I don’t know what kind of backwater hillbilly shithole you live in, but for any major metropolitan police department, even pulling your X26 in public requires in incident report, and if you actually pop the cartridge you can expect to be News Item #1 on Live At 5 with everyone from the ASPCA to the American Cancer Society demanding your head on a totally justified, in-policy use of force. No officer who likes his pension is going to tase anyone at a whim. And at any case, the o.p. didn’t need to confront him directly; he could have called up the district station/precinct house, asked for the watch commander or shift supervisor, and made a verbal complaint, even anonymously.
Yes, some peace officers are real pieces of work, and get into the job because of the opportunity to wield authority over other people. It would be nice to say that the vetting process weeds them out, but this isn’t always the case, especially if no one in the command chain is aware of the behavior. It is pretty rare, though, for such bullying to be tolerated with complete impunity by politically savvy management-level officers who yearn for a captain’s bars or higher. The media is just all too willing to jump on a bully cop and show an example of “the violence inherent in the system.”
My understanding of the intricacies of the law is very limited, but how can it be illegal to possess car keys while drinking? What if you keep your car keys on the same ring as your house keys? I must admit, I’m completely floored by this. Where in the U.S. is this “law” enforced, because I’d like to avoid such places if possible?
Oh, I don’t know. I live in Lubbock, population 212,000, and I could easily see a tasing not being considered a big deal. It’s a weird town, though, home to a large university and an active alcohol-fueled nightlife, but until last year, by city ordinance, it was a dry city. I’m sure the majority of people here would give the police the benefit of the doubt.
Can you be more specific? I think most of what I wrote was English.
This is the Pit, after all. Vitriol is pretty well expected, no? The OP said “Please die” in reference to the officer in question. I made a sweeping generalization about the cop based on the interaction in the OP. I was letting out frustration, the OP was letting out frustration. Do you think the OP really wants the cop to die?
A sincere question: Why would you default, in the PIT, to thinking everything that’s written in a post is gospel? Have you seen what’s said in other threads? “What the Fuck, Cisco…” (poster 2 probably doesn’t really think that)
Maybe I used too many words? Or wasn’t trying to be funny or witty? What is the maximum number of words allowed before someone is taken 100% seriously? That would be helpful to know for my dissertation.
I don’t see why you couldn’t call the station now. Just ask for the supervisor (chief?), if you tell them what restaurant you where at and at what time, they’ll probably know who it was. Then you can let them know that you where threatened with arrest just like you told us in the OP.
You might also want to talk to the owner of the restaurant and see if that’s the first time this has happened. They might say “Yeah, that was really strange, he’s usually really nice” or “Yeah, he does that a lot” in which case you might want to suggest they report him when he’s threatening their customers.
What the fuck is a fajita taco? Is that anything like a soup sandwich or a cake pie?
(Ok, and Clockwork, I don’t get what you were initially objecting to. I thought Statsman’s post made some good points, generalized as it was, about the stereotypical cop-for-power. Since neither of you are on my batshit-crazy-skim-their-posts-only list, I figure you must have an interesting point with a different point of view that I’m not seeing. What specifically made you go hmmm?)
