# 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:** 1\ **Showing post:** 11378
**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:** [September 5, 2017, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942/11378 "2017-09-05T17:46:36Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > You made a very specific claim about something I said. And I challenged you on it – I said that I’m pretty sure I hadn’t said that. I asked you for a cite. > > That’s pretty reasonable, right? I don’t think I said that. You could just find a cite for the specific claim you made, and show that you’re right and I’m wrong about what I said. Or you could step back and think about it and consider that maybe you misinterpreted some things I said before. > > But you’re choosing a different route. Why? If, as you said, I’ve said this specific thing tens or hundreds of times before, then it should be easy to find. Why not find some examples? > > We’ve had some reasonable discussions before. This could end very reasonably – you could show that I did, indeed say that specific thing that you say that I said, or you could back off and say “maybe I misunderstood”, and ask me some reasonable questions. > > But you’re the one who made a specific claim about me. Isn’t it reasonable, if I think you’re wrong, to challenge you on it? For one thing, it’s pretty fucking difficult to search a ten thousand post thread. But in another [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=826012), every post you make claims that the police are harming black people and that black people should hate and fear them. Fortunately, **Shodan** and **Bricker** call you out on your bullshit there. You’ve repeated the same flawed arguments in many threads. Basically, you seem to think that a black person who claims they have been mistreated should automatically be believed, but a cop that says someone was a threat, was resisting or whatever, should be expected to prove their point. Here’s a couple of quotes where you say that the police lie about dealings with black people, just like they have done for 100 years, and that it’s reasonable for black people to hate and fear them. > [@Should People of Color trust the police?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-of-color-trust-the-police/786433/14): > > So who can we trust on whether or not black people are mistreated by police if we can’t trust the reports of black people? Do you have any reason to believe that black people are more likely to lie about being mistreated by police than others? > > If the Sean Groubert and Charles Kinsey shootings hadn’t been recorded on video, do you believe that those officers would have been prosecuted? I don’t think they would have been. I also think it’s reasonable to consider that there might be a significant number of shootings that were in this vein (i.e. inappropriate shootings) that are recorded as “good” shootings, because there are no witnesses and no video. You might disagree, but then what could change your mind? Until all shootings are recorded, we only have the reports of black people (the ones who survived the encounters) and of cops to explain various incidents – considering that 150, 100, and 50 years ago it’s almost certainly true that black people would have been _more honest and accurate sources_ of what actually happened in these encounters than the cops of the time, I think it’s very possible that they still are. > > I see no reason to believe that black people are any less honest and accurate about how they are personally treated now than they were 50 years ago – I doubt if anyone would be surprised if a great majority of black people at the time reported mistreatment by police. > [@Should People of Color trust the police?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-people-of-color-trust-the-police/786433/5): > > Whether they logically should or shouldn’t, it’s common sense that if someone has been mistreated by police, or as a child they saw their father or brother mistreated by police, or grew up hearing stories about family members who were mistreated by police, then they’re much, much more likely to (for rational and very human reasoning) be distrustful of law enforcement and view them as dangerous enemies to be feared. Most of the black people I’ve spoken to about this issue fall into one of these categories. > > This is a very, very serious problem for law enforcement, and increases risks to both them and the public, and is not likely to fix itself until we can go a generation or two in which very, very few children see family members mistreated by police, or hear multiple and consistent stories about family members mistreated by police, or are mistreated by police themselves. In neither case are you even slightly concerned by facts, you just claim without any justification that the police are out to harm black people. Later in that thread, you claim that anecdotes that conflicts with actual evidence are more reliable. And all that from a thread I didn’t participate in, so there’s no argument that I’m biased or trying to defend myself or whatever. I’m sure there’s better examples, but this board is difficult to search for specific posts. Nonetheless, many people will have read and remembered your posts, not just me. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/controversial-encounters-between-law-enforcement-and-civilians-the-omnibus-thread/700942)._