#CopChat – 9pm ET, Wednesday Nights
One word that consistently creeps into conversations around police use of force issues is compliance.
“If the person would have complied with officers orders they wouldn’t have been ________”. Fill in the blank, arrested, taken down, cuffed, punched, choked, shot.
Is it really that simple? Will compliance to officer demands mean less use of force? Less accusations of police brutality?
I think it will and many officers will echo that sentiment.
Tonight on #CopChat we’ll explore compliance from both the police side and community side.
The video below talks about surrender. Exchange that with compliance and don’t look at it as a black/white, police/criminal issue. Consider this a vision for society.
I miss the police chat but I did see the video by the Afro-American. When the entire Southern California law enforcement was looking Christopher Dorner, there was an incident where the cops pulled over a vehicle because it was the same one that Dorner had driven. Unfortunately, it was the wrong color and the wrong license plate and the people in the vehicle were women because the cops did not bother to check if they had the right vehicle. They had let their emotions get carry away.
Furthermore, the cops did not even gave the two ladies a chance to comply because the cops just out of their vehicles and start blasting the vehicle just like the private contractors in Iraq and never once thought of giving out compliance orders. Lucky the women were not killed.
You also have stories where two or more cops are shouting out orders all at once and then the person(s) is confused and frightened about which order to obey which can get them killed or face charges of not complying with police orders. You think that the cops in those stories would have a game plan where one officer is designated to give orders to the person(s). You also have stories where one cop gives one order and then all of a sudden is giving out orders that runs counter to the one he/she had just given.
To me even if you comply, it will not stop cops from verbally or physically abusing you and still filed phony, baloney charges against you to cover up his/her misconduct and/or mistake. Maybe if the cops comply with the laws of our nation, comply with the Bill of Rights, and the US Constitution., then the cops would not be sue in court, lose their jobs, and get some prison time. I am sure that many people and even the cops would echo that sentiment and this should be a vision for society as well not just an issue between cops and the community.
Cops also need to comply when people informed the police that they are exercising their constitutional rights not have their bodies, cars, and place of residences be searched by the police. Too many cops have forgotten that part when they were high school/college when they were learning about US history and/or assume that you are a criminal when you exercise your right against illegal search.
BTW when you look at police videos, many cops who get pull over by other cops are not complying with cops’ orders and are actually arguing and/or physically fighting the cops. Furthermore, you don’t see the cops being shot, choke to death or nearly choke to death, and/or being beat to a pulp within an inch of his/her life by the cops for resisting arrest and failure to complied with police orders in these videos. Why should people complied with police orders, when the cops themselves will not submit themselves to obeying orders from their own officers?
First, those rights that are protected by the Constitution also come with allowances for breeches of those rights which have been recognized by the courts as lawful when adhered to the rules for breeching them. All illegal searches are just that, illegal. There are many instances where a search is legal and that’s the part so many people seem to miss out on. To wrap yourself in the rights that are afforded you in a free society also means that you are accepting a blanket of responsibility you must surrender to if you wish to stand behind the rights.
The videos you mention are very far and few between and the police do comply to other officers and when they don’t there will be and there are very severe ramifications.
Those officers that compromise their profession have no place in the ranks and every good, honest hard working officer will agree with that.
Unfortunately, the US Supreme Court have given police more latitude when they do searches hittp://thefreethoughtproject.com/supreme-court-rules-cops-warrant-search-home. You can expect illegal searches to go through the roof. .
Too many cops seems to miss out on what constitutes a legal search or if they know, they really don’t care.and are unable to accept a blank of responsibility when they put on the badge in a free society. Otherwise, we would not have such a problem with the police.
Police not complying with other police maybe far and few, but you don’t see them getting the same kind of brutal treatment that is dealt out to the rest of the population. What is the percentage of cops being shot by other cops or being given street justice compare to the rest of the population for displaying a contempt of cop?
“Those officers that compromise their profession have no place in the ranks and every good, honest hard working officer will agree with that.”
They will agree but putting their thoughts into action is another story: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/real-reason-police-unions-enable-worst-cop-abuses
And you rarely see the brutal treatment that you are talking about.
Police know the rights and the laws better than most of the public, yet the constant barrage of the same videos and same stories lead the general population to think otherwise.