As I explained upthread, I know several local restaurants that cater to bikers where they park on the private walks in front of the restaurant. I’ve never seen them ticketed. Have you ever seen someone get ticketed by the police in a private parking lot? Generally parking ordinances do not apply there.
Police also give a pass on the city sidewalks to regular citizens. In town here it’s technically not legal to park a delivery truck in a way that impedes traffic or where there is no legal parking. And while police will sometimes say something, especially if the delivery truck is parked there too long, by and large police turn the other way. They understand that while the delivery truck is causing a minor traffic problem (these are streets where you could still bypass it, so they are not blocking the whole street), the guy is just trying to finish his route and those businesses need their deliveries and it’d be a huge bitch if they had to cart everything 2-3 blocks. They understand not every downtown business is fortunate enough to have space for off street loading/unloading areas.
That is ideal. But you can’t expect ideal behaviour from everyone all the time.
Nobody comes off well in the video, but I’m not seeing the “pwnage”.
I’m sure they ARE exempted from parking regulations, just so when they HAVE to park (otherwise) illegally in order to be able to respond quickly, they don’t have to worry about explaining themselves every time in order to avoid being ticketed.
But using such an exemption needlessly is still abuse.
Just to clarify, remember that your question was, “Could anyone elucidate in what way the police officer acted improperly or unprofessionally?” Not “illegally” but “improperly or unprofessionally?”
To bring up a personal analogy, for awhile recently I wasn’t able to walk at all, then wasn’t able to walk very far or very well, due to an Achilles tendon rupture. As a result, I got a temporary handicapped permit. Where I live, these temporary hang tags are valid for six months. I still have nearly three months on my handicapped permit before it expires. Legally, I’m perfectly entitled to keep on using it, even though I haven’t needed it for at least a month now. But I don’t. * It would be an abuse of the privilege for me to use it, even though it’s legal.* I’d be a real jerk if I kept on using it.
In what jurisdiction do they do this? I’ve never seen an instance of this that I can recall. For the past 15 years, I’ve been shopping at the grocery store that’s by far the nearest grocery to the local volunteer fire department; I’m down there once or twice a week. Never seen any of their vehicles parked in front.
No, but people in this thread have. I was responding.
Are you asking this question in all seriousness? I mean, really?!
A serious answer: because some questions carry an implied threat, others, not so much. One would normally find questions by an officer of the law that carry the suggestion that your conduct is illegal are more intimidating than your average, run of the mill question.
OK, so the kid wasn’t intimidated by these efforts to intimidate him. That’s to the kid’s credit, not the cop’s.
Once again, we aren’t talking legal rights. We’re talking, per your question, about unprofessional or improper conduct on the job.
It’s at the very least stupid and unprofessional because he knows 12 year olds don’t carry ID. And it’s improper because the question is an attempt to make the kid feel like he’s in over his head. The 12 year old doesn’t exist in a world that IDs are part of, and the cop’s trying to use that to make him unsure of himself.
Oh, the hell with it. Let’s take this back to the Pit.
What the hell are babbling about?
Kid: Um, Hello. Is there a reason for you to park on the sidewalk, is it like an emergency or anything?
Cop: Because I can.
As he stands in front of 3 open parking spaces less than 10 feet away. All your ridiculous hand waving won’t make the guy in the right. And while it may be a minor infraction it’s clear he believes the rules civilians follow don’t apply to him.
ETA: Between the two people in this video, one has power over you and one does not. The mind boggles that posters here are equating the two on even the same grounds.
Which is not exactly heaps of praise for an adult trained in dealing with confrontation talking to a calm 12 year old boy.
We’re not going to the pit on this. As I’ve reviewed the video I’ve come to believe this occurred on a private parking lot and not a public sidewalk, which totally invalidates any legal argument. That leaves us with me who believes the officers behavior satisfied the requirements of being professional in his job, you obviously feel differently. That’s a difference of opinion between two people that will not be resolved here or in another forum and is really as much as needs to be said a bout it.
Please, you say this and can’t even proofread the sentence?
If you read the post I was responding to, someone had asked, “so if the police saw a citizen parked like that, no ticket?” I was responding that if it was on a private walk, yes there would be no ticket since parking ordinances do not apply on the private walk. I then explained that even on the public streets and sidewalks police will sometimes give a pass to people illegally parking for convenience reasons.
Since there is no evidence this was a public sidewalk, there is no evidence this cop thinks he’s above the law. If it’s a private sidewalk “because I can” is a more than satisfactory explanation, because anyone can park wherever they want on a private sidewalk without violating parking law.
I’m neither praising of nor outraged by anything in the video.
You’re assuming a requirement that the police officer has to act in loco parentis for any random child he sees, or as a teacher. That is not a requirement of their job, and expecting it to be is the same as expecting a postal mail sorter working in a postal facility to act in such a manner to random children.
Sure, the officer was in the right and knew why. That’s why he offered his badge number upon request and an explanation for why it was legal to a citizen he has sworn to protect and serve.
You know, or the other conclusion.
I’ve never said the officer couldn’t have produced his badge number and explained himself. But at the same time, I don’t actually think it would have caused this situation to be any different. People would still assume he was in the wrong (just as you’re assuming he’s in the wrong when a reasonable viewing of the video highly suggests this is a private walk which are outside municipal parking ordinances), and still say this kid had “pwned him.” On the other hand, people more willing to look at this from a neutral perspective would just see a cop being short with a kid and rolling out of there. Like I said at first, the cop didn’t go above and beyond, but he didn’t do anything wrong. He did exactly what was required of him in his job and left. I guess I’m confused as to why people think that’s the end of the world, and I wonder how everyone here would feel if random people got on you about “only” doing your job “up to requirements.”
This isn’t a case of misconduct, it’s a case of a kid with an entitled attitude about what he believes police owe him and a thread with posters who have unrealistic and incorrect views on what police are required to do as well as willful ignorance of the fact private parking lots aren’t subject to city parking laws.
25,000 views is not an internet sensation. 1/3 of those were probably generated by the OP alone.
Heck, I bet the people who put the kid up to this were disappointed he didn’t get tased.
I don’t know about them, but I am.
…and the money quote:
You’ve spent most of the thread arguing that the kid had no right or reason to approach the officer and ask him a question because he was doing something that cops are permitted to do by virtue of being cops, then you think that police are “inherently subject to public scrutiny” when “using their police power”.
Ignoring how you declared the sidewalk to be private property and thus no foul was committed (prolly twice over not committed, is how I suspect you think), your arguments, besides seeming myopically sycophantic with regards to authorities, are now contradictory.
I think it’s well established the kid was a minor. Sure police are subject to public scrutiny being subject to the scrutiny of every kid that wanders up is a bit of a step from that. I don’t think it’s fair to expect any adult to be force to respond to annoying kids.
The kid was put up to it or came up with it on his own to make a video for internet ‘fame’ No kid decides to walk up to a cop and question them on the parking of their ‘motorized vehicle’
I’ve thought about this more. I think the reason I find it slightly unsettling is because, especially in the instance of being filmed, if you can’t understand the need for proper assessment of a situation, your judgment could be off on other, more important situations.
Look at the reactions to the female dispatcher in the resent case of the three kidnapping victims that were just discovered in Cleveland. Obviously, she made the call that it wasn’t dire for her to stay on the line with Amanda Berry, despite the latter’s urgency that her abuser could return any minute. For that woman, she lucked out that nothing bad further happened. However, can you imagine the public outcry, and the possible harm that could’ve befallen the victims, if she had been wrong? Everyone would be yelling for her head instead of passing diversion it is now.
I can easily see, based on his behavior in this video, this officer being so complacent with his job that he could make a costly mistake. It happens. I also wonder, since it’s been mentioned repeatedly, if there might of been a reason for his retirement? Of course, we’ll never know. But it’s certainly not unheard of that people ‘voluntarily’ leave their jobs when others believe there is a prudent reason to do so.
Smartass kid with a camera is dismissed with little fanfare. How much more assessing needs to be done?