Ferguson / Staten Island Decisions -- No Indictments

My turn for a hypothetical:

Two groups of people are in the street on two separate days with guns.

One group has applied and received a permit for a gun rights march, and are walking down the street with their guns and protest signs and shouting slogans.

The other group hasn't applied for anything, and they're running down the street waving their weapons in the air and are screaming out expletives.

If you're the police, what do you do? Remember, there's Constitutional rights involved here.

 

It's not fantasy, it's reality for many communities that don't have a lot of crime.

 

In this particular scenario, without commenting on Michael Brown or Eric garner?

He broke the law.

You gave him the excuse.

By not simply telling him where you were going (was it really that big a secret?), you allowed him to follow through on the paranoid edge that many police walk, knowing each traffic/pedestrian stop could be their last.

But it is likely the government will pay for your dental surgery, yes.

 

Quite an interesting turn that the "no tax is too high and the IRS can do no wrong" crowd is now upset about cops trying to arrest a tax cheat.

 

Precisely.

 

You know about as much of how law enforcement works as you do on how newspapers work.

It is also pretty clear you are white, live in a more rural area and have little to no contact with anything that resembles reality.

 

So you're saying that it's more risky for police in areas that aren't white and rural? Interesting.

 

So if everyone is innocent until proven guilty, as we all know, then why are people running or resisting arrest?

 

In terms of No. 2. Very true. But in the Garner case, the cop did have a legal reason for intruding into his life. They were attempting to detain him. They were attempting to respect his legal rights.

But he fought back. They had to use force to detain him. One cop used force that is not against the law, but against department policy. Had he not died, he would have had his legal rights to fight his charge.

Put it another way. Instead of the chokehold, if they had just tried to wrestle him to the ground and he banged his head on the pavement and died, would there be such outrage?

 

Why would a certain type of person in this country fear an interaction with a police officer and want to get away from it? In *this* thread you ask that?