Is this our future? No more public gatherings? All it takes is a phone call and an abandoned suitcase. They don't even have to blow themselves up any more.

Sidenotes:

1. I learned there is a thing called a "friendly." Football is such a shared thing, you don't even have to say the noun. The adjective is enough.

2. Silly story -- I live in a small town that for years had only one prefix on the phone numbers. 385. Folks wouldn't even give the entire phone number. If your number was 385-1234, you'd just say 1234. The town grew, fax machines came into vogue, and they had to add a prefix 379 to handle the increased need for phone numbers.

But old habits die hard, yeah? I'm a 385-1234. The new assistant police chief got 379-1234. Guess who got his phone calls all the time? Because people were on autopilot when dialing?

Folks would leave a message on my answering machine and I would pass it on. After all, I knew his phone number.

My favorite message for a long time was this: "Hi Connor. This is Jim. Ted tells me you have the key to City Hall." Such a small town, I knew the occupations and last names of everyone named in that message. Still cracks me up.

My most favorite message, though, is the last one I ever got. "Connor, just wanted you to know that the bomb squad has been called. An abandoned suitcase has been found at the Post Office." Well! Talk about breaking news! I passed on the message, per usual.

There must have been bloody hell raised at the police station about such sensitive info being left on the wrong answering machine, because I never got another wrong number about official police business.

I love how stories build.

LMFAHS. *promote

But why was he being interrogated inside the jailhouse? That threw me off. Should've been set in a police station interrogation room.

And here's the interesting thing: you feel the need to show that good cops exist, to remind people of that.
If I wanna see a good cop, I walk into the local police station. These men and women aren't all perfect but I'm pretty sure in a conflict, they wouldn't shoot me or kneel on my face or kick me while I'm handcuffed. They're trained not to do that unless they have perfectly good reasons to do that. Perfectly good.
I don't live in your country. Nobody here needs good cop videos because in my part of the world, even unpleasant encounters involving the police don't necessarily reflect badly on the officers involved. We don't have your kind of horror stories here.
We have shitty cops, certainly, some pretty racist guys. Just go and read some reporting on the NSU (Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund), it's our little domestic terrorism problem showcasing how terrible our police can be.
Do you really think that can compete with the terrible shit in your country?
People in your country hate cops so much because the good ones allow the bad ones to dominate the public Image. They hate them because the whole institution has systematic problems with racism, accountability and excessive force.

DrewNumberTwo, I see where you're coming from. Perhaps when can come together in supporting the proposition that police officers routinely wear body cameras.

And jmd, I would agree that I've certainly seen worse when it comes to homemade police encounter recordings. My general annoyance is directed at a group of predominantly adolescent/early 20's males who find ways to be obnoxious and disruptive toward law enforcement officers while avoiding breaking the law, and then equate legality with morality. I would not classify this instance as disruptive in itself, though I speculate that it represents a more general pattern of disruptive behavior given the officer's allusion to other incidents at the police station. I appreciate that my speculation is just that, speculation.

Lastly, I will say, particularly after reading the video taper's post on YT, that the bigger concern here is the police officer's behavior. Wielding the powers invested in a position of privilege as a means to retaliate against someone for personal grievances is reprehensible.

How is it not surprising that the problem sees no problem?

You say : "I don't see people getting beat up, or shot, or assaulted, or arrested for no reason"
So, those that were "beat up, or shot, or assaulted, or arrested", were for a good reason, right?

Ever consider that those reasons are often made up?
Ever consider that the stories you heard around the water cooler were simply B.S., and it was in fact the police simply preying on innocent people?



Just what exactly does LE do for me, or anyone?

Do police have super powers and spidey senses?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting raped, and prevent it?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting run over, and prevent it?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting beaten, and prevent it?
Will they magically teleport to someone getting robbed, and prevent it?
The answer is : no.

Police can't actually /help/ anyone.
They can only show up after the fact, and ask you what happened, and if you know who did it.
If you don't know who it was, tough shit. Sucks to be you.
Unlike on TV, there is no in-depth investigation. The most they do is tell you to call them if you remember something else. (This is speaking from experience)

What if you're not around to even tell them anything? Almost every murder committed by an unrelated stranger without witnesses or video goes unsolved.
Why? Because all police know how to do is ask friends/family where they were, and if everyone has an excuse, police got nothing.

At least when a normal person [that you can identify] harms you, you /can/ call the police, and maybe, just maybe, if they feel like it, they will round them up after the fact.

(They often don't. We've had people dumping trash on our land : police didn't respond. We've had people hunting [strangers shooting guns] on our property : police didn't respond. Brought evidence of a fraud to the police station, with account numbers, names, addresses : we won't investigate. The only time they ever came was to talk with my mother after she reported her credit card number was being used by a stranger - LOL, of all the things, they bother coming for /that/?)

But if the police harm you, you've got nowhere to turn to - but them. And they care more about each other, than some stranger.

Heck, I've been tailgated by a cop, on a multi-lane road, so close his headlights weren't even visible over my trunk. He could have gone around me any time. After miles, when I finally sped up - BAM. Ticket.

I've pulled up to a roadblock by my house, and asked if I could go by. The guy was so incensed that he detained me for hours, and told me I was threatening his life, reckless driving, and not wearing a seatbelt.

I've been threatened by a cop - because I interrupted her chat with her girlfriend to ask for directions around a road they were closing off.

I've been pulled over with gun drawn, for trivial speeding (well below reckless).

Seriously people, every time you get pulled over, you are at risk of getting shot, because someone is trained to be suspicious and paranoid, and they saw something shiny.

Just look at how they behave. Cop shoots his daughter in his own garage, because he thought she was a burglar.
What, too much to ask just to look at the person to see if they're even a burglar? Shoot first ask questions later.

Every year there are multiple cases of police raiding a house and shooting people - only to find out it was the wrong house. What, too much trouble to be a decent human being and just knock first, and ask for whoever they need to come out?

Oh, but that might put them at a greater risk. And we all know that police take MINIMAL risks themselves, and instead risk the lives of the citizens. (Why not approach with gun drawn? At least you're ready to shoot the suspect. And if you accidentally shoot the suspect, oh well, just say they 'attacked'. No biggie. Why take the risk.)
The biggest risk they take, is the one they dream up for when they want to take credit for being the heroes they never were.

Look at the friggin VT shooting. Swarms of cops surrounding a building. Man inside, could be killing more people by the moment... and the cops just camp out and wait for him to kill himself.
Worst part, is if it were my family inside, and I tried to go in and stop the shooter, the police would just shoot me for trying to enter.

(And no, police don't deserve heroic praise. They deserve the _pay_check_ they signed up for. If that's not enough, they should take life more seriously and really think about what it is they're getting into, before they do it. Take responsibility, like an adult should.)

The police are a liability. They're armed. They're selfish. They're paranoid and suspicious. They're jumpy.
IMO, the best thing to do is keep away from them, don't look at them, don't talk to them. Stay away, and stay safe.

Oh yeah, and the police are also immune form the constitution's equal protection clause. "Because interpretation".

Look at the numbers. You are less likely to be arrested or go to jail in NORTH KOREA, than here in the U.S. of A. By a factor of 4 last I checked.
What the heck is going on here?

1 in 18 men is either in jail, on parole, or somewhere in the process of going to jail.
Most of the countries in Europe have smaller populations, than the people that we have 'in the system'. And most of the people we have 'in the system', never even harmed another person. They're just arrested for 'behavior crimes' - simply doing things that are not allowed. This is madness. The system is mad, the police are mad.

You don't end up with videos of a gang of police acting like gangsters, if it's a matter of 'a few bad apples'. They all have to be in the same frame of mind.
If they weren't all of the same frame of mind, one would do something bad, and the others would say "whoa there man, you're out of line".
But instead, they all do it. Because there are no 'bad apples'.
There is 'bad training', and 'bad culture', and it permeates the profession.

And when I say bad, I don't mean that "they are trained to be thugs".
I mean that the police don't see suspects as 'citizens (members of the state) that the police are on the side of'.
Whoever crosses their path is dehumanized. Some kind of "other", that the police need to protect society from. Not realizing that those people /are/ society, and /they/ need protection.
The kind of behavior that I see in these kinds of videos, it's simply treason. Betrayal of the state.

If the laws of this country were written to provide restitution to victims - and there were no laws to simply tell people how to live, and if the police spent their time providing restitution to victims, then I would have nothing but the greatest appreciation for the police.
As it stands, there's very little nobility around this profession. Majority of the job is simply picking on people - sometimes because they did harm, but usually because they mind their own business in an unapproved of way, or for kicks.

-scheherazade

@lantern53

Having been an officer for a long time, long enough to really have seen the entire process of the "militarization" of the police force from its inception to its current state. I'd really like to know your opinion of it. Can you honestly say you feel its appropriate, even needed or justified? The very rare opportunities I've had in the past to ask police officers this question, i find they are very reluctant to give honest and straight answers. Paraphrasing, they tend to fall back on the, "we'd rather have it and not need it" line of thinking. If you do support it, do you truly feel you or the officer utilizing it have received appropriate training?

I remember driving by our local police station (small town Texas) on the way to school and seeing BOTH the giant armored vehicles parked prominently in front with the bold SWAT on the side. Its always been extremely hard for me to accept them or the fact that we as a town of 30k needed a SWAT team to begin with.

That's interfering with/disrupting the flow of traffic, playing in the street like that, doughboy. That's a much bigger fine than not stopping at a cross walk. Can I just walk back and forth in the crosswalk in front of the police station? No? Then someone give that fat cop a ticket....PLEASE!

1) As I mentioned earlier, implementing border control for each state is never going to happen. As I also mentioned, border control has already been proven ineffective at stopping both drugs and illegal immigrants so why would guns be any different?

2) My drug analogy is perfectly valid. Drugs are banned yet they are still smuggled into the country. And no, people aren't growing cocaine or heroin in their backyard. And yes, smuggling a small packet of cocaine by hiding it in your ass is easier than smuggling a gun through the same means but guns don't have be smuggled intact. They can easily be disassembled and the individual parts smuggled separately. Many of these pieces would be small enough to hide in your ass. But this is all largely irrelevant because the bulk of drugs are not transported via anus.

3) The motivations of mass shooters is highly debatable. I'd argue that they want to feel empowered and the easiest way to do that is in schools which are undeniably the least likely places for people to be armed. If they tried to go on a shooting spree in a police station or military base or gun convention, they probably wouldn't get many kills. Instead, they'd be shot and killed by someone else and that's something no shooters seem to want (hence the reason why they always commit suicide after the spree instead of letting themselves be arrested or killed by the police). In fact, if you look at the history of school shootings in the U.S., many of the shooters were adults. The Sandy Hook shooter was 20 years old and he primarily targeted first-graders who obviously weren't his peers. When it comes to mass shootings, it's all about quantity and targeting people who can't defend themselves is the most effective way of achieving that.

4) Do you have any statistics to support your claim? I seriously doubt suicide rates plummeted in countries or states where guns were banned. Japan and South Korea both have extremely strict gun laws yet they also have some of the highest suicide rates in the world (South Korea is #3, Japan is #8, the U.S. is #33). If you weren't serious about killing yourself and just wanted attention, you wouldn't use a gun in the first place. You'd stand on the ledge of a building and wait for the news vans to appear. Like you said, guns are the quickest way to kill yourself so you wouldn't use them if you had any doubts or hesitations.

Was wondering the same, i came to the conclusion it was perhaps some sort of attack on a police station? Dunno how they got tailed before arriving though if that were true.

Yo, play Ingress with me. It's an augmented reality game with two factions fighting over actual points of interest in reality: Post offices, fire departments, police stations, parks, college campuses, jamba fuckin juices.

Each location is a portal that you fight over and DESTROY for your factions. I am in the Orange County Resistance. If they want to stop us from playing, then they're going to have to stamp out all of our freedoms.

Fight the power peacefully and practice war in augmented reality!

@poolcleaner me: Garden Grove, Stanton, Westminster, Fountain Valley, Irvine, Costa Mesa. Civil Disobedience in the form of gaming.

Wackier than expected-A leisurely drive to the police station, eh? From some cunt that just stole my sign? That's more than a few ass-kickins'....

http://www.wbrz.com/news/man-pleads-for-help-on-hood-of-truck-in-baton-rouge/

One guy is a shrimp vendor. Other guy has a truck. Truck guy steals shrimp sign. Shrimp man jumps on truck. Truck guy drives to police station.

Wait, what?

I have serious issues with authority of any kind, especially uniformed thugs employed by cities or counties. The state of law enforcement in America is absurd-I do not believe you can remain a cop with noble ethics or morality; YOU WILL compromise any noble intentions you had to"protect and serve" eventually.
I never give police factual information when I do not absolutely have to. I will of necessity or impulse, reaction or response, engage injustice when I see it, regardless of personal safety or violation of statutes.

I don't know you, don't strike a woman in my presence: I don't care if she hit you first and don't need any "whys", I won't stop pummeling you until you are unconscious.

I have met about 5 fair cops in the hundreds I have ever had to engage.

Sorry porky, you chose a douchbag profession. Sorry Velocity5, I suppose I simply don't have my "life" together enough to appreciate Mr. Badgy. I do however get wood when I consider the noble fireman or EMT. Used to hang out at the firehouse with my son once a week in Durango. You can't "hang out" at a police station....If you did, some dickhead would start asking questions and probably arrest you for loitering. Fuck the PO-Leece.

Wait what?

Dude, you are quite wrong. There have been many killing sprees at police stations and military bases. Are you fucking kidding me? You don't remember THE FORT HOOD murders?

bloody hell

Back on topic...

The guy assaults a TV camera while claiming that the video is fake... as he turns himself into a police station.

Steroids or amphetamine, you decide. Another mass shooter in the making maybe.