# Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread #2 **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 23, 2020, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531 "2020-06-23T20:29:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/302 "2020-09-01T15:10:41Z")
Maybe it’s like homeopathy and by dropping the gun he became more dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/303 "2020-09-01T15:18:04Z")
That’s just how those people are. They have two guns and make sure the cops see them drop one to make the cops think he is unarmed, so they will walk up to him all nice and easy. Then, KABLAM! KLABLAM! Next thing you know there are two dead cops. Happens all the time. Don’t you watch the news? Another example of quick-thinking law enforcement preventing what could have been a horrible tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/304 "2020-09-01T16:37:49Z")
“Drop the gun, or we’ll shoot! We’ll shoot anyway, of course!” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/305 "2020-09-01T16:39:27Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “Drop the gun, or we’ll shoot!” “Drop the gun and/or we’ll shoot!” ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/306 "2020-09-01T17:15:33Z")
Drop the gun _and_ we’ll shoot! “Shouldn’t that be ‘or’ we’ll shoot? Seems like a pretty crucial conjunction.” (Stolen from the [Emperors New Groove](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7v0PePgVIs)) ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/307 "2020-09-01T18:45:21Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It’s a leading question, and I don’t buy the premise. I can’t think of any minimum wage job where the job is literally to go around all day inserting oneself into trouble. It’s still amazing that you defend police when you also think that holding them to ‘McDonalds worker’ standards like ‘remain professional even if someone says a mean word to you’ or 'don’t kill people just because you don’t like them, they look funny, or something other than ‘they pose a direct threat’. Police simply should not be shouting and shoving guns in someone’s face just because they’re a black guy wanted for a minor misdemeanor (especially one 1000x less bad than what the cop himself as committed). ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/308 "2020-09-01T19:24:54Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Police simply should not be shouting and shoving guns in someone’s face just because they’re a black guy wanted for a minor misdemeanor How about shoving things up their ass? Is that too much to ask for? How much do we have to pay them to avoid that? $300,000, $400,000? > **[Police Officer Justin Volpe pleads guilty for sodomizing Abner Louima](https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/05/25/police-officer-justin-volpe-pleads-guilty-for-sodomizing-abner-louima/)** > > (Originally published by the Daily News on May 26, 1999. This was written by Helen Peterson.) Trembling and speaking in a voice wrought with emotion, Police Officer Justin Volpe yesterday admitted … ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/309 "2020-09-01T19:36:50Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > How about shoving things up their ass? > > Is that too much to ask for? How much do we have to pay them to avoid that? $300,000, $400,000? It’s a leading question, and I don’t buy the premise. I can’t think of any minimum wage job where the job is to literally go around all day inserting toilet plungers into a prisoner’s rectum. And nurses and people who go into the caring professions typically don’t want to sexually assault people who they have in custody, so comparing police work to professions that get paid a similar amount is unreasonable. You’d probably have to pay cops at least half a million dollars a year to attract anyone who wants to put up with the terrible work without inflicting forced sodomy. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/310 "2020-09-01T19:38:02Z")
This part: > [@](#): > > About two hours after Volpe’s plea, Police Commissioner Howard Safir officially fired him from the NYPD. > > “I think that justice has been done,” Safir said. “This was a horrendous act. And police officers came forward immediately. That’s something they should be proud of and I’m proud of.” Yeah. Proud. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/311 "2020-09-01T20:22:00Z")
A classic example of how profiling has made black men into monsters who must be “neutralized” first and investigated later rather than people who have rights under the law. Police officers have shown more restraint when confronted by wild animals. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2020, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/312 "2020-09-01T21:51:03Z")
Here’s some news: > **[Lawyer: Plea offer tried to link Breonna Taylor to drug ring](https://apnews.com/eac28d409ef8d69d4cfead59b7740333)** > > LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A lawyer for Breonna Taylor's family said prosecutors offered a plea deal to an accused drug trafficker that would have forced him to implicate Taylor in criminal activity after her killing by police had pushed her name to the... > [@](#): > > A lawyer for Breonna Taylor’s family said prosecutors offered a plea deal to an accused drug trafficker that would have forced him to implicate Taylor in criminal activity after her killing by police had pushed her name to the forefront of a national reckoning on race. > > Louisville’s top prosecutor said the document was not an attempt to smear Taylor but was part of preliminary plea negotiations with a man charged with illegal drug trafficking. > > Taylor family attorney Sam Aguiar posted a photo on social media Monday that he said was a plea offer to Jamarcus Glover from prosecutors. The photo of the document appeared to show Taylor listed as a “co-defendant” in illegal activities leading up to April 22, weeks after her death. > > “Why would they put her name on there?” Aguiar said in a statement sent to news media. “It’s outrageous.” > > Jefferson County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Wine said that document was a “draft that was part of pre-indictment plea negotiations.” ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/313 "2020-09-02T04:36:59Z")
What a bunch of fucking slime. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2020, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/314 "2020-09-02T04:53:35Z")
Basically, he says it doesn’t count because they didn’t get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/315 "2020-09-03T02:47:06Z")
Rochester, NY: > **[Video in Black man's suffocation shows cops put hood on him](https://apnews.com/5c2f0cf366e560b7f41ebb3c964b099c)** > > A Black man who had run naked through the streets of a western New York city died of asphyxiation after a group of police officers put a hood over his head, then pressed his face into the pavement for two minutes, according to video and records... ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/316 "2020-09-03T02:57:06Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > It’s still amazing that you defend police I wish I could say it’s amazing how you continue to mischaracterize me, even though I said the following just upthread, in direct response to _you_: > [@SlackerInc](#): > > As for why I think so little of police, it’s what I have seen and experienced over the years, just like the person I was originally responding to (they said the cops seem incompetent and I agreed). Interesting definition of “defending police”. 😏 ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/317 "2020-09-03T04:51:14Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Interesting definition of “defending police”. 😏 The fact that you said one thing not positive about them doesn’t change the rest of what you said. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/318 "2020-09-03T04:53:58Z")
The one little thing I said repeatedly, that they are incompetent and are not fundamentally intellectually capable of becoming competent? That we’d have to get rid of them and start over with a much higher class of human being to get much improvement? OK then. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/319 "2020-09-03T13:40:46Z")
This is quite an interesting piece about police “courtesy cards,” which they give to family and friends, and are used as a sort of “get out of jail free” card for traffic offenses and other minor infractions. As the author points out, an important part of policing is not only who get nabbed, but also who doesn’t get nabbed, and police discretion tends to produce fairly predictable patterns in the types of people who end up with their face on the ground and the type of people who get to drive away with a tip of the hat after a traffic stop. > **[The Little Cards That Tell Police 'Let's Forget This Ever Happened'](https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7gxa4/pba-card-police-courtesy-cards)** > > Some cops give their friends and family union-issued "courtesy cards" to help get them out of minor infractions. The cards embody everything wrong with modern policing. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/320 "2020-09-03T18:36:54Z")
They’ve come up several times in other threads, it doesn’t help the police’s image, if you ask me. [Most recent](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/confessions-of-a-bastard-cop-his-words/855365/39) ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531/321 "2020-09-03T18:50:05Z")
I have an acquaintance that was telling a story of how they were in a hurry and in stopped traffic. There was no one coming the other way, so they crossed the double line, and drove down the wrong side of the road, passing a stopped school bus in the process. Got pulled over, but because she is related to some cops, they sent her on her way without anything more than a verbal warning. She told this story as though it were a _good_ thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread-2/912531.md?page=17)