# Taking a cop's word in law enforcement incidents **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 16, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717 "2014-08-16T22:55:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717/61 "2014-08-21T21:58:58Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Almost certainly, both parties ended up in the wrong. There is no good guy in this story. That’s kind of where I ended up after seeing the tape. I’m not saying I believe the cop’s version of events. I think there’s good reason to believe that he is shading the truth as much as Dorian J. is, due to his (the officer’s, in case that’s not clear) own culpability. I’m saying that I can almost see an 18-year-old kid, who probably even had reach on the patrolman, being dumb enough to grab for the officer’s gun. Still, that turns into really bad decisions all around instead of my first impression of spectacularly bad decision making and poor performance of duties on Officer Wilson’s part. Still a bad shoot, still a good reason to retire the patrolman early even if he somehow escapes prison time. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717/62 "2014-08-22T01:11:02Z")
I’ve been ridiculed for mentioning it on the SDMB, but a Pulaski County Deputy, responding to the dreaded Domestic Dispute, was attacked by the fighting couple, who tried to get his firearm. He took it apart and tossed the parts about the room rather than shooting anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717/63 "2014-08-22T14:13:09Z")
> [@GreenElf](#): > > When I was wrongly arrested for alleged DUI, after I described my route, the officer asserted that I had to have driven at least 5 miles with my car lights off, so after I was released, I went home and measured the actual distance traveled on my city map. The distance was approximately 1/2 a mile on a well-lit road, so you can’t take everything an officer says for truth. There’s a somewhat famous case out of Hollywood, Florida, in which a veteran officer with a history of damaging his patrol car rearended a parked car and decided to arrest that driver rather than taking the blame and getting in trouble yet again. That officer got two other veteran officers and a departmental civilian employee to back him up. Luckliy for that driver, [the officers forgot that the dash-cam was on](http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Cops-Set-Up-Woman-After-Crash.html). All four have since been fired. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717/64 "2014-08-22T14:53:22Z")
What Judge and Jury? Has Officer Wilson been charged with a crime? ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717/65 "2014-08-22T16:17:08Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I’ve been ridiculed for mentioning it on the SDMB, but a Pulaski County Deputy, responding to the dreaded Domestic Dispute, was attacked by the fighting couple, who tried to get his firearm. He took it apart and tossed the parts about the room rather than shooting anyone. Voluntarily disarming yourself in a situation like that seems an extraordinarily stupid thing to do, in fact the story seems nonsensical. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717/66 "2023-09-12T17:41:12Z")
Whoops! Discourse appears to have forgotten where I was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/taking-a-cops-word-in-law-enforcement-incidents/695717.md?page=3)