I may have been wrong about the tasing, but my point remains.
In answer to your other question, I’m sure it depends on State laws, and she was freshly transitioned from Illinois. As an American citizen, you do have rights when pulled over by a traffic cop. Texas’ laws are mind-blowing. I’m actually shocked such laws allow what happened from a legal standpoint. It’s substantially obscure for an out-of-stater.
Personally, I’ve only ever been pulled over for speeding. And a couple times I was involved in fender benders. I’ve never been asked to step out of the vehicle. If I was, I’d most likely comply, but for failing to signal while changing lanes in the middle of the day, I’d really have some serious questions before I did.
I watched it. I now have *less *sympathy for Bland.
She clearly blew through that STOP sign. I believe that’s why he turned around and followed.
Its interesting how the same video can be interpreted so differently by different people. She was clearly an asshole from the start, and dragged him right down into asshole. Sure, bad on him. Cop should know better.
But he didn’t hang her in her cell. And if she wasn’t an asshole, she never would have been in that cell.
It’s obscure if you don’t say it out loud. He would not say out loud why he was ordering her. That has to be his job. Within seconds he had assaulted and battered her after all. It must have been worth mentioning.
Nice story, bro. But it doesn’t answer my question. So let me try another one.
Ten years from now, when the mere failure to plaster on that fake ass smile of yours becomes today’s equivalent to “his hand dropped to his waistband and I feared for my life”, will you be outraged by this? Concerned even just a little bit? Or will you be joining in the chorus of idiots saying “…if only he had addressed the cop as ‘sir’ like he was supposed to, then he, his three kids, and his wife would still be alive”.
Me, personally? I’m not willing to give up any of my humanity. The day shucking and jiving become prerequistes to having any reasonable expectation of staying unharmed by the police is the day I get the hell out of here. All the ideals that this country supposedly was founded on mean nothing if we can’t trust the police to control themselves when confronted with basic human emotion.
But the “arrest” didn’t happen until she refused to put out her cigarette. What else could be the grounds for arrest (besides resisting “arrest” when the idiot cop decided to employ physical force)?
AFAICT, the escalation went:
[ul]
[li]Bad driver commits a minor offense[/li][li]Police officer pulls said bad driver over[/li][li]Police officer decides to issue a warning citation[/li][li]Bad driver begins mouthing off…[/ul][/li][/quote]
Only one (major) problem with your data list. The last line should read, “Bad cop begins mouthing off.” There is no reason to object to the driver smoking in her car. It doesn’t affect his presentation of the warning notice or communication between the parties. It’s only a way to excuse and invoke a power trip by a deranged, psychotic man with too much authority for the public good.
WTF difference does it make if she is smoking in her car? Is that enough reason to order her out of the car, taze, or arrest her? The fucking cop was totally out of control; he was looking for an excuse to abuse the “bitch,” and he picked the wrong bitch.
Agreed. Just because this woman spoke up which may not be my inclination, she did absolutely nothing wrong. People are looking at this through the prism of their own experiences with cops. But see, I will respect authority if they afford me the same courtesy.
This cop baited Bland, knowing full well that she was exasperated at the reason for being pulled over. If a cop asked me if I was all right, I’d say no, I was just pulled over for a lane change violation?
And yeah, nobody is going to convince me this wasn’t about race. A black woman having the audacity to ask questions ? She needed a whooping for that. That autopsy ordered by the family is going to be interesting.
I don’t think the law is obscure in that it is the law of the land in most states. There are exceptions to Mimms though. As Richard Parker notes here:
I’ve looked up theMassachusettes case where the state explicitly rejected Mimms, however I was unable to validate the other states that **Richard **mentions. None the less, I have no reason to doubt him and based on his very accurate posting history and accept that Mimms is not the law of the land for all states where those states have stronger protections.
No. It happened when she refused to get out of her car when lawfully ordered. Hell, it may not have even happened then. The cop may well have still let her go with a warning after giving her a little shit. But no, in the video I watched, she escalates pretty much every chance she gets.
You’re wrong here. As I posted in #313, certain states have rejected Mimms and its progeny on the grounds that it conflicts with their state constitutions. So while ordering the exit from the vehicle for no reason may be permissible under the federal consitution, it is forbidden in Mass
So Miss Bland forced the officer to open her door? She made him threaten to tase her?
Miss Bland initiated the conversation? Miss Bland perhaps said something offensive? What exactly do you think Miss Bland did that escalated the situation such that the officer felt the need to use physical force to extract her from the vehicle and place her in handcuffs?
Please don’t answer that refusing to get out of the car to be put in handcuffs escalated the situation such that the officer felt the need to use physical force to extract her from the vehicle and place her in handcuffs.
I think its been fairly established in this thread already that failure to comply is grounds for arrest, and in Texas, the original reason for the stop. I’m not a lawyer, but I can read.
Dude, do you not see the ridiculous argument that you just implied you want to use?
How can the reason he wanted to arrest be that she resisted arrest? What was he going to arrest her for in the first place? A cop can’t just say that since you aren’t arrested yet, you’ve clearly been resisting arrest and thus arrest you.