[quote]JD430 wrote:
Uncle Gabby wrote:
PB-Crawl wrote:
we should be free to yell and scream at any government authority figure without risk of arrest, we pay their salary, we are the boss.
We are their boss, and we do pay their salary, but everything else in that statement is fucking stupid.
Thank you.
First off, officers should give you their name and badge number if you ask. I have never hesitated when I had some big mouth egomaniac screaming for it. What do I care if he knows my name? Trust me, I won’t be intimidated by that nonsense. That is because I treat people with respect as much as I can and study my job very thoroughly.
Nearly every uniformed officer in the country wears name tags anyway. The only exception may be plainclothes guys. Every time a cop is dispatched somewhere a computerized record is kept of it. If you feel you have been wronged, just call the jurisdiction and ask for the officer’s information. There are also other avenues to identify a cop if you feel it is necessary to report his actions.
It is true to say that the police are employed by the public and society at large is our “boss”. Technically, the military is also employed by us too, but I haven’t ordered any airstrikes lately.
This does not mean any individual person is our “boss”. When I was employed in other jobs, my boss had ultimate authority over me. If he said “stop” I had to stop, if he said “go” I had to go. Many court cases have addressed and settled this issue. The police exist to serve the goal of securing and maintaining order in society AT LARGE. That is a very important distinction. You, or me for that matter, have absolutely no individual control over an officer’s actions so you can stop with the “boss” bullshit.
The term is completely incorrect if you have any understanding of its meaning. It is more appropriate to say that you have the right to monitor police actions and be heard when you want to report the resulting consequences of those actions. That is completely proper in a (relatively) free and open society.When you don’t have that right, like in North Korea or Russia, then you are in a police state. Until then, stop distorting the facts and bitching about a “police state”. Many of you whiners have no idea what that is.
Lastly, this is my take on this case from what little information is out there. It kind of sounds like the professor was being an agitator and maybe even purposely trying to bait the officer into making a mistake. That is where he was wrong(total speculation of course). The officer was wrong in falling for it and probably losing emotional control which resulted in him misusing his arrest power. The ability to restrain someone’s liberty is very powerful and should be treated with extreme respect by people entrusted with that power. For the most part, you have a right to be an idiot, especially in your home.
PS - The president should mind his own business. This has nothing to do with him. Doesn’t he have his hands full completely wrecking the country and turning it into a socialist nightmare?
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Great post.
One thing people need to take into consideration, is that police officers are taught to take control of the situation. They are the law. I am not saying it’s right or wrong, but during their training, that is the mantra by which they are conditioned. So keep that in mind when you have some interaction with police.
As far as this situation with the professor, perhaps he was baiting the officer, maybe he had a real shitty night and took it out on the cop. Who knows. But I do not think the president is in a position to make the comment he made, especially after admitting he didn’t know all the facts. He should get ripped for it, as should anyone. But why hate on him? He thinks what he thinks, and that is our president. The same way he isn’t sure about the details of his health-care plan, or the stimulus and how it was supposed to keep unemployment under 8%. Let this be echoed when the 2012 elections come around. Because THIS is the real measure of this man.