…

8 years? And what happened to the actual individual police who messed with you?

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

#588

Post by crystaln »

FD3SA wrote: post #309

This is a perfect example of the disconnect between "hackers" and the real world. I consider myself part of the HN community because I hope for a society shaped by its ideals, but the real world is so far removed that time spent here becomes more of a therapeutic escape than anything else. I strongly recommend people study history, and understand human nature at both scientific and societal levels. There is too much…

There is another disconnect. Calling the US a "totalitarian police state" without so much as a hedge is incredibly ignorant. While the US has the potential to become a totalitarian police state, it is far from one. You can go ahead and list all the violations of civil rights you want - the fact that you can do that, and that victims in those circumstances have a high chance of prevailing with the right representation, is evidence that you are terribly wrong.

Using this sort of inflammatory language is counterproductive.

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

#589

Post by adventured »

Fizzadar wrote: post #232
mahyarm wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

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).

Try refusing or questioning the polizei in any regard sometime, see if they don't bloody your mouth just for opening it.

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

#590

Post by blackzoid »

gcv wrote: post #570
jjoonathan wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many ways talking can help. It can help you avoid the police officer's discretionary punishments. It can help you avoid increased scrutiny that turns up something incriminating. It's less probable that it will help you avoid being punished due to a baldfaced lie on the part of the officer, since presumably the courts are good at filtering those out, but it's not impossible. Once you require the services of…

> try it next time you get a traffic ticket and tell me how it goes It worked quite well, thank you. I did not say a word, gave the cop my license and registration as required by law, signed my ticket, and hired a lawyer to get it thrown out later.

Why hire a lawyer for a traffic ticket? Would that not cost more and kind of be a waste of time for everyone.
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