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Does anyone have a summary?
TLDR: Guy calls 911 to report someone else's bicycle accident. When the cops turned up they decide to rough him up and stick him in solitary confinement over night. He reports doing nothing that could reasonably justify this.
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…
This is generally just good life advice.
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.
> She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately. "I then walked home." should have been the next line, and I'm fairly sure the author knows it. That doesn't excuse what the officers did, but it's not "being a good Samaritan" that backfired. Being nosy is the part that didn't end well. I'm not even sure the use of force wasn't justified - even in this immensely bias…
Neither did being obnoxious, I imagine: "I told them that it was an early stage startup; I’m doing this because I feel it’s a way to make the world around me better, to bring people joy through better food."
I don't condone the violence and abuse of authority, obviously. But imagine being a cop, and having to deal with this at 1 am after a long day at work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this guy comes off as really smug and obnoxious in his own words . I have no doubt the police overreacted and acted unjustly, but I also think there's more to this story than we're getting. Is there a lawsuit pending? What's the cops' account of these events?
The police report is now posted in the story (it wasn't there when this was posted a few weeks ago after the incident). It sounds like the cops told him to leave (aka cross the street) and he didn't, so they pushed him down and cuffed him for refusing to leave. Sounds like excessive force to me, and wtf @ arresting him and putting him in jail for that. But really, it sounds like the whole thing could have been avoide…
Sounds like a strategy they use to bag naive bystanders. Power tripping / stats-boosting, plain and simple.
Police brutality is terrible and should be eliminated from our society. Hopefully the proliferation of officer mounted, always-on cameras can help minimize it. We should continued to do what we can to minimize it and should pay attention to stories like this one. This story invokes emotion but even after he released all the documents it still doesn't ring true. Part of it is the language used and the overly cautious…
Yeah, this guy comes off as really smug and obnoxious in his own words . I have no doubt the police overreacted and acted unjustly, but I also think there's more to this story than we're getting. Is there a lawsuit pending? What's the cops' account of these events?
I find the sequence of events the author was subjected to is impossible to justify with any conceivable amount of being "smug and obnoxious". This is behavior that should be reserved for dangerous, combative criminals (and probably not even then), certainly not bystanders who are merely annoying.
> She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately. "I then walked home." should have been the next line, and I'm fairly sure the author knows it. That doesn't excuse what the officers did, but it's not "being a good Samaritan" that backfired. Being nosy is the part that didn't end well. I'm not even sure the use of force wasn't justified - even in this immensely bias…
Unless it's against some kind of law for someone to observe police, you should know better than that. And seeing the way these animals acted, I'd say being concerned for the welfare of the downed biker is a perfectly legitimate reaction.
>Being nosy is the part that didn't end well.
Not illegal, and certainly not worth violent treatment and solitary confinement.
>What are they supposed to do when you ignore them?
If they're breaking this minute of a law? I don't know, issue a fucking citation? If they're not breaking a law, leave them alone? You know.. sane, professional, calm behavior that police SHOULD aspire to?
By the way - I find it interesting that people are referring to the police report as if it were the gospel where the author's article is just some random nut's view. Do you really think a police force that has no problem with brutality and unjust imprisonment really has any moral issue with filing an untrue/misleading report that makes them look better?
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.
> She turned to me and abruptly said that I was not needed as a witness and should leave immediately. "I then walked home." should have been the next line, and I'm fairly sure the author knows it. That doesn't excuse what the officers did, but it's not "being a good Samaritan" that backfired. Being nosy is the part that didn't end well. I'm not even sure the use of force wasn't justified - even in this immensely bias…
> Being nosy is the part that didn't end well. Neither did being obnoxious, I imagine: "I told them that it was an early stage startup; I’m doing this because I feel it’s a way to make the world around me better, to bring people joy through better food." I don't condone the violence and abuse of authority, obviously. But imagine being a cop, and having to deal with this at 1 am after a long day at work.