# 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:** 77
**Author:** ![Gary\_Kumquat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gary\_Kumquat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Kumquat)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1521 "2015-04-08T19:56:50Z")
> [@Fallen](#): > > Understood, but whatever lax standards may apply elsewhere, this isn’t an Australia- or UK-based board AFAIK. If folks want to come off as remotely intelligent, surely their vocabulary can be expanded beyond use of a nasty word that denigrates the female gender when referring to a criminal with a badge. If they think “prick” or the like isn’t strong enough, then they’re free to use the noodle to come up with a different word. If they’re comfy with someone calling their mom (or mum) or whichever other females in their sphere a cunt, then I suppose ensuring they mention it will somehow take off the edge for me. 🙂 What a pile of bollocks. Why the cock would using female genitalia as a swear word be more dickish than using male genitalia? Claiming that there’s something lax about applying the rules equally to both genders is just ridiculous. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2015, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1522 "2015-04-08T20:11:19Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > That’s for the courts to decide. Get help. I’m serious. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1523 "2015-04-08T20:21:10Z")
> [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > What a pile of bollocks. Why the cock would using female genitalia as a swear word be more dickish than using male genitalia? Claiming that there’s something lax about applying the rules equally to both genders is just ridiculous. As a feminist I fully support the equality of using both genders genitalia as insults. > [@get\_lives](#): > > Get help. I’m serious. Your obsession with Smapti is getting scary. Get help. I’m serious. ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1524 "2015-04-08T20:50:56Z")
Quote: Originally Posted by Gary Kumquat View Post “What a pile of bollocks. Why the cock would using female genitalia as a swear word be more dickish than using male genitalia? Claiming that there’s something lax about applying the rules equally to both genders is just ridiculous.” I think the salient point being missed is that the vast majority of nasty terms used to denigrate a man somehow involves a female … more specifically, usually equating or comparing the man with a female or female part, and by that tag heaping scorn on him by implication of “lesser than” or inferior or defective, etc. I observed that somewhat intelligent folks could come up with terms of their liking to denigrate the man without it somehow involving a woman. I don’t think it’s too difficult a concept. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1525 "2015-04-08T20:56:02Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > As a feminist I fully support the equality of using both genders genitalia as insults. > > Your obsession with Smapti is getting scary. Get help. I’m serious. I’m just going to keep ignoring you while occasionally mocking you for calling me a morAn. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1526 "2015-04-08T21:06:02Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Obviously the guy’s corpse was even dangerous, the cop had to put cuffs on it. Standard practice. All the cop knows for sure at that point is that the suspect did not want to cooperate; immediately after the shots were fired, it’s not yet known whether he’s actually been rendered unable to flee/fight, or is just pretending. Unless the cop actually sees a fatal headshot and/or the kind of rough landing that would only be attributable to an unconscious person, the safe route is to apply handcuffs, whether the suspect is writhing around screaming or lying motionless. None of this should be construed as an endorsement of anything else the officer did that day. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1527 "2015-04-08T21:40:34Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > Didn’t look cold blooded, looked heat of the moment. Still looks like murder, but looking like isn’t enough to say for certain. True. Maybe his finger slipped eight times, and he absent-mindedly picked up the taser and dropped it near the guy’s dead body. Definitely going with justified shooting on this one unless the cop confesses to murder. Plus, we don’t know what happened before the video… who knows how loud the guy’s car stereo was? ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1528 "2015-04-08T21:50:41Z")
Huh? What “moment” caused this supposed heat, and in what do you see the heat? Evidently the police overlooked the actual moment, since the criminal evidently reported that the victim had taken possession of his discharged taser (and I’m still unclear as to what lethal danger that situation posed, requiring shooting at him even once let alone multiple times). ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1529 "2015-04-08T22:17:19Z")
Am I archaic in thinking that if you resist arrest, flee the scene, then engage in a physical confrontation with the officer, your entitlement to not get shot when again attempting to flee the scene is somewhat lessened? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1530 "2015-04-08T22:18:49Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Am I archaic in thinking that if you resist arrest, flee the scene, then engage in a physical confrontation with the officer, your entitlement to not get shot when again attempting to flee the scene is somewhat lessened? Yes. ---
**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:** [April 8, 2015, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1531 "2015-04-08T22:20:28Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > Am I archaic in thinking that if you resist arrest, flee the scene, then engage in a physical confrontation with the officer, your entitlement to not get shot when again attempting to flee the scene is somewhat lessened? Are you under the impression that that’s what happened here? Just fire all the cops that show sociopathic tendencies, impulse control problems, or anger issues on an MRI scan. It’d be cheaper to scan them all in the long run, than pay out judgments for police brutality. ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1532 "2015-04-08T22:26:26Z")
I’m glad to read that there’s a dashcam video to be released, perhaps tomorrow … and that there was a passenger in Scott’s car. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1533 "2015-04-08T22:31:44Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Obviously the guy’s corpse was even dangerous, the cop had to put cuffs on it. I’m more concerned that neither cop present did a single thing to administer first aid to the guy. That’s just common decency. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1534 "2015-04-08T22:42:01Z")
> [@get\_lives](#): > > Just fire all the cops that show sociopathic tendencies, impulse control problems, or anger issues on an MRI scan. It’d be cheaper to scan them all in the long run, than pay out judgments for police brutality. None of that would stop the “cold-blooded murders” you think you’re witnessing. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1535 "2015-04-08T22:44:03Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > True. Maybe his finger slipped eight times, and he absent-mindedly picked up the taser and dropped it near the guy’s dead body. Definitely going with justified shooting on this one unless the cop confesses to murder. Plus, we don’t know what happened before the video… who knows how loud the guy’s car stereo was? You may be going with justified shooting, I’m saying it looks like it could be murder, and there should be an investigation and, if the investigation warrants one, a trial to determine whether it is. Obviously that’s not enough for some people, who can determine exactly what happened from a couple of minutes of video… ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1536 "2015-04-08T22:46:51Z")
The police officer here was shown not only killing a man, but covering up his alleged crime by fetching then dropping an object next to the victim. Unfortunately, it’s hard to identify the object. And finally we have some state legislative action. Texas state House Bill 2918, puts strong curbs on private citizens filming police, wait _what?!?!_ [INDENT]A bill introduced in the Texas House of Representatives would make it illegal for private citizens to record police within 25 feet. House Bill 2918, introduced by state Rep. Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) on Tuesday, would make the offense a misdemeanor. Citizens who are armed would not be permitted to record police activity within 100 feet of an officer… [/INDENT] Representatives of TV and radio stations get a waiver. [New Texas Bill Would Prevent Bystanders From Recording Cops | Crooks and Liars](http://crooksandliars.com/2015/04/new-texas-bill-would-prevent-bystanders?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter) ---
**Author:** ![Fallen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@Fallen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fallen)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1537 "2015-04-08T22:58:20Z")
Quote: Originally Posted by Steophan: “Didn’t look cold blooded, looked heat of the moment. Still looks like murder, but looking like isn’t enough to say for certain.” There may be some confusion about what qualifies as “murder” in NC, depending on degree. At any rate, as to the later follow-up regarding investigation, then trial, let’s not overlook that it isn’t precisely commonplace for an officer to be jailed on a murder charge before an investigation is complete. I think there’s more than enough in the video for the relevant folks in authority to decide that the officer engaged in “an inherently dangerous act or omission, done in such a reckless and wanton manner as to manifest a mind utterly without regard for human life and social duty and deliberately bent on mischief.” (That latter phrase “deliberately bent on mischief” having a particular meaning within the NC statute, and not being a layperson’s definition, e.g., “misbehavior” or “troublemaking” associated with a child.) ---
**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:** [April 8, 2015, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1538 "2015-04-08T23:03:31Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > None of that would stop the “cold-blooded murders” you think you’re witnessing. you’re an IDIOT if you believe that. Of course, look who I’m talking to ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1539 "2015-04-08T23:08:50Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Yes. How many times do you get to resist arrest and attempt to flee until potentially-fatal force can be used to stop you? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/1540 "2015-04-08T23:10:21Z")
> [@get\_lives](#): > > you’re an IDIOT if you believe that. > > Of course, look who I’m talking to Cold blooded murders aren’t committed by people with anger management or impulse control problems, by definition. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942.md?page=76) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942.md?page=78)