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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

#341

Post by idahodev »

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…

Sorry to hear this happened to you.

Compare NY bike laws to Idaho, where "bike traffic is allowed to treat a Stop sign as a Yield -- and a red light as a stop sign".

http://www.sfbike.org/?idaho

http://legislature.idaho.gov/idstat/Title49/T49CH7SECT49-720...

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

#342

Post by baddox »

dabernathy89 wrote: post #337
baddox wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't call the paramedics either. Desperately try to find your own way (or help the injured person find a way) to the hospital if something is wrong. There is no shortage of stories where people call the police, even for relatively serious issues, only to have the police show up and promptly murder the injured person or another nearby innocent.

This is terrible advice.

It would have greatly reduced the likelihood of this guy getting assaulted and imprisoned, so I would consider it good advice.

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

#343

Post by mindslight »

tptacek wrote: post #172
mindslight wrote: post #3

OP definitely needs to sue the city, as well as the aggressors personally. Every cop involved in this situation should be spending years in prison for battery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, and torture. Until justice for victims of the police becomes routine, they're nothing but another gang and the only good cop is a dead cop.

the only good cop is a dead cop. This sentiment is a wish for things to get worse for everyone, in every way. It's lazy, cowardly, and beneath HN.

I may have ended up editing out that last part after some reflection, but it had been already quoted. So alas what's done is done. Frankly I expected to get downvoted a bit, and the fact that it was so positively received is actually a bit disconcerting.

But while I agree that an attitude like that will lead to nothing constructive, at some point one's only recourse is spite.

Perhaps OP will receive monetary compensation after a drawn out lawsuit, only because there are specific things the arresting officer can be pinned with. But the worst that will happen to the officer is that she will lose her job, rather than be brought to trial for her crimes. And everybody else in the chain that dug in their heels to make him miserable rather than treat him as a human is utterly unaccountable.

And I see no avenues of recourse for fixing these systematic abuses. Reform will always be hampered by the fact that the sheer majority of people that police deal with are actually guilty, and that the sheer majority of people don't get arrested. That's two very strong priors that lead to the police being nearly universally accepted as "the good guys".

The only way that's going to change is by eroding the idea of police as de facto heroes, and promoting the idea that they are a malevolent culture that needs to be deprecated so new institutions can take their place. Otherwise, there's no incentive for them to ever change.

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

#344

Post by yardie »

dopamean wrote: post #221
yardie wrote: 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…

Off topic: are you Jamaican? (I ask because of the username).

You guessed correct!

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

#345

Post by sleepybrett »

pessimizer wrote: post #148
yardie wrote: 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…

As a black programmer, I remember the cliche about problems and regular expressions in my head as "regular expressions are like calling the cops." That's unfair to regular expressions, though, because I actually have seen them solve a problem before. Cops improving a situation? Never seen it.

You win at internet.

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

#346

Post by technologue »

rayiner wrote: post #227
ryguytilidie wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for providing a nice example of a rock bottom terrible comment. Yes, the problem with this person being beaten up, put in solitary and abused for no reason simply comes down to their inability to shut up. If only they had the wisdom to know that the police, who are paid by our tax dollars just HAVE to beat you up and abuse you if you say anything they dislike. I mean, its not as if they had a choice of whether…

We can both blame the author for not shutting up and the police for not responding reasonably to someone who was nothing more dangerous than a smartass.

You're high, the guy did NOTHING wrong. The police are to blame for this.

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

#347

Post by Amezarak »

cdelsolar wrote: post #68

One thousand good cops do not make up for one bad cop. Cops nearly ruined my life in 2006. I will write about it someday, but suffice it to say, I am out at least $30K (didn't bother doing the math because it's too depressing) and still paying for something I ABSOLUTELY HAD NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH. My only mistake was saying anything besides "I would like to speak with a lawyer" over and over. Do not speak to cops,…

This can't be said enough.

I used to have faith in the fundamental goodness and rightness of the police. I knew, in the abstract, there were some bad apples, but doesn't every organization?

Then several years ago I learned from experience that it doesn't matter. The concrete reality of what happens when a bad cop singles you out outweighs all the good cops in the world.

I was out about 15k - which I really needed at the time - but that's not what sticks with me. What sticks with me is the fear and humiliation. I have had some bad times, but my arrest was the absolute bottom.

Other than the immediate experience, I think part of it was the knowledge that it didn't matter that I was innocent, the full force of the law and the state had come down and declared me a scumbag among all the dregs of society. It's something that has to happen to you to understand, I think. Maybe it's just because I always regarded myself as a good, law-abiding (and not very humble) citizen, who did things the Right Way. I don't know.

What I do know is to this day, I get anxious when someone even mentions the police, let alone when they show up.

For the love of God don't ever, ever ever ever ever talk to the police. If the police want to arrest you they will arrest you. Talking can only make it worse. I thought I was being polite and helpful. It doesn't matter.

The former sheriff of a nearby county (now a felon) said he had the job because he loved arresting bad guys. They will see bad guys everywhere they can.

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

#348

Post by fredgrott »

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…

you might not know this yet.. but most US states that bought into the Federal ID on top of the state ID have some slight traffic law that basically states no ID on traffic stop can and will get you arrested..

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

#349

Post by kevinskii »

gizmo686 wrote: post #324
mey wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a quick clarification since people assume Miranda Warning is required, it is only required before interrogation. If they visually watched you duck turn style they don't have much reason to interrogate you about it and will skip Miranda. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_warning Edit: See the section called "The six rules"

A bit more clarification. Miranda isn't ever required , however anything you say to them before having been read you rights cannot be used against you in court, nor can evidence acquired as a result of what you said (with exceptions for both cases).

A bit more clarification still: Anything you say to them while in custody cannot be used unless you have been Mirandized.

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

#350

Post by maxcan »

Lagged2Death wrote: post #51

It's high time to just make the cops wear video cameras. A whole lot of this sort of crap could just vanish.

And to immediately fire the chief of the SFFD who actually killed the helmet cam program because it showed how grossly negligent the SFFD responders were in the death of one of the three victims of the Asiana crash at SFO.
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