# 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:** 404
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8062 "2016-03-16T03:19:05Z")
The officers caught on video smackng and cursing a student in a Baltimore school have been charged. the one guy says “right now, I’m the bad guy” and said the media is just going to “twist” things. > **[Baltimore police charged after viral video showed cop slapping and kicking teen](https://mashable.com/article/baltimore-police-slapping-kicking-teen-video)** > > Two Baltimore school police officers have been criminally charged after their violent encounter with a student was caught on camera. > **[Authorities take action on cop who slapped teen on video](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/baltimore-schools-police-officer-anthony-spence-charged-video-slapping-student/)** > > Cellphone video shows Baltimore schools police officer slapping, kicking teen at school ---
**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:** [March 18, 2016, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8063 "2016-03-18T21:44:54Z")
[Want to fire a shotgun at police in a high speed chase and survive? Be a white supremacist](http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-white-supremacists-shoot-police-live-article-1.2563556) > [@](#): > > Two actually armed white supremacists suspected of actual crimes took police on an actual car chase in which the Neo-Nazis actually fired a shotgun at police multiple times and actually struck police cars with actual bullets shattering their actual windshield in the process. > > But, unlike the actually unarmed Timothy Russell, Malissa Williams, Ramarley Graham, Amadou Diallo, Cedrick Chatman, or Kendrec McDade, police somehow found a way to apprehend the white supremacists without killing them. That’s a revelation. How did they do such a thing? How were they able to use such amazing restraint in the face of an actual threat when such restraint so frequently seems in short supply with black folk? ---
**Author:** ![Grsz11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Grsz11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grsz11)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8064 "2016-03-21T01:53:09Z")
A retired state trooper is was behind an attempted robbery and killed two PA Turnpike workers this morning. > **[Suspect in killings at PA Turnpike toll booth was retired state trooper](https://www.fox43.com/article/news/local/contests/suspect-in-killings-attempted-robbery-on-pa-turnpike-was-retired-state-trooper/521-bc5fccb4-a15d-4bd5-96f8-05f4870cd7ef)** > > FULTON COUNTY, Pa.– A press conference held by the Pennsylvania State Police on Sunday afternoon, revealed details about a deadly attempted robbery at a P... ---
**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:** [March 22, 2016, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8065 "2016-03-22T22:11:53Z")
Just thought I would drop this in here, because it fits properly in this thread. I [found it on Jezebel](http://jezebel.com/nixons-policy-advisor-admits-he-invented-war-on-drugs-t-1766359595), which some find offensive or disreputable. Make of it what you will. [QUOTE=author Dan Baum] At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.” [/QUOTE] I will be surprised if you are surprised. ---
**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:** [March 25, 2016, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8066 "2016-03-25T17:06:22Z")
[Mailman handcuffed and roughly arrested in Brooklyn](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/nyregion/glen-grays-the-mailman-cuffed-in-brooklyn.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0) Apparently for complaining about some reckless driving by an unmarked police car with four plain cloths cops in it. > [@](#): > > By the time Mr. Grays arrived at the front door _(delivering a package)_ of 999 President Street, the police were approaching him. [A video of the incident,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jDDs-CzF5E)taken by an observer on the street, begins at this point and shows Mr. Grays, in his postal uniform, as he is handcuffed, frisked and taken to the unmarked car. > > The officers tell him to stop resisting, even though there is no evidence in the video of resistance. What the video does not show, Mr. Grays said, is what happened next, after he was placed in the back seat of the unmarked car, with his hands cuffed and without a seatbelt, compelling him to leave the mail truck unattended. The driver, who had turned around to taunt him, hit the vehicle in front of them, Mr. Grays said, causing him to bang his shoulder against the front seat. Mr. Grays was then taken to the 71st Precinct station, where he was issued a summons for disorderly conduct that will require him to appear in court. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8067 "2016-03-25T18:22:04Z")
[Chicago cop facing murder charge seeks to skip court appearances](http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-laquan-mcdonald-jason-van-dyke-court-met-20160323-story.html) > [@](#): > > Lawyers for indicted Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke want a Cook County judge to allow him to skip routine court appearances in his high-profile first-degree murder case, citing concerns about his safety and facetiously calling their client “Public Enemy No. 1.”… > > The disturbing video of Van Dyke shooting Laquan McDonald 16 times as the teen walked away has indeed created a firestorm, leading to weeks of street protests… Good news, Jason! I understand that the Chicago criminal justice system, like most others, has special rooms for people to stay while awaiting trial, with none of those icky street protests (or streets) in sight! ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8068 "2016-03-30T16:30:56Z")
[No Charges for 2 Minneapolis Officers in Fatal Shooting](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/decision-charges-minneapolis-police-shooting-wednesday-38026585) > [@](#): > > The shooting prompted protests in Minneapolis, including an 18-day encampment outside a north side police precinct. > > Freeman decided earlier this month against taking the case to a grand jury. > > Investigators had video of Clark’s shooting from several sources, but said early on that it didn’t provide a full picture of what happened that night. Protesters have demanded that authorities release the video. They also demanded that the case not go to a grand jury for consideration of charges. > > Public skepticism over grand juries, who do their work in secret, grew after police officers weren’t indicted in the high-profile deaths of blacks in other cities, including the fatal 2014 shootings of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland and 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the 2014 chokehold death of 43-year-old Eric Garner in New York. But grand juries reached indictments in other cases, including in Chicago, where an officer faces murder charges in the 2014 death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, whose shooting was captured on video. I don’t know about demanding there’s no grand jury, but it seems there might one more video the cops don’t want made public. ---
**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:** [March 30, 2016, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8069 "2016-03-30T16:40:40Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > [No Charges for 2 Minneapolis Officers in Fatal Shooting](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/decision-charges-minneapolis-police-shooting-wednesday-38026585) > [@](#): > > Ringgenberg is white, and Schwarze’s race has not been released. The second officer’s race hasn’t been released? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8070 "2016-03-30T17:00:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > The second officer’s race hasn’t been released? :dubious: His last name is a dog whistle. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8071 "2016-03-30T17:01:40Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > [No Charges for 2 Minneapolis Officers in Fatal Shooting](http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/decision-charges-minneapolis-police-shooting-wednesday-38026585) > > I don’t know about demanding there’s no grand jury, but it seems there might one more video the cops don’t want made public. > [@](#): > > Clark was not handcuffed at the time of the shooting, had attempted to gain control of an officer’s weapon and that the officers believed they were in danger of being shot. > > At one point, Freeman said, Clark told the officers: “I’m ready to die.” Yeah, I wanna see that video. It’s weird, ain’t it? How often black and brown people will try to wrestle away a gun from multiple cops? ---
**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:** [March 31, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8072 "2016-03-31T22:43:18Z")
> [@](#): > > The NYPD lieutenant who supervised the cursing plainclothes cops who arrested an on-duty postal worker in Brooklyn earlier this month has been stripped of his badge and gun, the Daily News has learned. [Link](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-oversaw-postal-worker-arrest-loses-badge-gun-article-1.2584376) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8073 "2016-04-01T00:08:22Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > [Link](http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-oversaw-postal-worker-arrest-loses-badge-gun-article-1.2584376) > [@](#): > > On Wednesday Patrick Lynch, head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, cautioned against a “rush to judgment.” > > “Everyone, including the police commissioner, should withhold public comment until all the facts are in,” Lynch said. > > He also put part of the blame on Grays. > > “No one ever has the right to resist arrest,” Lynch continued. “Compliance is not optional.” They must respect my authoritah! ---
**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:** [April 1, 2016, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8074 "2016-04-01T00:32:34Z")
So, the postal worker was arrested for resisting arrest? Is that right? ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8075 "2016-04-01T00:34:49Z")
Well he kept standing there saying “I’m not resisting,” which we all know is proof of his resisting arrest. ---
**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:** [April 1, 2016, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8076 "2016-04-01T01:20:44Z")
This somehow perverts the meaning of “going postal”. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8077 "2016-04-01T20:36:45Z")
[South Carolina cops perform roadside cavity search of a man and woman for no reason, and it is caught on video.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/04/01/video-shows-white-cops-performing-roadside-cavity-search-of-black-man/). ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8078 "2016-04-01T22:12:03Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > [South Carolina cops perform roadside cavity search of a man and woman for no reason, and it is caught on video.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/04/01/video-shows-white-cops-performing-roadside-cavity-search-of-black-man/). Thus why blacks are more likely to be caught with drugs despite the fact that they don’t do drugs more than whites ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8079 "2016-04-06T14:38:08Z")
[Parents called 911 to help suicidal daughter — and ‘police ended up putting a bullet in her’](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/04/06/parents-called-911-to-help-suicidal-daughter-and-police-ended-up-putting-a-bullet-in-her/?hpid=hp_rhp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory) > [@](#): > > “We were afraid she was going to hurt herself,” her mother, Terry Boarts, told the newspaper. “We figured she was going to bleed out right there.” > > The parents called 911 for help. > > But instead of assisting, “police ended up putting a bullet in her,” they said in a statement issued by the family’s attorney. > > Auburn police said Melissa Boarts charged at them with an unidentified weapon Sunday, prompting an officer to open fire and kill her. Maybe a lightsaber? > [@](#): > > Julian McPhillips, the attorney for the family, told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the parents believe Boarts may have had a pocket knife — “but certainly no gun” — and argued that shooting her was “totally unjustified.” > [@](#): > > Boarts is one of at least 262 people who have been fatally shot by police so far in 2016, according to a Washington Post database. At least 41 of those killed by police were carrying a knife or other blade, and about a quarter of all police shooting victims were mentally ill or experiencing an emotional crisis. > > People with untreated mental illness are 16 times as likely to be killed during a police encounter as other civilians approached or stopped by law enforcement, according to a study from the Treatment Advocacy Center. Guess, they shouldn’t be mentally ill, then. > [@](#): > > Police said she “exited the vehicle armed with a weapon and charged the officers in a threatening manner at which time the officers discharged their weapons, striking the driver.” Well, the cops aren’t going to say anything else. > [@](#): > > Since January 2015, The Post has tracked more than 1,100 fatal shootings by on-duty police officers, with one in four involving someone who was either in the midst of a mental health crisis or was explicitly suicidal. A Post analysis has found that in half of those cases, the officers involved were not properly trained to deal with the mentally ill — and in many cases, officers responded with tactics that quickly made a volatile situation even more dangerous. To serve and protect…not the public, but themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8080 "2016-04-06T15:22:19Z")
Something my city is trying for mental health related police calls is using first response teams that include a mental health crisis worker and a police officer responding together. ---
**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:** [April 6, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/8081 "2016-04-06T16:45:04Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Something my city is trying for mental health related police calls is using first response teams that include a mental health crisis worker and a police officer responding together. That is so crazy, it just might work. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942.md?page=403) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942.md?page=405)