XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Protect and Serve? All I See is Bully and Intimidate.

Yet another outrage with regards to how police in this country treat citizens with contempt and disrespect.   The video below was of an incident that began with a traffic stop for a license plate violation. The officer drew his service weapon and pointed it at the head of the man on the ground.   Neighbors were…

Yet another outrage with regards to how police in this country treat citizens with contempt and disrespect.   The video below was of an incident that began with a traffic stop for a license plate violation.

The officer drew his service weapon and pointed it at the head of the man on the ground.   Neighbors were concerned enough to begin filming the debacle.  Notice how the police officer told the witnesses he “didn’t need them there”, as if they haven’t a right to be.   They were interfering not at all with the officer, but were calling the police themselves because of the erratic and dangerous conduct of the officer.

Ask yourselves if you would trust the judgment and temperament of such a police officer in a real crisis, and whether he is upholding the law or instead merely bullying using the power of his badge and gun.   True, we don’t know the entire circumstance of the incident, but it seems extremely unlikely that the officer had reason to unholster.

I have had a police officer draw his weapon on me exactly once, on a routine traffic stop in LA in the late 80s.   He held the pistol at the ready (I could see him in the side mirror), while the other officer wrote the ticket.   (There is no “routine traffic stop” in LA.)  Both officers were nice as you please, pleasant and respectful.    A marked difference from the conduct of the policeman in the video.  This Toledo police officer deserves to find himself being called “the defendant” by a judge.

In Vermont, this right-to-carry state, such a police officer may well end up looking into the muzzle of a pistol himself, and will have earned it.   If he fears for his safety, he should become an accountant.   He sure as hell shouldn’t be a cop.

But, of course,

The police department stands by Hart’s actions…

As usual, our esteemed host is correct.  The militarization of our nation’s police forces is de facto the standing army the founding fathers warned us away from.   There will be more of this, as less restraint is shown by police officers, and individual liberties are increasingly curtailed in the name of “safety” and “compliance”.

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  1. Quartermaster

    That the incident took place in Toledo says it all. It’s the other mistake by the lake in Ohio. Both Cleveland adn Toledo are libtard cesspools. Columbus and Cincy are on the same road.

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  2. Jeff Gauch

    “If he fears for his safety, he should become an accountant.”

    What a profoundly stupid statement. You could say the same in support of restrictive ROE in a combat zone. Cops are people, and people in dangerous situations are going to fear for their safety. When it comes right down to it every cops first priority is to go home at the end of his shift. And that’s perfectly OK. It has to be, because our only alternatives are no cops or robot cops, and I’m not sure which would be worse.

    This is why cops should wear cameras. It’s pretty obvious from his body language that this tub of lard (does the PFT for the Toledo police consist of timed doughnut eating?) doesn’t fear for his safety. Standing over the “threat” while holding his gun one handed doesn’t exactly show respect for danger. So either the guy on the ground is some random shmoe who is only a threat to spiders in his house, or Jiggles here is completely incompetent. And those statements aren’t necessarily exclusive. Of course, there are millions of cops in this country. Even the most selective filter is going to let through a few who qualify for the south end of a north-bound horse. And the internet ensures we will be exposed to each and every one of them.

    As for the militarization of the police, I think that’s driven more by the militarization of the criminal gangs, largely fueled by drug profits. Legalize drugs, force the cartels to compete with the likes of Bayer and Pfizer, and we’ll see the need for SWAT drop dramatically. Or the cartels will take their existing weapons and look for new sources of profit. Probably a bit of both. Regardless, I think we can safely solve the problem by making a federal law stating that any eligible citizen can purchase the same weapons as the police in that jurisdiction. If the cops can have select-fire M4’s, then I can have select-fire M4’s.

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  3. ultimaratioregis

    What is profoundly stupid is for a policeman to be more aggressive and physical with a group of American citizens on a street in Toledo than I was allowed to be driving down a street full of Iraqis where half a dozen ambushes occurred in the last week.

    I don’t care what the cop’s concern is. Mine is the upholding of my rights. Period. If he can’t reconcile the two, he should not be a cop. Protect and serve. Get it? Entering houses without warrants, detaining people without suspicion of a crime, drawing a service weapon and aiming it at someone who had done nothing wrong, those are things I am not willing to live with.

    Yes, there will be knucklehead cops, as no filter is perfect. But to have his department defend his actions tells me that this incident has nothing to do with filters. Drug gangs or no drug gangs.

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  4. Casey Tompkins

    Wonderful. Alternate headline: “Fat, stupid pig makes cops look even worse.”

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  5. Butch

    Of course, some think these are The Only Ones who should be allowed to carry firearms. Because we mere subjects can’t be trusted.

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  6. timactual

    “When it comes right down to it every cops first priority is to go home at the end of his shift.”

    What a profoundly stupid statement. The first priority of the police, like the military, is the mission. If their first priority is to get home safely , then they should indeed find another job which will enable them to do so and still perform their duties in a professional manner.

    As bad as this officer’s behavior and language is when he knows he is being taped, I wonder how bad it is when he has no witnesses.

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  7. Jeff Gauch

    Which is why the military always clears buildings is takes fire from. It never just calls in artillery or an airstrike and moves on. If you keep talking as if cops should gladly sacrifice themselves for your precious comfort, don’t be surprised if they stop caring what you think and close up the blue wall around anyone you accuse of malfeasance. If you want any input into their actions you first have to at least acknowledge they have legitimate concerns.

    Anyway, I thought the militarization of the police was a bad thing?

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  8. Quartermaster

    The Blue Line already closes ranks around anyone accused of criminal actions, or even more minor idiocy. It has long been the world against the Cops as far as they are concerned. People like to say that not all the cops are bad, but how true is it if they close ranks around some idiot as we see in the Vid URR posted? If they were willing to purge their ranks of the scum, then I would not hold them in contempt.

    In a nutshell, they are worthy of the contempt of the rest of eh civilian world because they scoff at the law themselves, and refuse to purge their ranks of the badged thugs in their midst. This guy is nothing but a badged thug. I’m all for taking this guy, and those people that put out the statement of support, to a wall and show them how we treat wolves in our midst.

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  9. ultimaratioregis

    The military are NOT cops, and are in fact forbidden from being cops by Posse Comitatus. Or were you about to lecture me about combat in built-up areas? I got a “go” at that station, thanks.

    If you consider having law enforcement violating the Constitutional rights of the civilians it is there to protect and serve to be mere “comfort”, you are indeed delusional. Dangerously so. My rights, and the rights of others. The very things I pledged my life to support and defend. And I am not about to sacrifice THEM because some half-wit cop is nervous or angry because he acted like an idiot and was called on it.

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  10. OCCD

    “If he fears for his safety, he should become an accountant.” Dumb, ignorant statement. If that was the determining factor, you wouldn’t have any police officers. I was in law enforcement for 37 years (military and civilian), and believe me, we all want to go home to our families at the end of shift. Hopefully unscathed. That being said, do I approve and condone bad or dirty cops? Hell no. I’ll be the first one to help them find the door as they leave, but don’t put all law enforcement in the same category.

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  11. ultimaratioregis

    OCCD,

    Dumb? Ignorant? I don’t think so.

    If in the name of fearing for his safety, a police officer acts like we see in the video above, or worse, in violating the rights of citizens and generally acting like a bully, then he should find another line of work. Period. Too many today act as the officer does in this video, and claim that they have to be so because the streets are unsafe. In reality, however, such claims are merely an excuse to be a bully on a power trip while hiding behind a badge and a weapon.

    What is dumb and ignorant is backing the kind of conduct we see here, and in other places in frighteningly increasing numbers, and then saying “you all want to go home to your families at end of shift”. The murder (yes MURDER) of a Marine in Phoenix was justified using very similar reasoning, as has “no-knock searches” of the wrong house, and arresting and detaining of innocent people “just to be on the safe side”, It’s bullshit. The cops that perpetrate such deserve to be in orange jump suits, and the towns and cities who allow it should have the living hell sued out of them.

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  12. dnice

    Amen ultimaratioregis! Not much else to say after your comment.

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  13. xbradtc

    http://tinyurl.com/lwccmg5

    How many times have we seen similar cases?

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  14. timactual

    ” If you keep talking as if cops should gladly sacrifice themselves for your precious comfort,…”

    Another profoundly stupid statement. Nobody said, or even implied, any such thing. A reasonable degree of care for safety is understandable, but gunning down dogs, innocent bystanders, and anything else that presents even a remote danger is unacceptable. As is treating unarmed women and children as dangerous criminals to be handcuffed, maced, etc. at the slightest sign of unfriendliness.

    It may or may not interest you to know that law enforcement barely makes the top 10 most dangerous jobs in the US (http://criminologycareers.about.com/od/Career_Trends/a/Dangers-In-Criminal-Justice-Careers.htm” ), and some other sources rate it as even less dangerous. Yet somehow you seldom see those with more dangerous jobs, such as refuse and recyclable material collectors, swaggering about demanding admiration and obeisance for their daily trek into the jaws of death. Not to mention the fact that police officers have much better pay and benefits than the other more dangerous jobs.

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