By all means, blame the person illegally detained and not the cops.
There is one of these folks in every cop thread.
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Did we get the whole story here? It seems absurd and somewhat depressing if the reporting here is in any way accurate. I think Iâm going to stop reading these âcops are inveterate unaccountable arseholesâ stories. It makes me sad.
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âMaybe itâs the luck of the draw when you call 911, maybe itâs where you live, maybe itâs the color of your skin or the way you are dressed.â
Or maybe there is more to this story since weâve only heard one side. Iâm not big fan of law enforcement and my personal experiences have been that they tend to be the ex-jocks from high school who realized there isnât much of a call for their bully skillset in the adult world, hence being police officers, security guards or club bouncers⌠But Iâve also learned that even those people rarely go all aggro without some sort of provocation. And when the story comes from someone who appears to be prone to hyperbole and a bit of a smartass⌠wellâŚ
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You raise a good points, but I think you have conflated your points in an unhelpful manner. Here is how I would frame this story.
- Cops can and do break the law and do bad things. This story is appears to be an excellent example
- When someone is hurt, call 911 or otherwise help. Being a Good Samaritan is the Right Thing To Do â˘, even if it complicates your own life
- Should 1 happen, for whatever reason, try avoid being perceived as a jerk by the those wielding power, however unfair, unjust, unwarranted or just plain illegal your treatment.
That last point is âa suggestion to get out of a bad situationâ, not âblame the victim.â
It doesnât matter if our Protagonist is a jerk, an angel, a jerky angel, or an angelic jerk. He has basic rights, and it does appear SFPD transgressed them. Horribly. However, as a matter of personal convenience, being perceived as a jerk by those with a local monopoly on violent force is a generally a Bad Idea â˘. Pointing out that our Protagonist might have been able to defuse his situation by acting differently is potentially helpful to others who may be finding themselves in similarly bad situations.
Peretz seems to be living out my wifeâs dictum,
âIf you canât be a good example, you can be a horrible warningâ
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âOn arrival at the scene, found two injured persons. When I instructed the male subject to step away from them, subject identified himself as a âgood Samaritanâ. I responded that I would be the judge of whether he was good or not, and required him to show a visa or other authorization to be in the country. At this point, subject claimed to be an American citizen, a statement clearly inconsistent with his previous self-identification as a Samaritan. I therefore arrested the subject for giving false information to a law enforcement officer. During the arrest, subject resisted by repeatedly placing his hands under my boots in an attempt to cause me to lose my balance, and struck my knee with his head. Subsequently, subject attempted to obtain personal information about arresting officers, probably with a view to intimidating or attacking them.
While completing arrest report, was unable to find any evidence to show that Samarita has any diplomatic representation in United States. Recommend referral to DHS/ICE to investigate possibility that subject is in country illegally, possibly with intent to commit an act of terrorism.â
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Well, itâs a relief to know that being labeled as âcrazyâ still means âacting in a way that I donât likeâ.
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Most cops are hammers and therefore everything looks like a nail to them.
Personal experience - I was anemic and fainted outside a restaurant / bar in Duluth MN. First on the scene was a cop who immediately saw âdrunk and disorderlyâ rather than âmedically distressed person who just passed out and hit his head on the sidewalkâ. Only a lot of intervention from friends (middle class and white) and the arrival of the paramedics prevented him from taking me to jail rather than hospital - even though I hadnât had a drink that night.
Cops see what they want, and unfortunately many of them now interpret any explanation or resistance as questioning their authority - which needs to be stopped and punished immediately. Experience shows that whatever they do - up to and including killing innocent people - will be excused and defended and will result in no action or investigation.
This has always been the case, but things appear to have much worse in the past 10 years or so - perhaps because of the increase in PTSD-afflicted veterans in the police or perhaps because of the justified feeling of immunity from any consequences most cops enjoy.
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posted by the screenname Danegeld
Oh, the Irony. The lovely, Anglo-Saxon irony.
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Would you care to point to the hyperbole in question? Or the smartassedness? I read the same story as you ostensibly did, and I didnât catch it.
Thereâs no reason an officer canât respond politely to a question from a passerby, or to take thirty seconds to point out why civilian A shouldnât be in the spot theyâre currently standing. Maybe if THEY took that touch of time, this whole nonsense of filling a cell with yet another body and clogging the already clogged justice system with another pointless load of paperwork wouldnât happen. If the cops are there, they have the time and itâs what theyâre paid to do.
Also, notice the treatment received by the photographer. Taking an image of that scene is entirely legal and within that personâs rightsâif theyâre acting appropriately (as in, not shouting "Hey, the cops are kicking my friendâs face in!! HELP HELP!!) then thereâs no reason for the popo to act in that manner. Then THEY are the ones escalating the situation unnecessarily.
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I love you too man 
You have a good one.
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And for G-dâs sake, cover yourself up! I wouldnât let my daughter out of the house in that scrap of fabric you call a skirt!
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Well, to be fair Peretz seems to view himself as a bit of a smart ass⌠the title he uses (at the bottom of his essay) is âtheoretical experimentalist and a cheeky bugger.â
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The problem is that even if this sort of thing was rare, or the âluck of the drawâ, it should not happen and when it does it should be dealt with severely.
Itâs not dealt with, at all, yet we continue to increase the amount of power people have. So weâre giving incredible amounts of authority and leeway while placing no real oversight on that authority. Both of those things canât be true.
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All the people here saying âOh, there is more to the storyâ or âOh, the author is obnoxious,â Iâve got news for you: It is a police officerâs job to calmly and professionally deal with the public, usually in moments of stress. It is on THEM to keep their shit together and act like a professional, not Joe Citizen. If youâre a cop and you canât do this, you should go join the army or something if carrying a gun and throwing your authoritay around is that important to you.
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Maybe he lacked you experience with dealing with law enforcement officers?
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I am glad to see this covered here. Thank you Boingers.
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If this is accurate, itâs horrifying. Now, take this with a grain of salt, as I want to believe its accurateâŚ
âŚand yet at this point in space-time, I find it hard to tell if the story is true as told, or if the situation was an intentionally executed âfalse-flagâ operation in order to give credence to privatizing 911 for the benefit of companies like Lyft, et cetera.
After all, many BB followers & cyberpunk readers will acknowledge that the 21st century has had enough Verhovenesque/Dickian moments to at least half seriously consider the possibilityâŚ
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I was driving through a quiet suburban side street a few years ago during lunch hour when I spotted a young boy of maybe 10 years or so, fallen at the roadside astride a bicycle. I stopped the car, put the hazards on and ran back to see if he was OK. A neighbour a few doors down saw me and called 911, then came running. The kid was out cold, cause unknown.
Unfortunately, she didnât see the kid fall, so she assumed it was a car accident and thatâs what she told the 911 dispatcher. When the ambulance and police arrived, they told me not to leave the scene. I started getting nervous.
Luckily for me, one of the neighbours happened to be walking by, one who had been a babysitter for the family. She quickly stepped forward and told the medical professionals that she knew the child, and that he had diabetes. A runner was dispatched to get some fruit juice, and the kid started to come around.
Had that lady not stepped forward, I would have been in a pickle. The kid might not have recovered as quickly, and without his story to back me up, my denial of an accident would likely have fallen on deaf ears. For sure I would have lost more than a lunch hour before extricating myself from legal attention.
But still, if I saw another person at roadside who needed help, Iâd stop. Itâs the right thing to do.
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Victim blaming, ten yards, repeat first down
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