<p>Wait…that’s the case zoosermom was talking about?</p>
<p>It varies by state. In California I believe you are required to get out of the car if asked to do so by police. They may not search the car unless they see something questionable in plain view.</p>
<p>It is sad, isn’t it, take italic? I remember being a child and overhearing the adults in my family talking about what you need to do if the cops ever pull you over. Back then, they insisted that you should immediately hang both your hands outside your driver’s side window, so the cop could see you were unarmed (and so could any other motorist who happened to drive by), and not shoot you using the excuse that “he thought you had a gun.”</p>
<p>Nowadays, there’s still the need to instruct young black boys how to respond if detained by police. It’s unfortunate because, in an age where there remains vigorous defense of the policy of indiscriminately “stoping and frisking” ( clear violation of The 4th Amendment) of young blacks and Hispanics merely for the crime of walking in their own neighborhoods, the odds are better than even for many that they’ll need to know what to do in order to stay safe while being detained. My son had that ice water bath of a wake up call when he was stopped while walking home in our own neighborhood. Fortunately, he was not frisked, but he was asked for ID (which he did not have on him at the time) and the cop ran a check on the information he gave on himself. Young black men without criminal records are stopped all day, every day, and most are let go without too much of a hassle, but it changes (or reinforces) what they know about their status as citizens in this country. You are often assumed to suspect at best, or believed to be latently criminal or worse. </p>
<p>“Stop and Frisk”, ugh. It is a large spit in the face to minorities. NYPD has made it clear who they think the criminal are when studies have proven otherwise. </p>
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</p>
<p>And not too long after the videos went viral, both the friend who filmed the incident and his SO have been arrested for various infractions. </p>
<p>Coincidence? Or possibly an attempt by the NYPD to discredit the friend and potential key witness in the cholkhold death which has been confirmed and ruled a homicide by the medical examiner? Maybe the shadow knows… </p>
<p>There is so much wrong with this, I dont know where to begin. I am scared for my son, everyday that he leaves the house. He is entering his senior year of college, graduating with honors, and is by most accounts a gamer, and very introverted. Yet, he is a Black male so I pray for him everyday that he returns home safely. I dont think folks realize the things we have to talk to our kids about. For example, I have drilled in my kids head, always ask for a bag when you are buying from a convenience store. Why? Because someone may accuse you of stealing. Ferguson was a ticking time bomb.<br>
You cant have a community that is 70% black without anyone person of color with any position. The police force, city council, school board, are all white. No wonder the citizens feel they dont have a voice. Its sad that it is taking the reporters being harassed, and jailed before anyone believed what these citizens have been saying all along. The militarization of our police HAS TO STOP.
Its funny, we have a Black president, and I swear things are worse now. I am tired of the unequal treatment. Lets compare the treatment of the Clive Bundy case to what is happening in MO. He doesnt pay his taxes, gathers a bunch of gun toting extremists, and they are left alone. We try to have peaceful protests, and it looks like a scene from the Middle East. I dont think two wrongs make a right, but I will say, I am glad the hacker group ANONYMOUS is giving them H#$%. They are forcing Ferguson officials to do the right thing. They released the shooters name, and I hope they stay on top of them. Its sad, and underground group of hackers has to get involved to make them behave properly. </p>
<p>partyo5, I feel you. I do. I, too, and sick of the double standards and the unequal treatment that communities and communities of people of color are dealing with. It sucks. It really does. </p>
<p>I’ve always joked that I would get together a group who undermine the current system, dethroning the current leaders - political, social, economic. Maybe, I’ll just scoot a little closer to Anonymous. Looks like they’re getting things done. </p>
<p>The thing about the Staten Island case is that the EMTs didn’t provide appropriate care, either.</p>
<p>takeitallin, sorry about your name being mispelled in my response to you. I spelled it correctly the first time, but apparently, automatic spell correction assumed I meant to say “italic” after I continued typing… b-( </p>
<p>This quote from another site sums up the problem with the police attitude toward the citizens of Ferguson:
“When residents are protesting the violence of your police force, maybe don’t point sniper rifles at them while they’re singing.”</p>
<p>I thought this was an interesting article that some might find noteworthy:</p>
<p><a href=“SWAT Overkill: The Danger of a Paramilitary Police Force”>SWAT Overkill: The Danger of a Paramilitary Police Force;
<p>That’s an interesting article, zm–it shows how reasonable intentions can have bad results.</p>
<p>Interesting how the Ferguson area police couldn’t afford to put dashboard cams on their vehicles, but they could afford to outfit the cops like they were going to storm Fallujah.</p>
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</p>
<p>Except it’s not, it’s been declining pretty much throughout my entire lifetime.</p>
<p>That’s OK poetsheart- I’ve been called far worse!</p>
<p>It seems like just a game of percentages. The more times you are stopped the more chances you have for something to go sideways.</p>
<p>According to an interview with the chief a few days ago, the Ferguson police department recently bought dashcams, but has not installed them yet. Other police departments from other towns, the county, and the state were brought in the first night and are still in place. So please don’t assume that all of the police officers and equipment involved are from Ferguson because most are not.</p>
<p>Some of the police response makes more sense if you understand how St Louis County is governed.</p>
<p>Not the part about shooting an unarmed man multiple times, that won’t ever start making sense.</p>
<p>St Louis city is not part of St Louis county, it is a separate political entity nestled between the county and the river. St Louis county has about 95 separate cities, towns, townships, etc., each with its own mayor, council, aldermen, whatever. About 60 of those, I think, have their own police forces, which may have only a couple of officers. Some of the county is unincorporated, and some of the towns don’t have police forces, so the St. Louis County police have jurisdiction there. Ferguson is one of the larger cities within the county.</p>
<p>The Ferguson police chief asked for the County to investigate the shooting almost immediately, which was the right thing to do. Either the County or the governor or both asked the FBI to step in as well, also a good thing. More eyes on this will help. </p>
<p>The County police have been leading the “peacekeeping” efforts in Ferguson, with help from several dozen of the local departments, including St. Louis City cops, so you have a bunch of people with dissimilar training all working the same area. There are county-wide drills and training programs, but this is still a bunch of officers trying to figure things out. The arrests at McDonald’s should not have happened, and we would not have heard about it if reporters had not been involved. </p>
<p>Back in 2009 the stimulus program begged local police departments to put together wish lists for equipment, and our area worked just as hard to get that federal money and training and cool toys as your areas did, and we got a big pile of it. </p>
<p>DH and I went to game 7 of the 2011 World Series (Spoiler alert: The Cardinals won.) This was just after the Vancouver Stanley Cup riot, and boy was the city of St. Louis prepared. I didn’t know there were that many armored vehicles and riot police in the whole state. There was no riot, but we were ready for one. This equipment is in place, they have been training with it and learning about it, and after the looting that happened the first night no one should be surprised that it is being brought out. </p>
<p>Right now I wish we we would get a couple of solid days of hard rain and thunderstorms to keep everyone indoors, and then maybe we could let the detectives and FBI and prosecutors do their jobs. Keeping a lot of attention on this and making sure no one gets comfortable and complacent will be important, too. </p>
<p>One expert on policing thinks these police are utterly incompetent: “They look like guys playing army.”
<a href=“'They look like guys playing army': an expert on policing in conflict zones talks Ferguson - Vox”>'They look like guys playing army': an expert on policing in conflict zones talks Ferguson - Vox;
<p>Poetsheart, in post18 said “it does appear that some police forces, even in relatively small cities, are as almost as heavily armed and mechanized as our military troops deployed in Iraq, or Afghanistan”</p>
<p>Some experienced military personnel beg to differ, saying the cops in Ferguson are MORE heavily armed: </p>
<p>“We went through some pretty bad areas of Afghanistan, but we didn’t wear that much gear”
<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/08/14/military-veterans-see-deeply-flawed-police-response-in-ferguson/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/08/14/military-veterans-see-deeply-flawed-police-response-in-ferguson/</a></p>
<p>Excerpt:
. . . </p>
<p>“The first thing that went wrong was when the police showed up with K-9 units,” Scriven said. “The dogs played on racist imagery…it played the situation up and wasn’t cognizant of the imagery.”
King added that, instead of deescalating the situation on the second day, the police responded with armored vehicles and SWAT officers clad in bulletproof vests and military-grade rifles.
“I can’t think of a situation where the use of M4 are merited,” Fritz said. “I don’t see it as a viable tactic in any scenario.” </p>
<p>. . .</p>