Comments on: When I Was Handcuffed, It Wasn’t A Racial Thing — It Was A Police Thing

By: edi

edi — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:20:55 +0000

see I know about they got tough jobs and etc what with the hang cuf and without a suitable reason… catching criminal is already their job but miss use of power sometime is fuck up too… im not saying to all the police but some…

By: wheelnut53

wheelnut53 — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:39:42 +0000

I have never had a civil conversation with a cop . I was pulled over while riding a bike and I immediately went into the position hands on top of my head and legs spread The officer who happened to be black said damn man how many times have you been pulled over, I look at him over my shoulder and said this is the first time today.I was never told why I was detained.

By: Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:58:21 +0000

Eric, that was right up there at the top of the story:

“Let me say from the outset that I recognize police have a tough job. And I’m grateful for those who are out there putting themselves in harm’s way to protect people.”

I’m happy for them to do their jobs. I’m not happy for them to abuse their positions. Some do. Others cover for those that do. When they do that, cover for each other and don’t stamp out the abuses, they actually make their jobs harder. They don’t engender trust among those that they are supposed to police.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:53:54 +0000

I love how nobody mentions the other side of this story. Where is the part about policemen taking down a rapist, or engaging in a shootout with a murderer. No, all you people care about is whether your “personal rights” are being trampled on. The police serve and protect, and just because one goes bad you want to force every one of them to add an extra layer of red tape and waste to the system. Let them do their jobs, or would you enjoy living the rest of your life without the boys in blue?

By: edi

edi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:29:34 +0000

I have a story to tell,

yesterday nite, I was helping my friend to delivery food to the customer… so i was driving to search for the customer apartment… this happen in down town chicago… when by sudden i was demand to stop my car and ask to park by a police officer on a bicycle… I didnt know which he mean by find a parking place or just stop my car… so he demand my driving license and ID… so i was panicing coz I was shock what i did wrong… the police officer mention that i cross through the red light but the weird part is!!! I didnt see any red light…. then I was searching for my internation driving license in my beg but my beg was in my car bonnet… so he said step out from the car and then he search me as if i was a criminal… wtf… then he place my hand with hand cuff wtf… and other 2 officer a male and female officer came… and questioning about some crap question like where u from, did you ever do crime and have u tattoo etc… so the white man office ask me are u hindu, i was like nooooo…. and he said to me why are u saying nooo like that… are the hindu below u he mention… i was like what… i said its just a slang… and he ask me alot of stupid question… then he write a ticket mentioning that I obstruct the road…. wait the minute a few min ago it was i cross the red light then become obstruct wtf is this…and plus they search my car like i had a gun or a boom… WTF… Chicago police WTF

By: Crash_Xprt

Crash_Xprt — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:37:20 +0000

Danny, et al.,

The situation is far worse than the post or these comments suggest. Police officers are trained to violate our rights by over-asserting their power. This is a fact that I can support with clear examples and evidence.

Even when it comes to something that should be completely without prejudice – like education – they cannot resist the “us versus them” (i.e. cops versus regular people) mentality. You should know that my father was a sheriff’s deputy for a large California county for 33 years, and I have nothing but respect and pride for the way he conducted himself, as far as I am aware. I also know that he had a pretty healthy amount of distrust for other cops, especially when I, or my siblings, or even my mother had encounters with them.

They are so arrogant that they will violate the law, even without any reason to do so, in order to assert their power. I have encountered that by having my 4th Amendment rights violated on at least two occasions. A common theme for traffic stops is, “your vehicle looked like one that was involved in an earlier incident, can we search you and your car?” The first time I complied and got a ticket for my trouble, the second time I refused and went to jail for being so difficult.

I mention education because how many of us have had a glimpse inside of a police academy or been allowed to sit in during a classroom session? I am an expert in traffic accident analysis and have more experience in the field than even the most seasoned veterans of law enforcement. I have attended the exact same accident reconstruction classes that the cops attend, but I had to go out of state to to it because, in California, they do not allow “us” into “their” secret world. I won’t even get into the sort of prejudicial instruction that I was given in these classes (some educators were admittedly more objective than others), but just my experience attempting to take an advanced reconstruction course in California was an eye-opener to say the least.

I was told that I would have to attend the full academy (dorm residency and 8 weeks or so of full-time on-campus attendance) in order to take a class that should not be related to law enforcement per se. It was supposed to be a forensic engineering course, according to the description in the community college catalog, but in practice, it was a law enforcement course and they refused to allow my challenge of their unrelated (and unnecessary) prerequisites. Not only did this piss me off because it totally violates the law (Title 5), but what was I going to do about it? They basically dared me to do something to make them follow the law. The community college president did not support me, and I dropped the issue before going to the board of directors. It was just easier to go ahead and go out of state to get the courses I wanted, although many many times more expensive for me.

My point is that until the police in California and elsewhere allow regular citizens that are NOT enrolled in the academy to attend the classes that are funded by our tax dollars as part of the community college system, what do we expect? There is no citizen oversight on how these people are educated, and even the college president is afraid of his/her power. Further, the ridiculous restrictions on who is eligible to become a police officer in the first place fosters a community of holier-than-thou control freaks rather than a police force that is a reasonable representation of society at large.

I’m not saying that criminals or felons should be allowed to be police officers, but why should a person be disqualified simply because they got busted smoking pot or vandalizing their high school when they were a stupid kid? Why should past financial trouble or some minor blemishes on a credit report cause a candidate to be rejected? THIS is what is preventing people from becoming police officers, not that it is a hard job – BECAUSE IT IS NOT A HARD JOB. Brain surgery is hard. Engineering is hard. High-rise welding is hard. Farming is hard. But being an average police officer is one of the easiest occupations I could imagine. Rare physical effort, and even rarer brain effort (unless you are one of the few that investigate homicides or something like that).

If we had more people on the police that were a little more like us, and less like perfect sociopaths, they might be a little more understanding of what it is like to be a real person.

By: t.rex

t.rex — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:14:06 +0000

I think ALL police officers should be made to live a month as a homeless person or a black man etc to experience FIRSTHAND how it feels to be robbed of your rights and dignity by jackasses with a badge because they are too immature to handle situations diplomatically

By: Bob Chase

Bob Chase — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:52:30 +0000

I have a 13 year old little girl that I have known all of my life and have supported her financially, and am the only positive male role model in her life. The other day she was taken from a home in NH to a court hearing in a town 8 miles from the Canadian border, It was a 2 1/2 hour drive. She was transported by the NH sheriffs dept in CHAINS. He shackled her ankles, a chain around her waist and handcuffs and placed her in the cage, “the back seat of the car”. When I heard this I was furious. I called the Sheriffs Dept and was told it was S. O P. Disgusting an innocent 13 year old little girl !!!

By: Dominic

Dominic — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:36:12 +0000

Hey Danny,

These are the sorts of cases where a FOIA request for the police dashboard camera should theoretically be successful. As long you have information specific enough to identify the right footage, I think that’s where a lot of the dash cam video we see comes from. It might be interesting to see what you can find.

By: Mr. Wolfhelm

Mr. Wolfhelm — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:54:06 +0000

Hmmm,

I am quite aware of the meaning of generalizations, the kind of statements one can make based upon limited anecdote, the kinds of statements that one can make based on well developed theory and and the kinds of statement one can make based upon empirical field research. I also know that sociological forces impact our personalities, our opinions and our proclivities. It is not a random function of personality, a fact that many fields –from advertising to more academic fields — have firmly established.

I also understand that the fact that _I_ do not know something does not mean that others cannot know it. I am not so self-centered as to think that the limitations of my own education, my own experience and my own capabilities apply to everyone else.

I suspect that you actually know many things that I do not, perhaps things I could never know. And the converse is no doubt true, as well.

However, I do not understand why you would write that the reasons why some people might be willing to confront police abuse of power and others would not does not matter. It is one of the underlying implicit issues of Danny’s blog post to which these comments are attached. Danny and I both think that calling the police on their misconduct matters quite a bit, though it seems that we are both unsure of the best means to do so.

As you accusation of name-calling, I am curious about the basis for this. I would admit that I have a problem with abuse of authority, especially by those entrusted by the public and the state to protect us and our rights.