As a matter of interest, I was involved in a serious crash - they cut me out of the car - and I would very probably not be alive today if I had not been wearing a seatbelt. The bruises from the seatbelt were impressive, but that beat the alternative.
Seatbelts save lives. Wear them.
It varies state by state. In Washington, there are three ways to commit Homicide 1 (premeditation, extreme indifference to human life, and killing someone during the commission of certain felonies) and two ways to commit Homicide 2 (murder without premeditation, or killing someone while committing any other felony than those in Murder 1).
We don’t have a Homicide 3, but we do have Homicide by Abuse and Controlled Substances Homicide.
Manslaughter generally means that you accidentally killed someone, either through a reckless or a negligent act.
To read the Washington State definitions of these crimes, look here.
I don’t think I’ve seen this question yet, but I might have missed it. My apologies if that’s the case.
What should you do/say if you are pulled over for, say, speeding, and you know for a fact that you were not speeding? Should you say, “No, I wasn’t,” or should you just hammer it out in court?
You should probably just say something like, “Really? I was watching my speedometer, and I’m sure that I was under the speed limit”.
If the Officer still says he’s going to write you a ticket, just accept it politely and take it to court. You will never change the Officer’s mind. After all, the radar is far more accurate than your speedometer and the Officer is going to believe it more than you.
Another old cop saying: You can’t talk your way out of a ticket, but you can talk your way into one.
“You can’t talk your way out of a ticket, but you can talk your way into one.”
But sometimes you get lucky as hell.
I was stopped twice for speeding, once on the Saw Mill Parkway in NY, and another time on Rte 84 in Danbury, CT.
I don’t know if I talked my way out of them or they just let me go, but no ticket either time and I fully deserved 'em.
A frequent topic under general questions is a variant of “what is the best martial art for self defense?” Responses tend to fall into three categories:
1/ MY martial art is unbeatable (whatever it is);
2/ It doesn’t matter much what you study as long as you practice a lot;
3/ Martial arts are sports/arts with rules and evenly matched opponents supervised by referees, and don’t have much in common with street fights.
My impression as a civlian NON-martial artist is that a street fight will often involve an ambush by multiple attackers or weapons-users or both, often emboldened by booze or drugs, and that a lot of what we think we know about martial arts is from the movies. Can you contribute thoughts/observations from your knowledge of physical confrontations that you have heard about/investigated/particpated in? Have you encountered people who used traditional martial arts to win a street fight? People who tried to use martial arts and lost? Any thoughts on practical self-defense for women, older men, non-athletes, etc? (And I know all about avoidance, staying out of dark alleys, etc. I’m talking specifically about fighting.)
Here’s a different one. We hear of smuggling “rings”, fraud “rings” and so on. Is “ring” just another word for “gang” or “mob”, or does the word imply a particular form of criminal organization? I always imagined that it must mean a sort of enterprise in which each member knows one or two accomplices within the gang, but nobody involved knows everyone else. You could imagine a bunch of people standing in a circle; each person can talk to those next to him but not those further away.
I’m probably way off base, but then you never hear of “rings” working for the public good.
Surely you’ve heard of both **The Lord of The Rings ** and The Lord of the Dance ??
They’re one and the same person, and he leads a ring of pirouetting assasins called The Resin Killers.
First they rub, they they rub you out.
( sorry for the hijack, Badge 
)
I’m no martial artist myself. I know a few moves that work for me, specifically to the goal of handcuffing a person. I’m assisted by the fact that most people won’t fight all-out against a cop. They push, grab, twist away, but rarely actually throw punches. A friend of mine believes that all men are born with a little voice that whispers, “Nightstick!” over and over (women, by the way, don’t have that voice. All cops know that we’re more likely to be hurt by a woman in a fight than a man).
I’ve never seen anyone use martial arts in a fight, nor have I investigated a fight in which it was used. I think most serious martial artists avoid fights, possibly because they have nothing to prove. It may also be that even someone with martial arts training, unless they are really practiced, tend to fall back on more basic techniques when in a real fight.
My only recommendation for self-defence is pepper spray. It really does work on most people, at least enough to allow a person to get away or to even the odds a bit. I strongly recommend than anyone who can legally carry it do so.
Yes, “ring” is just another group term, with no specific definition. While there are occasionally operations that are really well organized and structured, it is really very rare for criminals to operate at that level. Most simply aren’t smart enough to run something like that (I often say that people don’t become criminals because they did well on the SATs).
I talked my way out of a ticket:
Just told the truth and made no excuses. 87 in a 65 - I thought I was gonna get it
Two questions.
The first incident happened years ago. A friend and I were at a Jai-Alai game here in Tampa. The games ended and people lined up to leave. Much like any large concert or sporting even, there was a very long line at the door of people waiting to leave. The line was orderly, no pushing, just people filing out of the door. I found myself at the end of the line with my friend in front me. I was just standing there, inching forward as the line moved, like everyone else. Suddenly, I’m pushed very hard from behind. I slam into my friend, who in turn slams into the people in front of him. A chain reaction much like a multi-car fender bender. I turn around and see a smirking sheriff’s deputy standing directly behind me. I try to get a look at his badge number, but it is covered by black tape. The cop had pushed me. I just look at him with a “wtf?” expression on my face. The cop takes a step toward me. By this time I hear people behind me yelling about the results of me being hurtled forward. Then I hear one guy yell, “I saw it! That cop pushed him!! He was just standing there and the cop pushed him!!” The cop smirked at me again and turned and walked off.
What could I have done? What should I have done? Did the cop have black tape over his badge number so he could abuse people without fear? I’ve seen several officers with their badge numbers covered? I this common?
Second incident. Ongoing. I describe this as cops “fishing”. Driving down the road I look in my rear view mirror and see a cop tailgating me. Usually the cop is very close and I can’t even see the grill of the squad car. I usually drive the speed limit. So, I just make sure I have cruise set at the speed limit or a little below and ignore him. Sometimes they get bored with this and pull in front of me. When they get in front they often slow down to well below the speed limit. So, I just kick the cruise down, maintain a safe distance and go slowly behind them. Eventually the cop seems to get bored with this and they usually zoom off about 80mph. Sometimes it takes 30 mins or more for them to get bored with the whole thing and leave.
Is what I’m doing the best course of action here?
I’ve got a question about police determining whether a driver is drunk. Here in Australia if a policeman wants to find this out he/she will “breathalyze” the driver, i.e. get them to blow into an electronic device that measures alcohol content in blood (a “breathalyzer”). Register 0.05 or more and you’re busted. From what I’ve seen on T.V. (on shows such as The Simpsons, that’s gotta be accurate ), in USA if a policeman wants to determine if a driver is drunk he/she will get the driver out of the car and make them perform a series of bizarre activities: walk a straight line, touch nose with tip of finger, recite the alphabet, etc. Have I been totally misinformed and all USA law enforcement agencies now use breathalyzers to test alcoholic intoxication? If you guys still make drivers perform “sobriety tests” what is the reasoning behind using these instead of a breathalyzer?
I’m not a cop, but I am an American (close enough, eh? )
From what I understand, most districts cannot afford to put a breathalyzer in every police car. So what they can afford gets scattered around, and the others have to rely on the older methods (walking a straight line, etc.). Here locally, if you fail a roadside sobriety test, you get taken into the station to take a breathalyzer to confirm.
As noted, not every police car has a breathalyzer, and not every traffic stop deserves to get dragged to the station for that purpose.
There are other intoxicants. Besides, the purpose of DUI laws is to enforce one’s fitness to drive – the field spobriety test is a better gauge of fitness than BAC, becasue it measures directly something that BAC only correlates with. The only problem is that it’s subjective, and can therefore be challenged in court or performed incorrectly, which is less likely with chemical methods.
Wow. I have no idea. Are you sure that this was a real cop and not a “rent-a-cop”? Most police agencies don’t actually use badge numbers (in other words, we all have a personnel number but there is no number on my badge), so I have no idea about the black tape. If it was diagonally across the badge, then it may have been to signify mourning for an officer who was killed.
Since you had witnesses, I would have demanded he tell you his name. If he wouldn’t give it, at least get a good description and report it. I know that it may not do any good in some agencies, but I would hope that someone would discipline this guy. On top of that, you had a good case to charge him with assault and battery.
It probably is fishing. They may think that you’re someone of interest for something, or they are just trying to see what your up to or run your license plate. The way that you handle it seems to be the best way to deal with it.
The “Field Sobriety Tests” (FSTs) are used to determine if there is probable cause to arrest the driver. If there is, then he or she is brought back to the station to take the breath test.
There are small portable breath test devices (called Preliminary Breath Testers, or PBTs) that we can use as part of the process to develop probable cause (it doesn’t replace the actual breath test performed at the station). Not all officers have these, so we depend on the FSTs. I have a PBT, but I always administer the FSTs first, before using the PBT. I do that to build a stronger case, as I can demonstrate to the jury how drunk the person was. If I give them the PBT test first, they may refuse to do any further tests if they see what the result is.
One thing about the FSTs: the main things we’re looking for on these tests is the ability to follow directions and to do more than one thing at a time (such as walk a line while counting each step out loud). It’s not just a test of balance. People always tell me, “I couldn’t do that test even when I’m sober”. Well, maybe they can’t balance too well when they are sober, but they can probably follow simple instructions.
Actually, this is only partly true. Most states (maybe all, I don’t know) have two ways to be guilty of DUI: either 1) impaired to the point that they cannot drive safely, or 2) over the legal limit.
Most DUIs, of course, are both at the same time. However, I’ve arrested people who were falling down drunk and well below the legal limit, and I’ve arrested people who were quite functional yet were three times the legal limit (people like that are usually stopped for something unrelated to driving, like an equipment violation).
The highest reading I ever had was someone I processed for another agency (they didn’t have a breath testing machine). His reading was .35, and just talking to him (I didn’t administer any sobriety tests, or I would have known better) I thought he had consumed maybe two beers.
Thanks for the followup. He had on a sheriff’s deputy uniform, insignia, etc. So, he was a real live honest to goodness deputy. I did not know that about badge numbers. I could have sworn I’ve seen numbers on the badges of local officers before but could be wrong. In any event, this covering was horizontal. Right across the middle of the badge.
On charging the officer, demanding ID, etc. I thought about it for a second as I had people yelling in the background that they saw the whole thing. But, it also occurred to me - what was to keep the cop from saying, “I think you may be a drunk, stoned, stealing, serial killing, red light running, jay walking, justice obstructing scum bag. So, I’m gonna take you down to the station, beat you up, and make your life hell on some trumped up charges.” ?
Bottom line, I figured if I did that it would just goad him and he had the power to make my life far more of a hell than I had to seek justice.
Sounds like you ran into a Thumper (and I don’t mean Bambi’s friend).
I respect law enforcement officers, mainly because most of them are like Badge here, but the profession needs to do a much, much better job of policing its own ranks. Too many Thumpers are not relieved of their duties, because the natural instinct among his/her peers is to protect one of their own – even to the point of protecting a person who is a real threat to the public safety. That is unethical and criminal – yet it happens all the time.
What is needed is a cultural shift in the profession – a change that demands zero tolerance for brutality against the public that the profession is charged to protect. Too many times, the criminal behavior of a cop is excused and willfully hidden from investigative agencies (such as Internal Affairs, or Civilian Review Boards) because “outsiders” can’t understand what it’s like on the street.
To that, I say bulls**t. Criminal behavior is criminal behavior. If the policing profession is ever to regain the respect from the public that most of its members deserve, it has to clean house – really clean house – and prosecute to the full extent of the law all the Thumpers out there.
Having said that, I’ll add that most professions are also woefully bad at policing their own. One only need to look at all the bad doctors and lawyers out there who continually bring disgrace to their professions yet are only rarely held accountable for their actions by their respective review/discipline boards.