I would think it’s to prevent the police from being forced to make a judgement call, which could prove dangerous or fatal. You can’t tell by looking who is violent (all the time) and if you assume the person is, you won’t be caught off guard. Same for things like body fluids in a hospital- all are assumed to be carriers of disease and treated as such so people always err on the side of safety.
What a gyp. The ‘handcuff’ thread is about @#&!!ing police procedure?! . . . grumble grumble.
Actually, almost every aspect of being arrested (mug shots and fingerprinting, especially, and I’m not even going to touch the whole clothes exchange and shower thing) is fairly demeaning. Traumatized the hell out of Harlan Ellison, anyway.
I’m not sure pictures of a suspect in handcuffs makes them look that much more guilty than the arrest itself does, though. Almost certainly less than mugshots do, at any rate.
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Apparently “So, you have your own handcuffs, eh?’ is not as good a pickup line for female cops as one might think.
Sorry to disappoint those who were expecting a sexy thread! Maybe we should start one of those (compatible design of bed is essential!)…
However, just to inform you all, when the TV news covered MJ’s arrest in detail here in the UK on Friday night (before my OP!), Extensive play was made on the fact that has was led in to the sheriff’s office handcuffed. They even ‘froze’ the picture to envisage the point! So maybe it’s a cultural thing, us Brits placing more on it than the Yanks?
Also AngelicGemma’s point about guns is valid to a point, but what was the chance of MJ being armed?
I’m cpnfused. Suspects are allowed to have their hands free when they’re arrested in Britian? The cops are allowed total discretion as to who might become violent and who might not? Or do you end up with only certain “kinds” of people automatically handcuffed? CrazyMonkey was right about the cause–it has to be everybody.
Stanley Crouch has a column about it in the Daily News. Basically, in America we wouldn’t like to see people of a certain race and class or wealth (like MJ) be able to not deal with the handcuffs just because it’s presumed that they won’t do anything stupid. I get the feeling British police make snap judgements, and I’d bet that people who benefit from those judgements fit a certain…profile. I’m surprised nobody minds over there.
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- And nobody was ever able to tell me: how to police restrain one-armed people?
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- And nobody was ever able to tell me: how to police restrain one-armed people?
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There’s a whole ritual to being arrested, and cuffs are part of it. So is being read your Miranda rights, you know, the bit that goes “You have a right to remain silent…”
I think there’s a cultural thing going on here. In the US, the idea that the law treats everyone equally is very important, so while someone in the UK may be puzzled or dismayed that MJ was cuffed, here in the States is plays out more as him being treated like everyone else, with no allowances for fame or fortune.
If the cops come on a scene of disorder they might well cuff everyone in sight as a means of crowd control, then go back and uncuff the ones the determine were just passerby and do not want to arrest after all.
It’s not just a matter of guns (although concerns about weapons does factor into this mix). American culture does have a strong anti-authoritarian streak in it. Americans are less likely to follow directions and orders from authority blindly than some other cultures. So perhaps people in the UK are more likely to submit and remain that way once arrested, whereas in the US they might be more likely to become defiant, make a break for freedom, or some such.
I recall reading about a UK police raid on an al-Qaeda cell that ended badly because they didn’t cuff everybody and one of the wounded bad guys got hold of a gun and started shooting. On this side of the pond I looked at that and thought “They didn’t cuff everyone? How…odd.”
Here in the US, if you’re arrested you expect the cuffs. You expect to sit in the back of a squad car with doors you can’t unlock even if you were uncuffed, or in the back of a paddy wagon. You expect the fingerprinting and the mug shot. Humiliating? Somewhat - but you know everyone else gets treated the same. It’s no surprise. It’s on the same level as going for medical tests and wearing that paper shirt that hangs open in the back. Not fun, but not something folks are traumatized for life for experiencing. Nothing personal against YOU, it’s just standard procedure, let me have that one phone call to my lawyer so I can get bailed out of here and go home.
As mentioned, it is procedure for the safety of all involved.
Years ago, a friend of mine was a coroner in Las Vegas. Before that, he was a police officer in London. He told me that there was a big difference between the average criminal in the US and the UK, which explained why as a cop in the UK he didn’t carry a gun while even as a coroner he carried, and had used, a gun. According to him, here the average criminal will go to the end of the world and use everything possible to get away while in the UK it was something of a game with a “code of conduct” where if a criminal is cornered, it was a “you caught me, you win” sort of thing. As he put it, the average criminal in the UK was honorable in the sense that once caught, they were cooperative and usually quite friendly.
He talked to me about this for several hours once and it was very fascinating.
One link around the wrist, the other through a belt loop.
Nah. The first thing the police do when arresting you is search your person thoroughly. The handcuffs come after they’re sure you’re not carrying anything you shouldn’t be.
Is the behind-the-back cuffing mandatory? I mean, I saw Mike Tyson handcuffed, and his hands were in front.
Personally, I wouldn’t’ve cared if MJ was cuffed right wrist to right ankle, but why not in front rather than in the back?
Oddly, a person pointed out once, and I think it’s true to an extent, that being handcuffed makes the handcuffed person seem more powerful and threatening in that they have to be restrained. A handcuffed person is muuch more menacing (imagewise) than a non-cuffed person.
Begging the question, how do you handcuff a one armed person wearing elastic-waist pants?