<p>I am not sure I understand frugaldoctor. Why not just call an attorney if and when you need one? I am an attorney and I would want to make sure that I had the right attorney for the right problem. Issues such as disputes with a landlord, DUI or alleged harassment are all very different things that require different expertise.</p>
<p>Busdriver, I am so sorry for your BIL. It is awful when violence is directed against folks who are just trying to do their job as well as they can, or just minding their own business.</p>
<p>I have always thought officers were our friends and with few exceptions have been proud of the actions of nearly all those I have met. They do the best job they can in very difficult circumstances. Drugs have made their jobs MUCH more dangerous, as they don’t know whether people they encounter are high on something and won’t feel any pain and keep attacking until totally immobilized. This adds to the stress level officers have to deal with.</p>
<p>I am always nervous if I am stopped by an officer, no matter what and even though my encounters with them have mostly been positive and/or benign. I suspect folks who have been given “the talk” to be very cautious around officers and that officers can and do sometimes do very vicious things with little or no provocation would make me MUCH more anxious when stopped by any officer.</p>
<p>I did sit on the bench in traffic court for 4 years and heard a LOT of cases. People of the same race as the officer, people with different races than the officer, everyone had a story to tell about the circumstances as to why they should not have gotten a ticket; it was my job to consider the evidence and rule. It was an interesting time but there didn’t seem to be any overt pattern of racism that I detected, nor any great hostility between the people who received the tickets and the officers who gave them. The officers mostly seemed very earnest and were trying to do their jobs. In our state, we have a ton of different ethnicities–of visitors, residents and law enforcement.</p>
<p>This thread and topic of disparate treatment makes me so sad. The problem is big and hasn’t significantly improved over the decades since I had first heard about it back in the 70s and 80s. I am especially saddened that looting is clouding the picture and diluting the message, making the town and business owners worse off than ever. It makes it tough for the town and the businesses to decide whether they even want to stick around in the area. It always saddens me when violence and looting distract from any growth that we can achieve. </p>
<p>Law enforcement is stymied as they don’t want to escalate the violence and no one wants to be hurt trying to stop the looters. It’s just a bad situation, seems like a lose-lose for the neighborhood.</p>
<p>NO, busdriver, that is not it at all. I WAS feeling sorry for your brother in law (and still do). But when you suggest that any of us would take some sick satisfaction in the race of the criminal that shot him, it’s hard to ignore the insinuation that this is just a game with “wins” and “losses” on each side, and that some of us care more about that than we do about basic human compassion.</p>
<p>As for your traffic tickets, you won’t find a lot of sympathy here. Pretty much every (white) kid I know expects to be ticketed by the (white) cops in our community for frivolous things. That’s what traffic court is for.</p>
<p>My son recently received a stop sign ticket. The rolling stop thing. What he did not receive was the “opportunity” to to be questioned as why he was in this small mostly white town, what he was doing, where he was going, if he had a weapon, if the car he was driving was really his (it was mine). He certainly didn’t have to worry that the officer might see him as a threat, see a movement or think he saw a gun, and shoot him. He simply received a ticket. That’s white privilege and I know it. And HE knows it, because he has been stopped by the police while walking with black friends in our town several times.</p>
<p>@harvestmoon1: I would prefer that my daughter know that any issue minor or big, she has someone to call immediately and not have to call mom or dad. If she has an issue, call the attorney immediately. Yes, this may be overboard. But I would rather be safe and out of a few bucks, than sorry I didn’t plan ahead.</p>
<p>"@busdriver11: I don’t want the police to assume the house is being broken to because a car is parked in the driveway. That was the scenario. Sure, if a person is breaking in (causing damage to enter the house) of course stop them. But not when the only evidence they found was a car parked in the driveway and NO signs of break in. The issue was that I was a person they didn’t expect to live in the area.</p>
<p>My point, and you supported it, is that you can’t always trust the police because some of them will lie. And thus, I have every reason to teach my daughter her rights and have an attorney for her just in case she runs into a crooked cop"</p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t want them to assume that either, @frugaldoctor. I would want them to suspect it if I was breaking a window with a rock (like my husband did once, in his underwear, in the early morning—luckily the neighbor was the only one who saw, and laughed like crazy about it). I would have caused a major commotion about your situation. And I would absolutely teach my child their rights and have a lawyer. I have done the same for my kids, and hired a lawyer when my kid was wrongfully accused of a driving infraction. Even if it was just based upon principal and there were little consequences. People should absolutely do that.</p>
<p>My work puts me around hippies, people who attend rock music festivals. They too get profiled and pulled over for not-much reason. However, they can choose not to put music/political stickers on their cars, cut their hair or wear a hat and generally avoid that. If they’re white. </p>
<p>"NO, busdriver, that is not it at all. I WAS feeling sorry for your brother in law (and still do). But when you suggest that any of us would take some sick satisfaction in the race of the criminal that shot him, it’s hard to ignore the insinuation that this is just a game with “wins” and “losses” on each side, and that some of us care more about that than we do about basic human compassion.</p>
<p>As for your traffic tickets, you won’t find a lot of sympathy here. Pretty much every (white) kid I know expects to be ticketed by the (white) cops in our community for frivolous things. That’s what traffic court is for."</p>
<p>You don’t need to feel sorry for him, sally, he has made the best of it and does not feel sorry for himself in the least. But understand that some of us are related to or have friends in law enforcement, hearing general hatred against them is upsetting. Of course there are some bad ones, just like in any occupation, but I believe that most are good and honorable people. My point about bringing up the traffic tickets is that white people get plenty of what they feel are undeserved tickets also. I figure it’s all about making money for the city.</p>
<p>“I have always thought officers were our friends and with few exceptions have been proud of the actions of nearly all those I have met. They do the best job they can in very difficult circumstances. Drugs have made their jobs MUCH more dangerous, as they don’t know whether people they encounter are high on something and won’t feel any pain and keep attacking until totally immobilized. This adds to the stress level officers have to deal with”</p>
<p>I agree, HImom. They have a very tough job.</p>
<p><a href=“Death of Anthony Baez - Wikipedia”>http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Baez</a></p>
<p>There is a running joke amongst black comediennes. When blacks get pulled over, you must not make eye contact, make sure your tone lacks any form of outrage or indignation, hands on steering wheel, or hands in plain sight, when asked to present ID, tell the officer exactly what you are doing, no sudden moves, the list goes on. </p>
<p>When whites get pulled over, they can question the officer, point in his face, cuss, swear, yell & scream, rip up the ticket, demand the name of the officers superior, show utter disdain for the officer. </p>
<p>I’ve actually seen dash cam footage on some of TV programs that show officers making stops. </p>
<p>It’s hilarious that one population can get away with disrespecting an officer of the law, while another group has to be subservient. </p>
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<p>Where are you getting the “general hatred” thing? My brother-in-law was a cop, too (though now he is a schoolteacher). I have never hated cops and I don’t think most of us here do. (Now, keep in mind that we are not the residents of Ferguson, who seem to have reason for their distrust.)</p>
<p>And I completely agree about the traffic tickets. We all know about “quotas” and have been the victims of them. But I don’t think any of us here who are white have been stopped simply for the color of our skin.</p>
<p>Actually, we have always taught our kids and been taught ourselves to be polite to the officer (or really pretty much anyone in authority) who is trying to do their jobs. Contrition and confusion can help you avoid a ticket or worse. </p>
<p>Belligerence will get your MUCH closer to getting arrested and a stack of tickets. I had one case where the officers were so irritated with the driver that they gave him one ticket for EACH window of his car that was illegally tinted, plus the front and back (total of 6), plus expired safety check and expired registration, plus the speeding ticket they originally pulled him over for.</p>
<p>I don’t think ANYONE should be questioning or cussing or swearing at someone doing their job, especially if they want to have any meaningful discussion or hope for any leniency. It just makes the situation more tense and unpleasant than it needs to be and is a lose-lose. I would much prefer if officers didn’t have to worry about people possibly reaching for weapons or threatening them–that just makes a tough job tougher any way I look at it.</p>
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Are you serious? Why would this story make people feel better?</p>
<p>A local politician was mistaken for an usher. He isn’t black. He was wearing a suit. Had he been black it would be a racial story. I agree about the cop hatred on this thread. Very few posters are willing to give the officer the benefit of the doubt in a situation where all we know is that he had a confrontation with a young man we know was coming from a robbery. But, the cop is definitely the bad guy. And, a killer racist. Well, what if that turns out not to be true? It’s gonna be very bad. </p>
<p>I wish people would stop assuming how the rest of us feel. I DO feel sorry for the cop who shot Michael Brown. He is 28 years old. His acquaintances say he is a nice guy. He has no history of unprovoked aggression. But I also think there are some people drawn to occupations and pastimes involving guns who sometimes respond with undue force in stressful situations. That’s what I think happened here.</p>
<p>A little levity–At our law firm, one of the associates thought the senior partner (who dressed and acted very casually) was an encroaching janitor! They were both different races but both Asian, but both laughed uproariously about the mistake. It was easy to understand her mistake because he wore shorts and casual t-shirts, and went through the office fridge at will, tossing things he felt shouldn’t be there (even when it was people’s expensive Tupperware), sampling things if he thought they looked interesting, etc.</p>
<p>I have been mistaken for a salesclerk many times, especially in stores where it’s difficult to find them. I just laugh it off and don’t get offended. Race generally seems to be less of a hot button issue around our state.</p>
<p>I don’t understand why people are accusing others of bad motives on this thread. I think nearly all of us agreed that the situation at Ferguson is tragic and currently out of control anger spilling out from decades of racial tension. I think if would be good if some positive new steps can come of this and perhaps steps in the town to get more of the black members of the community to join the police force and work with the community.</p>
<p>There is a boo-hoo, poor cop post on here somewhere. And, I’m guessing that sometimes people leaving strong-arm robberies are not real friendly, either. Especially, when a police car pulls up alongside them.</p>
<p>I can’t give the officer any benefit of the doubt because I can’t think of a reason why the last few shots, the ones that killed Brown, could have been justified. Whether Brown was facing the cop or facing away, whether he was running away or stopped, he had no weapon and he was 35 feet away. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, even when our kids qualified for FRL, we couldn’t use it, because it was heavy on sweetened dairy. ( yogurt with waffle sticks for breakfast, bagles w cream cheese for lunch. My kids were wheat/ dairy sensitive)
It didn’t occur to me that their schools would be closed, ours doesn’t open till after Labor Day.
Are the summer programs still running?</p>
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Nor do we have to worry for our safety when we are stopped. </p>