Always enjoy a good police story where a citizen, or visitor in this case, gets a good taste of the fairness and civility all of our law enforcement officers serve up to the populace. Every person deserves a good dose of justice.
It will never happen to me is always true, until it does. And the sooner the better.
Things won't change until people get pissed off enough to force change.
Not in any way shape or form to be an "apologist" for the police -- specifically because simple rudeness to a police officer is not a crime in any just society, *PERIOD* (stupid perhaps, but not criminal)...
But I have to say that I notice that just perhaps this fellow egged the guy on. (I think he admits it in his terms by calling it a "horrible misunderstanding").
I just can't help but think: much of the hostility cops develop is a result of the hostility people give them. The "combat" mentality sets in after a while. (This is to say, it's a two-way street; there's only so long you can be called "pig" or "Jack-booted thug" before even the best of men will become one.)
My ideal solution? Restore the police to the function of preventing physical violence; turn "civil crime" to a thing of the past. THEN, "Policeman" would be a title one looked upon with respect.
Bah, I'm rambling here. Point made.
Fascist nation: I agree things will only change when people are pissed off. But they must strip government of power not just the police. People were pissed off and voted in the Democrats but the Democrats love government power just as much as the Republicans. Both parties will continue to expand state power and in the end the police will end up with all the ability to beat people over the head that they want and then some. Government has to be cut back across the board.
IanC: I disagree. As a visiting lecturer this man faced huge risk being arrested (huge risk) and so I doubt he would push for it. He did ask the cop who he was which is a legitimate question. And the cop went ballistic. I have personally seen US police do the exact same thing. I was once stopped by a cop who demanded to open a suitcase I had (I was returning home from a trip). I asked him what probable cause he had which is a legitimate question I am entitled to ask. He went nuts, dragged me out of the car, pushed me down on my face in the gravel and brought out police dogs and had me surrounded by other cops with their guns drawn. And I asked calmly and politely. We have to acknowledge that a large number of cops are mentally unstable.
Okay, I'm biased. I work with cops. But the cops I work for look at this type of activity with disdain. We can blame a lot of things: public policy like the War on Drugs and Supreme Court rulings that have given officers more and more power are just a pair of reasons. Mandatory minimum sentencing gives more power to prosecutors and the rage to incarcerate have increased the US prison system to become the top penal colony in the world.
Hmmm...a lot of work in front of us.
An example of Monopoly Failure of Government Force and its subdivisions. The Monopoly of Justice subdivision fails for the same reasons all such monopolies fail. In a Sovereign Individual System, the streets along the frontage would be under the contol of the property owners. They would provide the security as necessary and be customer service oriented. Members of monopolies are there to serve themselves, they don't see customers, they only see perpetrators. Revenue enhancement.
I live in Atlanta and used to work near the Hilton, the front of which is pictured in the photo. The fat slug in the business suit who's had 10 dozen too many krispy cremes is not an Atlanta cop or detective, he's just a security guard for the Hilton hotel. I used to see him every day while walking to my office, where he spent most of his time on a landing outside the hotel smoking cigarettes and shooting the sh*t with the other rent-a-cops (think ambitious and highly motivated).
As a footnote, we downtown workers used to cross that stretch between the Hilton and the Marriott all the time coming and going from lunch. Nobody ever bitched or complained or told us to stop "for our own safety".
They're harassing out-of-towners they know they'll never see again. And as long as they can blame it on "Ay-rab-looking" possible turr-rists all the better.
This is a symptom of the American mentality that our law enforcement officers must be put on an ivory pedestal and their authority is sacrosanct.
Cops are just workers, they aren't the law. If a postal worker can't put a stamp on a letter properly he's fired, but if a cop shoots civilians, beats people for crossing streets, and fakes evidence he has a whole infrastructure to protect him from losing his job or getting sued/arrested.
Commenting by HaloScan
