If you care that it’'s easier than good for you. I see no problem with refusing to show my receipt to the clerk if I’m not required to. It’s easiest if the clerk learns what is required by law and what are the rules of his company. I don’t see that anyone should acquiesce to the clerk who is wrong just because it’s easier. If you want to, fine, it’s a value judgement you’ve made. If I want to tell the clerk “No, sorry, I don’t have to” that’s my right. After that, any blame shifts directly to the clerk and the store - lots of things are easy and also wrong.
:taking bets on what the next attempt at spinning an obvious fear of the police into a civil rights issue will be:
Again, the issue is not with a store clerk asking to see a receipt. The problem arises when the clerk physically restrains a customer from leaving the scene after said customer politely refuses to show his receipt.
One more time, with emphasis: I do not think that. I think that a clerk is free to politely ask for a receipt, and I am free to politely refuse to show it. A clerk exceeds the limits of his authority when he physically prevents me from leaving the scene after merely refusing to show my receipt, just as surely as a cop exceeds his authority when he threatens me with arrest for refusing to permit a search of my premises or refusing to produce ID.
Well, I guess we agree, then.
If I was afraid of the police, I’d just pony up my ID and kiss their asses, wouldn’t I?
Hey, van Gogh, the Chicago Convention was nearly fifty years ago! The vast majority of blue-jacketed thugs were left behind.
Okay, who had “denial of the claim that they’re thugs ‘armed with guns, a taser, pepper spray, a billy club, and an entire army of backup at their command’ that ‘[want to] stop me under threat of being shot and demand that I waste a single moment of my life interacting with them’ is fear?”
The title of the thread says “police culture” not “police”.
Moral of an earlier story: sometimes it’s just a lot easier for everyone involved to just get up and give your seat on the bus to the white man. But it’s a lot better for everyone involved if you don’t.
Because showing the clerk your receipt is exactly the same as segregation.
What is this “police culture” of which you speak in the U.S.A.? Are you comparing the U.S. to the former East Berlin? I have lived here all of my 57 years and I have never been afraid of encountering the police when I leave the house. Not even if I see a patrol car in my rear view mirror because I know all a ticket means is a fine and the inconvenience of going to traffic court.
Well, everyone in this thread should be in awe - you all are in the presence of a 1-in-a-trillion person. Because the cops apparently had no reason to stop me and my roommate while walking down main street that one night. But they did, and if they’d had a real reason, they would have likely held us.
So Sept. 2014 is* bash the police month * on the dope?
We had a thread on the board just recently where posters where shocked to learn that in some states if you have your own RX meds outside the pharmacy bottle the police will seize them and charge you with a felony, and they don’t care whether you can show your RX or the bottle you’re still facing a felony. This law stops nothing, it literally is just a way to harass and imprison law abiding people.
My sister lives in a neighborhood where I have never seen a cop too, it is a gated community with million dollar homes.
I would love to see a cite on how often an ordinary citizens with an RX has actually been prosecuted for carrying around their prescription in their pocket or in one of those little plastic thingies old people put their pills in instead of the bottle it was dispensed in. I’m guessing it’s vanishingly small in number, and that there are probably other, extenuating circumstances, but it would be interesting to see the reality behind your claim here.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=17714951
That is the thread I mentioned.
Funny quote from the thread:
I have never lived in a gated community or million dollar home and I rarely see police. Actually I live in an unincorporated part of my county, so all I see are sheriff’s deputies. Still I have never seen a person being randomly singled out and harassed by the police. You may have had experiences being singled out, and I’m not going to judge you, but there is no monolithic culture of police oppression in the U.S. Your experiences are rare. Some cops may be assholes, but you encounter assholes everywhere you go. The bad cops don’t represent all police just as the assholes you run into elsewhere don’t represent all of humanity.
Apparently.
Actually their are times I wish there was a bigger police presence. Like they used to do these random checkpoints where they would stop all the drivers and check drivers license, title, and insurance. Often they would find stolen cars, felons on the run, drunk drivers, illegal aliens, and much more.
But it seems they get alot of grief over these being “racist” or something because they found all that but I think they were good for actively going looking for criminals.
Also many of the most dangerous communities should be practically under marshal law and have an officer every few feet to take back the streets from the gangs, drug dealers, and criminal elements.
It’s just a bunch of anecdotes in an IMHO thread. So, before I get riled up I’d like to see some stats on exactly how many ordinary citizens have been arrested and prosecuted for having prescription drugs in their car outside of the bottle, even if they produce the RX. YMMV of course, since you obviously have a CHiP on your shoulder. 