# Should African Americans resist arrest or cooperate fully with police? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 15, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760 "2015-10-15T22:57:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760/61 "2015-10-16T21:22:46Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > Everything you say is true, but, all beside the point. You are going on a tangent. > > I want to tell you something Shagnasty and I am going to say I hope it does not violate the rules of GD, more importantly, I hope it does not upset you or offend you because overall I think you are a pretty decent guy and one of the people “on the right” that I like disagreeing with or debating because you seem to be a decent person overall and your views are moderate or somewhat flexible. I also believe you when you say you have/have had many black friends and coworkers and that you have no bad feelings to any group of people. > > But > > You have the habit, it seems, of being very stuck with certain points of view. We (you, me, others) will be posting and chatting and you will say something and then people will post from articles or cite other statistics and you just kind of wander off or stop commenting or someone gets mad and then the sarcastic comments begin (can be generated by any number of people). > > So, I wonder, are you willing to change the “Sticking points” you have or are you going to keep defending your position regardless of what information is presented to the contrary? > > Lot’s of people would say I have the same problem with my attitude towards religion and Islam in particular. The difference between me and you, no offense, no personal offense intended, the difference between me and you is I am willing to admit I have a bias and I admit that my POV is probably not going to change. I doubt the validity of most information presented to me in this case because it is usually coming from a source of apologetics and that is a POV I disagree with. > > I’m writing a long response so you understand with clarity the point I am making. > > I repeat I do not think you are a bad person, I enjoy talking to you, and I believe you when you say you have many black friends and coworkers and that you get along well with all of them. > > As to your article, it is quite long and I am still reading the article Monstro posted, which is also quite long. In your article, does it make the claim that more white people are killed in total numbers? Or by proportion? What a weird post. Anyway I remembered an unarmed white person, homeless, who was shot dead on the wasteland he lived near a few years back; but googling **homeless shot dead police** depressed the fuck out of me so I stopped looking. Apparently he was not the only one. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2015, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760/62 "2015-10-16T21:28:14Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > What a weird post. > Anyway I remembered an unarmed white person, homeless, who was shot dead on the wasteland he lived near a few years back; but googling **homeless shot dead police** depressed the fuck out of me so I stopped looking. > Apparently he was not the only one. You might be thinking of [James Matthew Boyd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_James_Boyd)…it was (and actually still is) a pretty big story out here in New Mexico at least. He wasn’t unarmed though…he had a knife. There is a lot of dispute, however, as to how threatening he actually was (he was pretty crazy), and there is a lapel camera video of the events so you can pretty much see how it went down (badly). It’s still in the news here from time to time as the trial of the police officers involved is still ongoing. It is pretty depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760/63 "2015-10-17T02:56:23Z")
Bottom line is that nobody should resist arrest. No matter what your situation is, guilty or innocent, resisting arrest is just going to make it worse. But overall I reject the implied premise of this thread. The problem here generally isn’t what black people should or should not be doing. The problem is generally what police officers should or should not be doing. We need to be asking more questions about the way the police behave. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760/64 "2015-10-17T03:23:12Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > So should African Americans resist arrest in any way or should they cooperate fully and cooperate peacefully? That depends. (And this applies to everyone, white, black, brown, purple, whatever) Is your IQ a bigger number than the temp of your fridge in F? If so don’t run/resist. If you do you are a moron. If you IQ is a number lower than the temp in your fridge, you are forgiven for resisting as you have an excuse for being a moron. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760/65 "2015-10-17T03:52:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Bottom line is that nobody should resist arrest. No matter what your situation is, guilty or innocent, resisting arrest is just going to make it worse. > > But overall I reject the implied premise of this thread. The problem here generally isn’t what black people should or should not be doing. The problem is generally what police officers should or should not be doing. We need to be asking more questions about the way the police behave. I agree completely. The police do behave improperly sometimes but that is a separate issue from deciding to run from the law. I do not believe the overwhelming majority of police officers, even the relatively few ‘bad’ ones, want to kill or harm normal citizens in the course of their job because it creates a bureaucratic nightmare even if it is justified. Most of them got into that line of work because they believe in the essential duties of law and order and truly want to help people. A few of them can become corrupt or abusive but that is the reason we also have lawyers and judges. From a practical standpoint, there is no reason why anyone faced with arrest should ever put up a fight against an officer. You are going to lose in some very significant ways even if you try so I have no idea why this is even a question. The reasonable answer is 1) If you find yourself on the wrong side of the law for whatever reason, handle yourself responsibly and make sure you are generally courteous. That can pay off in huge ways. That includes cooperating with reasonable requests and certainly not fleeing or assaulting an officer and 1. If you find yourself locked up for a significant offense, you need a lawyer because you are going to trial anyway. Not cooperating or being confrontational with the police can only hurt your case. I am not sure where the general idea stated in the OP even comes from. It is a recipe for disaster and not even a real question at all. The real solution is to teach people of all types the appropriate ways to interact with the police and what their rights are both before and during an arrest. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2015, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760/66 "2015-10-17T04:45:00Z")
There are times when it matters who’s right and who’s wrong. If you’re arguing with a man who has a gun, it’s not one of those times. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-african-americans-resist-arrest-or-cooperate-fully-with-police/734760.md?page=3)