Many of the recent flaps with law enforcement that have plastered the news with some white cop killing some black guy seemed to be instigated with a ratcheting up of stakes where the suspect looked ratty as hell then just up and bolts. If I was a police officer, I would be thinking, wtf is this guy doing? He must be trying to hide something SERIOUS, not a fix it ticket, not a small pack of weed, but who knows.
It just seems like a terrible, TERRIBLE strategy, and mind-numbingly stupid to run away. Now perhaps in the perps heads, the things they are worried about appear larger than life, getting arrested might mean having to get hit for some child support payment, or be put away for a few days for some other issue… but when the alternative we see on the news is potential DEATH from some overzealous officer, why do people keep doing it?
I don’t think they deserve to be put to death for their stupidity, but isn’t it always stupid? I remember years ago when I was younger and poorer driving around in my first car. My registration had expired and I had no money to renew it for another couple of weeks, I remember feeling nervous around police because I knew it could mean a ticket if they pulled me over. But I would NEVER have run away from them. The worst case scenario is that I would have to pay a little extra, am I missing something?
I know people just want to pile onto police as the greatest threat to black males in the universe, but I just don’t see it. I see retarded people who run like they are guilty of high crimes as a bigger threat to their life.
That’s the kind of attitude that gets people killed. I know a lot of black people who think the police are so out to get them they don’t trust anything they do or say. Think their intention is just to make life hard on them. And that is the kind of attitude that probably incites a person to bolt from the police officer instead of staying there and letting the encounter play out normally.
HI I’m a black dude, there is nothing you can tell me about police encounters I haven’t already leaned in the uncountable number of times I’ve been pulled over, but thanks.
I’m black too, so what?
I never understood the attitude that just because you are targeted as a potential suspect more often then you need to have some chip on your shoulder. Even as a kid I remember acquaintances complaining about some korean shop keeper who kept looking at them as if they were going to steal something. Incidentally, that same guy complaining DID steal something !!! I’d have tried to observe his little stealing ass too. People behave in these ways because they are looking out for something bad, and if being profiled more often is a result of them looking out for their store or the city, then so be it. I knew I was not stealing so it made no difference to me.
I get that it can be annoying to be singled out over and over because of your appearance, but the way to stop that is NOT to bitch and moan and complain. It’s to change the numbers. To be the counter example.
The problem, there are not ENOUGH counter examples to break the stereotypes. THAT is what is needed, that is the ONLY thing that will change perceptions. Not assertions about equality.
Pay close attention here. Most black people are not criminals. But there is a higher percentage of criminals among the black population. That’s why even though blacks only make up around 13% of the US population, there are almost as many blacks murdered as whites (most murders are against the same race, but the murder rate is so much higher in the black population that is makes up for most of the gap in general population). It makes sense for there to be a higher concentration of police presence among certain populations because that is where hotspots of crime are. Where incidentally, most of the victims of the crime are other black people.
When black people are no more likely than any other group to engage in crimes, then and ONLY then would I expect less attention and scrutiny from the police on the population as a whole. There is NOTHING fair about this additional scrutiny for the majority of law abiding black people, and my response to that is… and? Not everything in life or the universe is fair. Deal with it, or don’t, and inspire a generation of fools to run from the police.
As a society we have imperfect levers to control the rules of engagement, we can and will try to change officer behavior, but that is a delayed mechanic. The person doing the running has 100 % of the control over their OWN actions and behavior, stop waiting for godot, stop waiting for the entire society to turn into some utopian vision of equality, fix yourself first, and live and prosper. Or run and have a greater chance of dying due to the psychology of officers faced with runners.
Spoken like a true Fox News view…er I mean black person. What the fuck does this have to do with abuse by law enforcement and your implication that as a group we deserve to be mistreated. Because that’s what you’re implying.
What about the fools who don’t run and are still mistreated. How about those asking for help who are gunned down? What about the swimming pool incident? How much time you got, because I’ve got tons and tons of cites. Oh yeah blacks are more likely criminal and deserve to be shot down like dogs. I forgot. No wait, you’re saying black criminals are deserving to be shot down like dogs. Of course not all blacks, they just suffer for the good of well I guess cops.
So, I’m responsible for all my actions plus all the hypothetical criminals. No wait, you’re saying that the criminals are responsible for the rest of the black folk being mistreated. But we good ones can complain. No wait, we shouldn’t complain either. We should tolerate and understand the poor put upon police officer who’s paid and trained for this. All this responsibility seems to only go one way. Thanks for telling me we can take it though, it so reassuring.
So Moses, how about some advice for my current anxiety. You see yesterday my oldest son made me proud. He took the starter F150 I bought him for graduating high school and traded it in for his first car payment. Now he drives a nice two year old car that’s going to get him (well not him really, it’s those bad blacks fault) pulled over for being a young black guy in a nice car. So how many free passes shall I tell him to give the cops, because of those bad blacks. Should I overlook the name calling and nasty attitude when he’s pulled over in my driveway like my other son was a few months ago? When do we get to be regular citizens, entitled to living out lives having the occasional bad day without fear of being mistreated or gunned down? Inquiring minds would like to know
Sorry I didn’t see this. Salvor I preemptively apologize for calling you Jesus and Moses, Dopers please excuse my incivility. Please mentally substitute Bad Blacks for the N-word.
Yes, it’s stupid to run or try and fight the police. The right place to fight them is in court with a good lawyer at your back, not in the middle of the street or during a traffic stop. This doesn’t mean that the police are always right, but they DO have a badge and a gun, and whether they are right or wrong doesn’t make you less dead if they pull some of the crazy shit they pull or fly off the handle.
So if the last time I cooperated with the police they beat me half to death and threw me in jail because of some planted evidence and out and out lies I should just stay there and let them do it again the next time? I just want to be clear about that before I say it’s always foolish to run from the police.
How would it have helped you to have run? Unless you want to posit you would have gotten away completely with zero ramifications, it’s probably better to be half dead from a beating than fully dead or even mostly dead with someone stuffing a chocolate coated miracle revival pill down your throat. It doesn’t seem that most people who run away from a direct police confrontation actually manage to get away, at least not where I live, where it’s something that is on the news nearly every night. As many people (here anyway) get shot as get away, with the majority getting caught and at a minimum roughed up. If the cops were willing to beat you ‘half to death’ when you didn’t run, I’m guessing they wouldn’t go easier on you if you had run and been caught.
I think the point is that people in mortal fear sometimes don’t behave in the most perfectly logical and rational way, and that many black people have actual personal experience that cause them to legitimately feel mortal fear of police.
This is a serious problem in society, and in general it’s not the fault of those who, due to their personal experiences, feel actual legitimate mortal fear around police in some circumstances.
Yes, thank you. I think this practice started as a result of abusive encounters with the police. Once that happened the cycle began to feed itself. Still, it is foolish in the vast majority of cases to run from the police, but there are dead people who had half a chance if they had run, that’s going to affect the decision making process of anyone who finds themselves in a similar position.
A common situation where people run from the police is a bunch of teenagers having a party where underage drinking and hanky panky are occurring and the cops show up–and everyone scatters, rather than being detained and having to face the wrath of their parents.
But probably no one here has ever been in this situation.
It’s a serious problem, but the answer to the OP, IMHO is still that it’s foolish to run from the police. It’s foolish to give into your fears or lose control when you are dealing with already touchy people who are also armed AND have a badge. The best place to fight them is in a court room with a lawyer at your back. Having been lectured recently by my son’s Chinese partner (who came to the US when he was in his teens), it’s given me a whole new perspective on how lucky we are to have that opportunity. I’d say that if you are in China (or North Korea or other totalitarian hell holes) then my answer would be different…there, I think it’s not always foolish to run from the police. But in the US? I think that in nearly every case I’ve seen or heard of, running is the worst thing you can do (with the caveat that if you can get away Scott Free then I suppose that might make it less foolish :p).
Simply analyzing the question out of context tells you that running from the police is a foolish thing to do. But I think it’s foolish to consider that running from the police is the problem here. The problem is what the police do when someone runs.
That wasn’t the question that was asked, though. I think SOME of the problem is with the police, but I don’t think it’s all with the police…and sometimes the police are justified in doing what they do when people run. I’ve seen at least two reports in the news in the last year where someone ran and got away, only to kill someone else because the police failed to stop them.