# Controversial encounters between law-enforcement and civilians - the omnibus thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 10, 2014, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942 "2014-10-10T07:35:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/321 "2014-12-05T21:44:32Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > Anyway, the reason for my question was this story: > > [Texas Grand Jury Clears Cops Caught on Camera Beating a Woman in Jail](http://www.forharriet.com/2014/12/texas-grand-jury-clears-cops-caught-on.html) > > I wonder how many former cops were sitting on the grand jury that heard the case? Jesus, all that over a traffic fine? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/322 "2014-12-05T21:54:15Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > Although I don’t know for sure, from reading [this study,](http://swacj.org/swjcj/archives/3.1/Karson.pdf) it appears the study author was able to get the names of the grand jurors (but apparently not any other background information), and did the following analysis based on those juror’s surnames: That’s a start. One would need to know literacy rates, conviction rates, and things like how many are registered voters and/or how many work jobs where they can take time off. IOW it may be skewed towards retired cops because it is skewed towards retired people in general. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/323 "2014-12-05T21:57:32Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Jesus, all that over a traffic fine? :eek: A traffic fine that she had been making monthly payments on, and the city couldn’t explain why they arrested her. They fired the officers and settled a lawsuit but apparently couldn’t get the grand jury to recommend going to trial. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/324 "2014-12-05T22:14:13Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > That’s a start. One would need to know literacy rates, conviction rates, and things like how many are registered voters and/or how many work jobs where they can take time off. IOW it may be skewed towards retired cops because it is skewed towards retired people in general. > > Regards, > Shodan It makes sense that jury pools would be skewed toward retired people in general, but are retired police officers a large percentage of total retirees? According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_number_of_police_officers), there are 780,000 active duty police in the united states. There are about [144 million](http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.a.htm) people working in the United States in total, so police are about 0.5% of employed people, and should be approximately the same percentage of retired people, and that’s not including the non-working retired (e.g., wives of retired men), which would probably push it down to less than a quarter of a percent. I would think that a truly representative jury shouldn’t have more than, let’s say 2% retired police officers. Literacy rates in the U.S. are 99%, so I doubt that has a significant impact. ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/325 "2014-12-05T23:25:27Z")
At this point, in states where it’s a real problem, the statutes should be changed such that a prosecutor may not deflect his/her ministerial duty by pawning off a decision whether to charge a cop for criminal behavior onto a GJ. Even though the prosecutor has absolute immunity for decisions not to prosecute someone, they need to be the person taking the political and other heat for the nonfeasance that is refusing to charge. Pretty remarkable that the lady in Texas felt obliged to take $75,000 (or, rather likely $50k, unless that settlement was her cut and the attorney fees were covered by another portion). ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/326 "2014-12-06T04:06:46Z")
Sorry if it’s been cited already, but [descriptions of the grand jury that investigated the death of Eric Grner](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/eric-garner-grand-jury-rigged-man-filmed-chokehold-article-1.2033257) suggest they were biased. They spent only a few minutes questioning the photographer of the famous video; they did find time to ask him if he’d ever been arrested. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/327 "2014-12-06T13:13:15Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > Literacy rates in the U.S. are 99%, so I doubt that has a significant impact. Unless the literacy rates among Hispanics in Texas are different from that average. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/328 "2014-12-06T17:42:41Z")
[White skin privilege](http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/04/my-crimingwhilewhite-story/) > [@](#): > > One night, several years ago, at about 3 AM, I was being driven home by my boss and four co-workers after a store inventory. I was stuffed down in the middle of the back seat, completely invisible to anyone outside of the car. Everyone in the car was Latino, including me, but I, being half Jewish as well as half Puerto Rican, am an average looking white guy. > > We weren’t speeding or anything but a cop car pulls us over anyway. We all knew why, even me who has never had to deal with this kind of nonsense in my life. Everyone is freaking out because a car full of Latinos + 3 AM + cops = bad news. > > I tell them all to relax, I got this. > > When the cop walks up and flashes his light in the car, I poke my head out and ask him what the problem is. He’s visibly surprised to find a middle age white guy in a car full of 20-something Latinos. The cop asks me where we’re going this time of night and I tell him that we just finished up an inventory and they’re dropping me off at home. > > I swear on my mother’s grave, the officer just looked at me for a second, said “Have a good evening” and left. > > Everyone in the car was staring at me with a “What the fuck was that?” look and I tell them, “And that’s why you keep a white boy around.” I practically pulled out my White Privilege card and flashed it. ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/329 "2014-12-06T19:03:02Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Sorry if it’s been cited already, but [descriptions of the grand jury that investigated the death of Eric Grner](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/eric-garner-grand-jury-rigged-man-filmed-chokehold-article-1.2033257) suggest they were biased. They spent only a few minutes questioning the photographer of the famous video; they did find time to ask him if he’d ever been arrested. The racism of older whites is breathtaking. Now I know why conservatives hate public education…Obama would never have won without the votes of younger whites, who learned to accept minorities as a direct result of their experiences in public schools. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/330 "2014-12-06T19:30:48Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Unless the literacy rates among Hispanics in Texas are different from that average. > > Regards, > Shodan My comment on literacy rates was in regard to my thesis of “It makes sense that jury pools would be skewed toward retired people in general, but are retired police officers a large percentage of total retirees?” Not to the point of the underrepresentation of hispanics on grand juries. If we’re going to address the underrepresentation of hispanics on Texas grand juries, I would expect that if petit juries can comply with constitutional requirements on hispanic representation, then I would think grand juries could do the same. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/331 "2014-12-06T21:18:39Z")
[Arizona cop caught on cam](http://thefreethoughtproject.com/arizona-cop-brutally-attacks-teen-girl-mother-begs-stop/) brutally attacking teen girl while mother begs them to stop. “Luis Paul Santiago, the witness who filmed the violent encounter stated that police attempted to delete the video, and the second officer on the scene explained that the officer “behaved correctly” and stated that “if she needed to, she could have shot her dead.”” ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2014, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/332 "2014-12-06T22:12:02Z")
> [@Why wasn't the police officer who killed Eric Garner indicted?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wasnt-the-police-officer-who-killed-eric-garner-indicted/706271/322): > > No, individuals have a responsibility not to be irrational idiots. Black America already looks pretty bad, with its rampant crime, low income, poor IQ scores and various other ills, I doubt it helps them to be screaming like imbeciles in the street over non-crimes. This doesn’t really deserve its own thread, so I’ll just drop it here. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/333 "2014-12-07T14:18:02Z")
[A cop arrests a guy for parking in a good parking spot](http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2014/12/man_says_off-duty_bso_cop_arrested_him_for_taking_a_parking_space_files_lawsuit.php) Not only was did this fucker arrest the guy over absolute bullshit, but he also severely injured him. And it has taken the guy _two years_ to have his name cleared. I’m guessing this police officer still has his job, though. I’m sure the citizens of Broward County are very appreciative of this. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/334 "2014-12-07T15:14:04Z")
> [@Evil\_Economist](#): > > My comment on literacy rates was in regard to my thesis of “It makes sense that jury pools would be skewed toward retired people in general, but are retired police officers a large percentage of total retirees?” Not to the point of the underrepresentation of hispanics on grand juries. Yes, I understand that. My point was that, if it were the case that the other qualifications of grand jurors, like literacy or being registered to vote, are significantly different than the general public, that would be reflected in the different rate at which they were selected for grand juries. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/335 "2014-12-08T19:59:21Z")
The Eric Garner case seems to be [catching on nationally](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/08/why-eric-garner-is-the-turning-point-ferguson-never-was/) (and on both sides of the spectrum) in a way that Ferguson never did. The polling for the Garner case is nearly opposite from the Michael Brown case, as far as the lack of indictments – a significant majority (including a majority of white people) disagree or strongly disagree with the lack of an indictment in the Garner case. Perhaps this is due to the video evidence? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/336 "2014-12-08T20:06:17Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > This doesn’t really deserve its own thread, so I’ll just drop it here. Martin Hyde is an ignorant pig-molesting halfwit. We all knew that. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/337 "2014-12-08T20:08:09Z")
I guess it’s helpful when you have video (and also that it was a situation where the police could’ve and should’ve simply effected an arrest by way of issuing a citation for him to appear, as I presume was routinely done with past charges). ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2014, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/338 "2014-12-08T20:23:35Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > The Eric Garner case seems to be [catching on nationally](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/08/why-eric-garner-is-the-turning-point-ferguson-never-was/) (and on both sides of the spectrum) in a way that Ferguson never did. The polling for the Garner case is nearly opposite from the Michael Brown case, as far as the lack of indictments – a significant majority (including a majority of white people) disagree or strongly disagree with the lack of an indictment in the Garner case. > > Perhaps this is due to the video evidence? Undoubtedly that is a major factor. Also, the two cases are simply quite different - I have always maintained that the Garner case was a better case for pressing for change than the Brown case. These poll results demonstrate why. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Economist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c89c15/32.png) [@Evil\_Economist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Economist)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/339 "2014-12-09T04:05:19Z")
“Just one week after [FOX31 Denver](http://kdvr.com/2014/12/05/punching-cop-promoted-after-fox31-denver-report/) first aired a citizen’s videotape of a police officer punching a drug suspect in the face, then tripping his pregnant girlfriend, the Denver Police Department has given that same officer a promotion.” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2014, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/340 "2014-12-09T05:45:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Martin Hyde is an ignorant pig-molesting halfwit. We all knew that. 😛 Somebody squealed? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942.md?page=18)