Yet, that cop could’ve answered his question, given him his badge number with a knowing smile and been on his way *faster * and without being an internet sensation that’s probably internally embarrassed his department and made his captain publicly deal with any fallout.
Holy crap! This is news? Must’ve been a slow day. Looked to me like the kid was an annoying product of some coaching.
That is common here too. So common I get freaked out if a cop is going at or below the speed limit. I think he is up to something :eek:
I read the whole thread before I watched the video.
Wait for it… Wait for it… He’s going to… Right… About… Wait for it… He’s going to…
Oh. It’s over. That’s it?!
Shitty parenting meets a lame journalist on a slow news day.
After reading all these posts I finally was able to watch the video and I too found it to be a letdown, especially since you couldn’t hear half of what the cop said…and he said it in a reasonable tone of voice. Bratty coached kid…c’mon, what kid keeps saying motorized vehicle instead of motorcycle? And if I had to guess, which I do, I think the cop was trying to make a point to the kid, after his comment about having the right to know the badge number, that the cop also had a right to ask for ID from the kid. The cop was not a bully in any sense of the word. The kid was trying to be provocative. All because he or his parents have a bug up their butts about parking on the sidewalk. Probably because they did it once and got a ticket.
Damn them for wanting to the law to be enforced consistently!
Don’t ever question the law, buddy! Put your camera away or else you’ll be labeled a smartass troll.
Sending a child in with a video camera and an attitude is no way to affect change.
Maybe an initial step would be to write or call your local police department, to see if there is a departmental policy about these sorts of liberties wrt parking. And, if there are, and you truly think it’s inappropriate behavior, take it up with your elected officials, instead of trying to play “gotcha” on camera with on-duty officers.
I’m very happy about how video cameras are ubiquitous these days. It makes the police much more prone to behave.
In my day as a lad, the rules were: don’t approach cops, don’t talk to the cops, don’t make eye contact, move away. Even if you saw a cop beating the snot out of some homeless guy… don’t get involved, or you will be beat down too. It’s his word against yours, and buddy - you will lose.
These days are much better, let me tell you.
Really? There’s documenting police abuses, and then there’s … I don’t even know what this is; scripting and acting out a confrontation with police in order to make a point about a perceived parking injustice and about how entitled you think cops are?
If the kid had just filmed the cop’s bike from a distance, posted it on youtube, and commented on how bad the officer was being by parking illegally, I’d think he was wrong, but wouldn’t call him a troll. Do what he did, and obvious troll is obvious.
You are absolutely right, but I still wish the cop had said “go do your homework, you little shit” and sped off, treating this mindless waste of time the legitimacy it deserves.
The kid was obviously coached and there’s no telling what the impetus was behind him doing this, but he was polite and there was no reason the cop couldn’t just answer him. If the family then took the badge number and called to report the officer, I’m sure they’d have been told the many reasons parking on the sidewalk could be necessary, say they’d check on it further and have a good laugh.
This way, the cop looks like a dick, the kid walks away having a poor view of authority and whoever put him up to this will use the incident to further their agenda. Plus, we’re all talking about it on the internet and no matter what the actual outcome is, I’m sure his precinct, and by extension, captain, don’t appreciate the added scrutiny and derision.
Lots of people are distrustful of the police. I’m not one, but situations like this certainly don’t help their cause. Right now, there’s a thread going on in the BBQ Pit about a brother in the military who wasn’t allowed to accompany his sister to her prom. By way of protest, he dressed in his uniform, dropped her off at the door and saluted. Many of the posters to that thread or current and former military. They are saying how disgraceful his actions were because he made a spectacle of himself and you never bring negative attention to the service. This is basically the same thing.
Not just the police. There are lots of “failed insurance scam” videos on YouTube, but this is a particularly pathetic one.
Driver deliberately reverses into car behind to fake a rear-end collision. Unfortunately, victim has a dash cam and points it out to the would-be scammers 
There are nations where the immense majority of the police are public servants, yes, in the sense that you see one and think “person I may ask for help if needed” rather than “person who’ll use any excuse to harass and bully me”.
In Spain there is one specific police body which tends to attract bullies, but they’ve gotten much better in the last few decades. Nowadays most of the people from that group who give people a hard time are over age 50, and the hard time for a regular person is likely to be about as bad as you can get from any other office worker with a toothache. I know a guy who spent several years in prison who says he realized he truly was “back to normalcy” the first time he saw a cop when in an unfamiliar location and thought “oh, I’ll ask him for directions!” rather than “a cop! Fuck!”
Police have a duty to render aid, they don’t have a duty to enforce specific laws you want them to enforce on your command. So really anyone parking on a side walk isn’t really your business at all unless you happen to own the business by the side walk and call it in because it’s causing a problem for your customers.
And “consistently” is ridiculous, what you mean is, “I want to badger the police.” Because what you do not want is parking laws to be enforced consistently, since you’d want a police officer to cut you slack if you inadvertently broke a parking law and happened to get back to the vehicle before he had written a ticket.
Finally, no one here even knows if emergency vehicles are prohibited from ignoring parking laws in Las Vegas–but in many states they are allowed to park as close as possible to a store entrance so they can quickly get to their vehicles if they are called into a situation unexpectedly. Even off-duty police are always on duty, if a situation called for it they could be called in and expected to come render aid so even if this guy’s shift was ending and he was heading home it wouldn’t necessarily be invalid.
He could have given his badge number or done any number of things. Some of which would earn him “bonus points”, but he did not have to do so. In fact he did nothing improper at all, and I in fact suspect his commanding officer will take no issue with what he did. This video is such a non-event it will get no play whatsoever with anyone other than people just hyper-sensitive to the existence of the police.
I’ve not seen anyone show evidence that the police of Las Vegas are legally required to produce a badge number on demand for any reason whatsoever. Especially when it’s a citizen approaching a police officer and not a situation where the officer has approached the citizen.
What makes you think you have a right to approach someone at their job and demand answers as to what they are doing when what they are doing in no way effects you?
Also, it appears this video isn’t all that current. It just became publicized recently. The officer in question retired months ago and the department was not made aware of the video until this week, so I wouldn’t expect much of a resolution on this one. Can’t exactly punish a guy collecting a pension.
The kid was a trolling little brat, the cop was a massive douche, but only one of them has the excuse of being a 12 year old. When you work with the public day in, day out, sometimes you will be questioned or confronted about the job you do, and it raises your hackles. Still, shouldn’t a police officer have a little more control over his attitude? Shouldn’t he be able to deal with a snotty little boy without losing his cool?
This.
Yeah, the kid was being a bit of a jerk. He had a point, though- citizens can’t park motorcycles there, so why can a cop do it for no apparent reason? If anyone should follow the letter of the law, it should be the authorities, if only see set themselves above reproach. Look at how many of the responses here have been that the kid shouldn’t have approached the cop at all- if you don’t trust the police in their professional behavior, how can you trust them to do their jobs correctly and legally?
The cop could’ve defused the situation easily enough by explaining why he parked there (“In case there’s an emergency, I need to be able to get to my vehicle as fast as possible.”).
Sure the kid was a jerk. But the cop was even more at fault, by demonstrating a sense of entitlement and then asking the kid if he was loitering and if he had any ID. That doesn’t teach the public that they should trust the police- it teaches that cops able to do whatever they want, and if you complain about it they can use the law against you. Do you really think that’s a wise thing to teach?
Plus, the cop had a serious copstache going on. Way to live up the stereotype, dude.
Yes, obviously the kid was coached. That doesn’t necessarily mean he was put up to it, though. Maybe this started when the kid asked his father “Dad, why is it that cops are allowed to park their motorcycles on the sidewalk when we can’t?”, and the father thought this was a good teaching moment and an opportunity for the kid to have a talk with a police officer and said “Why don’t you ask him?”.