San Francisco police beat up and detain Good Samaritans who call 911 and perform first aid on accident victim

boing
105

Happy?

106
1 Like
109

While you may technically be right, the point that I took home was that you need to tell the cops what they want to hear. They don’t want to hear you say that you would prefer not to answer their question. After all, they might prefer to give you a ticket or throw you in the drunk tank. The cop doesn’t know where your house is (or. even if he does) doesn’t know how long it takes to get there, what route you’ll take or if you’ll stop at the convenience store on your way, what he wants is to know is that you’re not out causing more trouble. If he catches you at the party later - well, you changed your mind - It’s not against the law to change your mind.

110

Except exactly the opposite of that, in this story.

1 Like
111

I’ve read many comments about how one should appease the police when they are committing crimes by not antagonizing them and by telling them what they want to hear.

I wonder what the long term effect of that strategy might be? I wonder if it might end up creating a situation where the police feel like they are free to do what they want? I wonder if we are already seeing the end result of that right now?

6 Likes
112

Well, the advice to appease the police comes from the observation that people who don’t appease the police are beaten and imprisoned, and that this happens very, very frequently. Appeasing the police is a classic example of choosing the lesser of two evils. And as you get at, choosing the lesser of two evils, over and over again, means evil keeps winning.

As I was getting at above, to actually stop police abuse, we’d need some sort of strategy, in which large numbers of people would agree to co-ordinate their efforts. And obviously, that would be very dangerous, and the powers-that-be want any such strategizing and co-ordination to be nipped in the bud.

Which brings us to mass surveillance.

2 Likes
113

Spot on with the mas surveillance tie in. That’s pretty much the reason why I think they are surveiling Americans. It couldn’t be terrorist or homeland security since it doesn’t work for that.

I actually see it as choosing the greater of two evils. Your local jail (probably) isn’t as bad as TV makes it out to be. Sitting overnight in jail because you decided to take a stand against a crooked cop will result in better sleep for years to come.

1 Like
114

Being arrested is, in the main, just incredibly boring…

1 Like
115

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.