61–70 of 137 posts
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By his own account, he was ignoring police officers while interfering with their work at the scene of an accident. You can't do that and expect to not get physically removed.
Even then, that still doesn't necessitate violence and solitary confinement. Stop making excuses for bad behavior!
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I disagree. As a police officer, you must be fair and law-abiding. Why must they be kind and polite?
Because one of the key challenges of law enforcement is securing community cooperation. Law enforcement cannot be effective when hey are seen by the community as a hostile gang of thugs, and politeness is just a name for adherence to social standards than signal that you are part of the community and not a hostile outsider.
Fair and law-abiding become much more important in these situations. Once the danger has passed, kind and polite can be important again.
Sadly, I have many friends with similar stories from police departments in different places. I attribute the officer's behavior to constantly being surrounded by violence. If everyday, most people around you are violent unreasonable delinquents that want to hurt you, then you start developing personality characteristics to compensate and survive that environment. Add to this the types of personalities that are attrac…
The HN lens has certainly been showing the US police force in a bad light over the last year or so. What are the origins of this strange behaviour? Why is force regularly used against people that verbally query the police? Even the army is trained to use dialogue where possible. It does sound like cameras will help but surely good and regular training programs should encourage good engagement with citizens.
"What are the origins of this strange behaviour?" It's not strange behavior. It's just that wealthy, white people are discovering what poor people and minorities have known for a long time: the police are not their friend, are not accountable to them, and are prone to violent overreaction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc
That's not true of every country though, it's certainly not the case in the UK. Here the police do act as your friends, they make a lot of effort to talk to the general public, both on the beat and at events. Certainly every encounter I've had with the police has been positive, even when I've been in the wrong (speeding or whatever). Police can be your friend, they can be accountable and they certainly don't need to be prone to violent outbursts.
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Police in the U.S. are in no sense surrounded by violence. The United States in 2014 is one of the safest, least dangerous societies the universe has ever known.
American cities are the most dangerous in the developed world, by a large margin.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chicago_violent_crime_map_...
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What was nonsensical about their request?
Right. Anybody who's been a first responder will recognize the importance of the request.
Correct response: "You've done good, but it's time to let the EMTs take things from here."
Incorrect response: "Move to the other side of the street. [Arrest for hesitation.]"
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Replying to facts with your own opinion isn't real useful.
>> But there's also the fact that American cities are war zones. That's an opinion claiming to be a fact.
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He reports doing plenty that would unreasonably "justify" the response he received. The causal void that you object to (which would shed doubt on his story) simply doesn't exist.
>He reports doing plenty I'm not sure how essentially "hanging around" justifies violent treatment, solitary confinement, etc. Perhaps you could explain?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
By his own account, he was ignoring police officers while interfering with their work at the scene of an accident. You can't do that and expect to not get physically removed.
Even then, that still doesn't necessitate violence and solitary confinement. Stop making excuses for bad behavior!
And for real, what do you expect riding on handlebars in the city at 12:30? Sounds like a great, sober idea!
