Oh come on, for all you know a white guy busted for violating this same law would have been treated worse. Its hard to make anything out from this video, but the guy was caught in the act of breaking a local law and wasn’t exactly helpful when asked by the police to show his identification. Your comparison isn’t a good one since the police would actually have to track down the person hanging those fliers, versus stumbling upon the guy as in this case.
If the police don’t have a lawful reason for detaining you (“reasonable suspicion”), then you are not lawfully detained and you absolutely have the right to leave. If the police physically restrain you without a lawful reason, you have the right to use any necessary force to get free, up to and including deadly force.
Granted, there are very many possible lawful reasons for the cops to detain you, and some of them are quite broad. For example while driving they can detain you simply to check your papers. So sometimes it can be a good idea to allow yourself to be detained even if there doesn’t seem to be a lawful reason, because you might be wrong.
But keep in mind that at bottom, cooperation is not automatically mandatory when dealing with the cops. And there are many situations where you should not cooperate.
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No, I think we can pretty safely assume that all other things being equal, there’s no chance of a white guy being treated worse here. From experience. From statistics. From every single shred of evidence.
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It’s not at all clear he was violating anything. I don’t think it’s constitutional to ban the distribution of literature like this, and in many similar cases the police have just made up the law on the spot. If that’s the case - and I don’t know about this instance - then getting the attention of as many witnesses as possible is probably the best thing to do.
It’s also a good idea to not give the police a reason to shoot you; but when you’re a black man that’s sometimes all the reason they need. This man may have thought, for good reason, that only a witness with a camera could save his life.
Privileged people like me don’t have this problem. If the police give me a hard time over something like this, I can expect them to listen, at least a little. At worst, I can cooperate, wear the cuffs, and expect a fair day in court. I probably won’t be beaten, and I probably won’t turn up dead.
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It is conceivable that a white person in otherwise exactly the same situation would be treated worse. If you think that’s remotely likely, you live in an entirely different world than the rest of us.
The fact that he was released a few hours later is effectively an admission that the cops were in the wrong. If he’d /actually/ broken the law and the cops had any valid basis for pulling him in, other than being annoying, he’d be facing charges.
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Do we have a legal right to put flyers on peoples cars? What happens when the flyer blows off? I’m all in favor of informing the public of voting rights but I’m not in favor of someone being able to put shit on my car. My mailbox, ok. My email box, ok. On a public notice board or kiosk, ok. Just leave the car alone please. There are only two situations where I should see something stuck under my windshield wiper; a parking ticket or a note from someone who hit my car.
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I am very interested in seeing people get the word out about voting rights.
That said, fuck you for leaving shit on my car. It might as well be a flyer reading “here, now you have to throw this out.”
A worthy message does not automatically justify the means by which you’re spreading it.
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Out of curiosity I googled it: and yeah of course it’s legal to resist unlawful arrest. duh. http://www.constitution.org/uslaw/defunlaw.htm
Of course if you’re killed by the cop in the process it’s kinda game over for you.
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The situation escalated because he was black. He was arrested because he took their bait.
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but it’s also illegal to arrest someone for no reason. So he wasn’t -actually- being arrested, was he? Not until he resisted the non-arrest.
I don’t see any soviet jokes, just Kafka references.
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If he’s not doing something illegal, he has no obligation whatsoever to listen to anything the cops are telling him, and if he is, they should be able to specify what it is and why it’s illegal. You seem to be implicitly assuming that police have some inherent moral authority to do whatever the hell they want, as opposed to just enforcing laws.
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First, the police are supposed to be able to tell you what law you’re supposedly breaking (on the spot, not after the fact). Then, for a minor crime, they might decide it’s necessary to write up a citation.
Even willfully committing a misdemeanor does not necessarily warrant imprisonment. That’s why most American jails aren’t filled with jaywalkers and people who litter.
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I’d love to see a cite on that last bit.
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Is it that unreasonable for police to expect you to show ID when asked for it? Personally I don’t think it is but then again I don’t feel threatened when interacting with the police. But I feel like at least that much cooperation should be a given and how it proceeds from there will depend on the situation and the attitude adopted by either side.
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The crime he committed is called contempt of cop! That will get anyone charged in N.C. Give’em hell Ty!
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And if you don’t have ID on you does that then give them cause to arrest you? In Britain, you do not have to give a name to the Police unless and until arrested. And fortunately we resisted the attempt a few years ago to require national ID but no doubt they’ll try again soon.
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I thought there wasn’t any requirement for US citizens to carry ID?
Without wanting to get all dramatic, the phrase “papers, please” isn’t one that fills me with joy.
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No, the police can not expect you to show ID. You do have to give them your name when asked though.
And when were the police suppose to be able to get a word in here? He was going on the entire time, even once they were trying to “physically assault” him.
When I see videos of rational adults getting fucked over by the police I get concerned. When I see adults acting like children and then an authority figure steps in, it doesn’t surprise me. Because at some point along his tirade he is going to start incurring some bullshit laws the police are going to want to charge him with, like disorderly conduct or being a public nuisance. Again those are bullshit, on the spot things, but he isn’t acting like an adult either.
Situations like this remind me of kids who play the whole “I’m not touching you” game…when the likely outcome is either to walk away and ignore or escalate it.
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Or a note saying “The people looking at me in the parking lot think I’m writing down my insurance details for you. I’m not.”
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