Its kind of comical how terrified american police officers always appear in these videos. The contrast between the police officer and the woman's composure is too much, they may want to consider improving their selection procedure and training techniques.

the elephant in the room, and no one wants to admit it right or left, is that the history of police /judicial systems has never been good. Im not saying it to advocate for anarchy but basically everywhere, always, police abuse their power, while preventing very little crime / providing justice. I dont pretend to know all of history, but I never get much of a response when I say this and I thinks its because power corrupts no matter what, and there will always be minority others to justify abusing. The very very best you can hope for is to have enough oversight so as to make the corruption spread out, obscure, and minimal but even then...

For a long time I thought the US police was at least more effective in closing cases but between the US getting its ass kicked in the drug war despite the militarized police and a report I saw about poor coordination across state lines leading to murders and missing persons cases going unresolved for decades

what an odd dynamic here on the sift in regards to lantern.

many here (myself included) have seemed to put the mantle of responsibility squarely on lanterns shoulders,as if he represented ALL police....everywhere.

this is not only patently false,it is very unfair.

BUT....

and @lantern53 this is very important you understand this very crucial,pivotal point:

the outrage you see here playing out on the sift in regards to police abuse of power and authority (oftimes directed AT you) comes directly from a perspective on how we all view HOW a true police officer should behave.

we feel (i dont mean to speak for everyone..but im going to anyways) that those in a position of power and authority have to be held to a much higher standard than the rest of us.

why?

because they are in a position of power and authority!!!!

and to abuse that public trust.
be it by the use of violence or intimidation,is the greatest of all betrayals.

so when we see a cop abusing his powers,in whatever capacity,we become outraged and angered.
justifiably so in my opinion.

i know you like to poke the hornets nest from time to time and it gives you the giggles.
ok..thats fair enough...
but stop defending the indefensible.

as a police officer you should be the first one condemning those cops who have obviously stepped over the line.
i am willing to be that you have done just that in your time on the force.most cops i know do it that way.
police policing themselves in a roundabout way.

i have full confidence you are good at what you do and have built a skin so thick not much really phases you anymore,but stop defending those cops that are NOT good cops...they are a cancer on your institution and they make those of you who ARE good at what you do treated with suspicion and wariness.

so listen to those here who are telling you how they feel about the bad cops.these are not criticizing you in particular,so dont feel you have to defend every bad cop out there.

so just as you do not represent every cop on the planet,dont allow those bad cops define you.

we are counting on you to be better.

/rant off

Do you even know the definition of statist? You don't seem to.

There are plenty of real cases of police abusing their powers and local governments failing to maintain basic rights, but this isn't one of them. Post those and I'll agree with you.

I haven't pushed play on this video yet, but based on the thumbnail alone I think that mascot's lucky not to have gotten a face full of fist.

Does anyone else do this? Find a video you just don't want to watch because you know it'll just irritate you (religion/atheism arguments, political spinmongers, police abuse of power) but read through the comments and see if you can get the gist?

Furthermore these men were AP accredited news men sent there to do their job and were in no way endangering the public by doing so. Therefore your quote by Mark Twain does not apply in this situation. The tag should more accurately read "Police Abuse of Power".
>> ^DrewNumberTwo:

Meh, the courts will sort this one out. The cop was right, though, that even though the First Amendment does offer protection, it does not offer complete and total protection. You cannot yell fire in a crowded theater, etc. The tag of Police Abuse is hyperbole.

>> ^NaMeCaF:

Heh. If you've got nothing to hide, why not just let them do their job?
Fine, if you dont want to let them search, then you can't ever complain that the cops aren't doing their jobs and getting drugs and weapons off the street.


"Heh. If you've got nothing to hide, why not just let them do their job?"

You need rules and indaviduals need protection from police abusing there power you don't want to be constantly searched all the time do you ? You realise the ultimate point of laws and the police is so a society can function not so that people can be arrested and go to jail ?

"if you dont want to let them search, then you can't ever complain that the cops aren't doing their jobs and getting drugs and weapons off the street."

Well they are not doing there jobs if they are searching someone without probably cause or picking off random people to try and meat arrest quotas. Where do you stop would you like it so that we have to show papers to cops every place you go ? You realise the importance of inosent until proven guilty ?

"you can't ever complain that the cops aren't doing their jobs and getting drugs and weapons off the street"

Yes you can there is no causal link between cops randomly searching people and reducing the amount of drugs and weapons on the street as a whole. In fact research has shown that the more aggressive policing and penalties for drugs have increased the prevalence of drugs. ( just Google it and do some research )

Socities that have reduced crimiunal sentancing for drug possession and use and instead implemented mandatory rehabilitation have seen a massive reduction in drug use and crime.

So its perfectly reasonable to refuse a cop to do something In reality they should not even be asking they are themselves exploiting the good will of people that don't know the law. A cop asking to search your car is the equivilent of a random person knocking on your front door and saying hello would you mind if I look around the inside of your house ? if you say yes then they have permission and its not an intrusion if you say no then they cannot come in without braking trespassing laws. Just because that person is waring a random uniform does not suddenly change that , they still need permission from a court or from laws that say if there is probable cause they have a default permission to search.

In the same way that if I see your house on fire and someone screaming inside its not likely I would get done for trespassing ( if that person later complained) as I have a good solid legally supported reason to trespass on that property.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:
>> ^joedirt:
Big straw man.. "given the alternative"
I could point to 100 internet videos right now showing taser use and in every case it was never the situation where you might draw down on a suspect. It is a convenience tool now used for compliance. Yes, they can be safe and useful and save lives in certain situations, but the majority of the use ends up being lazy or "bad" cops using it for sadism or efficiency of results or just for compliance.

Failing to comply to an officer is a sure fire way to be detained and/or shot with a high voltage electric probe...or a gun. As most any lawyer will tell you, you can avoid the crime but you can't avoid the ride. There is a difference between police brutality and police powers of aresting.
Your argument is actually the straw men in this case as it is the lawful responsibility for a person to abide by the lawful requests of an officer. Any diviation from this results in a use of force by the officer to be determinded by his discresion...and when you are putting yourself at someones discression expect to experince pain and/or humiliation.
I don't know what your would rather when people are being hostile or standoffish with the police. Would you rather them have to call 4 other officers with feather dusters and tickle a person into submision? If so, none of us would get any protection because the police officers hands would be so tied because of their inability to reasonably enforce the laws.
I understand the problems you have though, I too also worry about police abusing their powers. That is the subject of a different conversation though. In short, if you act in unlawful defiance of an officer expect a hard body check to the floor at minimum and a cold electric probe in your flesh at a maximum.


this

>> ^joedirt:
Big straw man.. "given the alternative"
I could point to 100 internet videos right now showing taser use and in every case it was never the situation where you might draw down on a suspect. It is a convenience tool now used for compliance. Yes, they can be safe and useful and save lives in certain situations, but the majority of the use ends up being lazy or "bad" cops using it for sadism or efficiency of results or just for compliance.


Failing to comply to an officer is a sure fire way to be detained and/or shot with a high voltage electric probe...or a gun. As most any lawyer will tell you, you can avoid the crime but you can't avoid the ride. There is a difference between police brutality and police powers of aresting.

Your argument is actually the straw men in this case as it is the lawful responsibility for a person to abide by the lawful requests of an officer. Any diviation from this results in a use of force by the officer to be determinded by his discresion...and when you are putting yourself at someones discression expect to experince pain and/or humiliation.

I don't know what your would rather when people are being hostile or standoffish with the police. Would you rather them have to call 4 other officers with feather dusters and tickle a person into submision? If so, none of us would get any protection because the police officers hands would be so tied because of their inability to reasonably enforce the laws.

I understand the problems you have though, I too also worry about police abusing their powers. That is the subject of a different conversation though. In short, if you act in unlawful defiance of an officer expect a hard body check to the floor at minimum and a cold electric probe in your flesh at a maximum.

In today's world where we're fed lies and bullshit by the media and our own governments, where (british examples only sry) you can get fined MORE for leaving your bin lid open by 3 inches than shoplifters get fined for stealing, 4 burly binmen force a frail older lady to carry her own bin down her drive because they consider it "too difficult", where police abuse their powers on a seemingly daily basis, and where we seem too apathetic to protest our country going to a war we don't believe in

THIS is what i love to see, THIS is how we should be showing our discontent, THIS is how we should demonstrate not just to our own government but to the people suffering as a result of our governments, that, to quote El Duderinho, THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND MAN!

I was fucking cheering them on. Unfortunately, if we want to show our discontent in this way, some people will HAVE to break the law and possibly get incarcerated. Because police can cause harm to you within the law, but you can't cause harm to them (ie. to stop THEM causing harm to innocents/people protesting for the good of our future)

I expect, nay hope, to see this in great britain soon due to many things happening atm:
- Reverse racism/reverse political correctness, where you're not allowed to express yourself or your opinions to the full extent for fear of upsetting other people (people get sacked, fined, arrested, villified because of it)
- Political correctness gone mad - where money, time and other resources are wasting in order to find a way of saying or doing things that cannot possibly offend anyone in any way
- Rediculous fines and charges and bill hikes in order to shore up more income to be wasted in the usual manner
- Police chasing statistics and allowing people in danger/in distress to handle it (or not) themselves
- National health service allowing people to become MORE ILL in our hospitals due to neglect and waiting lists, some of those waiting having funded the NHS for 50 years of their life to find they're second in line to a scrounging sponger who never contributed a penny to the services they rape

/ahem
viva la revolution

What does this have to do with political parties? Um, Rotty ... Im guessing you are the only person thinking about party affiliation after watching this video. I dont know about anyone else but I saw police abusing there power. I think you might be a little preoccupied with the whole left right thing.