Cop starts yelling "Gun!" during a car stop, until he realizes he's being filmed

If you’re white, you usually won’t have to ask because they’ll ask you “do you know why I pulled you over?” (it’s a trick, of course. The correct answer is always “no, officer.”). If you’re African-American, they won’t even do you that shoddy “courtesy”.

20 Likes

Which is, as it turns out, also not illegal. http://civil-liberties.yoexpert.com/civil-liberties-general/is-it-legal-to-shout-"fire"-in-a-crowded-theater-19421.html

7 Likes

Good point. I’ve been pulled over a few times, and I’ve found that if you:

  1. Turn off the engine
  2. Turn on your blinkers
  3. Turn on your overhead
  4. Roll down your window
  5. DON’T reach for the glovebox until asked for “license and registration”.

You get a warning. But I have no idea how difficult it must be to be a minority dealing with a subliminal racist. I wish there was a way to scrape some of this white male privilege off and give it to someone else.

18 Likes

Maybe the cop just spotted that he was holding a gun in his hand and it freaked him out? :crazy_face:

7 Likes

Good advice. Between steps 4 and 5, I’d add “Put both hands on the top of the steering wheel”.

That would be as good a description as any when it comes to the goals of things like affirmative action and reparations.

15 Likes

Never underestimate the power of authoritarianism.
People want to believe those who “Serve and Protect” them (not really) are honest, good people. Otherwise, the world gets a lot scarier and they’d have to think a little.
edit-I forgot to quote

8 Likes

Well put.

Both of which I wholeheartedly support.

6 Likes

… is revealed because he …

  1. feels sufficiently threatened that he’s drawn his weapon
  2. is standing so close to the source of his fear that he has to hold the gun up and away in an awkward, non-firing position.
13 Likes

Actually, it is. There are statutes against inducing panic. The website you cite refers to the debate about the standard for 1st amendment protection, and how it has changed from “creating a clear and present danger” to “imminent lawless action.” But that was really in reference to inciting a riot, and directly calling for violence - a distinction the court made from what Bradenburg was doing, which was a general call for “revengeance [sic].” So yes, it can still be illegal to falsely shout “fire” in a crowded theater, just as it’s illegal to call in bomb threats or other such false statements that induce panic.

ETA: It’s also worth noting that the “clear and present danger” standard was not in a case of anyone actually yelling “fire” in a theater. That case, US v Shenck, was about someone passing out flyers advocating avoiding the draft.

7 Likes

I have no idea about the status of reparations, but affirmative action programs are being lost because activists are challenging the laws and winning.

4 Likes

It’s a clear and direct threat that you intend to murder someone.

3 Likes

Activist: “Well I didn’t own slaves! Why should I have to suffer for something that happened from 1640 until late 1800s?” Oh, and once freed, things were totally cool, right? At least we don’t have racism in socity today.

9 Likes

There was a gun in this case. It just wasn’t in the driver’s hand. It would have been nice if this post linked to a news article or something that had more details about this incident. Thanks to knoxblox for posting this above:

5 Likes

One of the basic rules of gun safety is not to point a gun at any animal or person you don’t intend to kill. Cops shouldn’t be allowed to just point guns at people without consequence where there is no reason to believe they would need to kill someone.

13 Likes

I think the issue is when is it right (and what does the procedure say) about yelling “gun” – is it right to do it when a gun is visible but not in reach, and certainly not in someone’s hand? The tone of that officer is clearly one of imminent danger. The implication is that he has his gun on someone who is armed and dangerous, and that is a call for other officers to draw and possibly fire their weapons.

7 Likes

so looking at this thread, there is zero advice on how to survive if a cop starts screaming this at you and you are already sitting still with your hands out visible

because basically they’ve decided they want to murder you and they know they will get away with it?

6 Likes

And the AR police are charging him with a crime for having the gun in his car.

Let’s see if the NRA comes to his defense.

18 Likes
  1. Continue to sit still with your hands in plain sight
  2. Hope that someone is recording the assault

Unfortunately, this is a true thing and there is not much you can do about it.

6 Likes
  1. Turns to look behind him for considerable moments of time without backing up or otherwise protecting himself.
4 Likes

He’s being charged with attempted murder right? because that’s what he was attempting.

7 Likes