Leslie

Because they can see your movements and they think you're either going for a gun or trying to hide your drugs. Told this by a DPO.

mrken30

This is the best thing to do if the Police officer has had a bad day or has some tension left over from a previous stop.

Logically speak , yes it would be a get your documents ready. However if there was an APB for a black ford focus with similar plates for an armed robbery in the area, you do not want to be seen reaching into the glove box.

Leslie

As long as we allow gun fetishists to control public policy, police have to assume that everybody is armed.

The question is not whether or not police will be willing to go into black neighborhoods in the future. The real question is why in the world would anybody want to be a police officer in a country where any fool who wants to can legally arm themselves with stockpiles of military grade weapons?

I thought that all we would ever need is a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun? Don't cops qualify as 'good guys'.

Pulaski

Correct, which is what I did the only time I was stopped by police, in my car*, right after I got my license out and placed it on the dash in front of the wheel.

* The other time I nearly got away, and I had parked my car, put the club-lock on the wheel, locked the car and was walking away, before the cop found me.

mrken30

Not always. In small towns sometimes it's a family business. Dukes of Hazzard was not that far wrong in some instances.

Sometimes it's personal perspective, shooting a guy 14 times or so because he is throwing rocks is a bit excessive in my eyes, both other people would find it perfectly justified.

Leslie

I was making a point about NRA talking points, not claiming that all police officers are saints.

mrken30

I think the attitude comes from the top, bit like any organization. Also there needs to be discipline in the ranks to keep things in order.

Which reminds me,at my first 4th July parade last week, nobody in my city knows how to march including the police and military. I found that so strange they were all out of step and not marching.

Pulaski

The discipline comes from the courts - officers know that one slip and they will be hauled into court and held to higher standard then they faced out on the street - every decision they took in the heat of the moment is reexamined in the cold light of day. There is a very real risk that they will lose their job, or be pressured into resigning, irrespective of the outcome of their trial. If they are convicted they face a horrible time in prison, held in solitary for their own protection.

For this reason alone (though there are others) I think the notion that there are any measurable number of police officers anywhere in the US who are "out to get" black people, or other minorities, is nonsense.

mrken30

I would say rank/self discipline comes more from the day to day running of the force rather than the courts. Smart uniforms, polished shoes and a tidy hair cut would do for starters.Rather than t-shirts,trainers and a military crop. It should start in basic training before an officer even has to think about attending court.

WA state tried changing the malice part of the law for Police officers unsuccessfully.

mrken30

I have quite a lot of interaction with the police. Atleast once a month I have meetings with the Police. I have completed the local police academy and have been on ride alongs.

I base my opinion on personal experience and the media. I also have friends in the UK police, but that is very different.

My experience of poor people is much more limited. My wife, however has had a lot more interaction and I go by her stories and opinions. What do you base your knowledge of poor and black people?

mrken30

I din't know people still used club-locks. I thought they were pretty much redundant these days with the newer immobilizers.

Gordon Barlow

Here's an interesting warning from outside the US, reflecting the perceived "DWB" danger.
Bahamas issues travel advisory to citizens travelling to US, young males asked to exercise extreme caution | News | Jamaica Gleaner

Pulaski

I am not "people" .... and the car was only a 2003. And it might not be "necessary" but I like the visual deterence.

Pulaski

There's no need for "extreme caution", merely avoiding sudden movements and doing only and exactly as requested in a traffic stop is sufficient.

markonline1

Which is correct.

I remember my mate in the UK telling me about his old man being pulled for speeding in Florida. He got out of the car to talk to the cop, which isn't an unusual reaction back home, to find himself with his hands on the bonnet and a gun pointed at him LOL.

Half my family back home are cops. They have to deal with the dregs of society on a daily basis, and I feel the dregs are dreggier and more violent here. The cops really do have a thankless task. That being said, the stories that have surfaced this week have been extremely disturbing!!