Police are not on your side, don't ask them for help

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah, single surest way to piss off every cop in the state, if not the entire country, is to kill one of them. Although to hear Jack Webb say it, that's partly because you've already demonstrated you're willing to kill an armed officer, so as far as they know you've got no compunction about killing unarmed civilians.

Plus, it means that they have to be very alert and careful when dealing with such a person, just to protect their own lives. They know quite well a cop-killer would kill them, so they will be watching him like a hawk and trying to beat him to the punch if he tries anything... which means they're more likely to think he's trying something, and more likely to react with deadly force if they do think so.

[Borgholio]

Just thought I should post this. Officer shoots elderly man after mistaking his cane for a shotgun.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow ... z2wJh2ZfMp

Quoting the relevant portion of the article:

“You do not exit your vehicle and go meet the police officer,” Bryant said. "You do no do that. There's no law against it -- you can -- but the police officer is going to give you some strict orders."

A few things I personally pulled away from the video and the article.

1. The officer's marksmanship is god-fucking-awful if he unloaded his clip and only scored one hit at that range. It's very lucky for the victim, but what if a stray shot his the man's wife who was sitting in the truck just a couple feet away?

2. Although the officer was showing remorse later when he realized his mistake, it could easily have been fatal. He panicked, failed to tell the difference between a cane and a shotgun despite (what it appears to me) to be adequate lighting, and opened fire wildly.

3. We should not expect him to be severely punished for almost murdering someone due to several mistakes in a row. At worst, he'll probably be fired.

4. As quoted above, this is a perfect example of why you should NOT leave your vehicle unless the officer specifically requests it. This should be added to driver training for everybody as a mandatory lesson.

[Ziggy Stardust]

I looked like I was probably in high school, and from what I've heard a lot of police like to target young kids for traffic citations to teach them a lesson or something.

Cops in more affluent suburban areas are infamous for picking on high school age kids, or people that look young. The town I grew up in was solidly middle class to upper middle class (and, actually, down by the water were some legitimately rich people - actor Jason Isaacs lived there, briefly, while filming "Brotherhood" nearby). Anyway, the cops there had literally nothing to do with their time, but a gigantic budget (what a fucking waste of money it was, the department being bought giant armored Humvee "mobile command centers" just to bust under-21s), and were notorious douchebags.

Three incidents in which I was personally involved while in high school:
1) A friend of mine (who was 18) had an apartment that he always hosted parties at. Police show up on a noise complaint, proceed to break several bottles and some kid's hookah (as in, picked it up and threw it as hard as they could against the ground), then telling the kids to clean up and get the fuck out. They acted like a couple of frat guys hazing pledges or something.
2) I was driving home after a night of being the designated driver, making sure my friends got home safe after a party. I stopped in a gas station on the way home to get something to drink. Some drunk pulling out of the parking lot smashed the side of my car and drove off. There was even a big smear of white paint (on my dark blue car). I, naturally, filed a police report and everything. About two weeks later, I get called to come into the police station, where I get accused of filing a false police report. They claimed that they had consulted the security cameras and decided that my car hadn't been hit at that gas station, but that I had been drunk and hit a car somewhere else and pulled into that gas station after. They said they would dismiss the charges if I gave them information about drug dealers at the school. I refused, naturally, and my parents agreed that was the right move. I won't go through the whole charade that followed, but it came out in court that the police had been lying - the gas station's security footage had never been consulted at all. Of course, I still had to serve community service, because the judge decided to side with the cops anyway (and my family decided a few hours of community service was better than the hassle and money of a more protracted legal dispute).
3) This actually happened to me when I was back visiting my hometown after college, at the age of 22. A friend and I were parked in a parking lot by a soccer field smoking cigarettes and talking. A police car rolls up - which in and of itself is fine, I can see why they would want to check us out make sure everything was kosher. Two cops get out, one shines his flashlight in our faces and asks us what we are doing, the other is looking around the parking lot. The second cop shines his light into some bushes, where there are some visibly rusted remains of cans (as in, too rusted to even tell if they had been beer or soda cans). Immediately, they ask if the cans are ours and accuse us of drinking, and since we had a car of DUI. When they checked our IDs and saw we were 22, they just grumbled and left.

There's also the time a friend of mine was pushed against his hood and patted down because the cop had seen tic-tacs in the cup holder (not loose tic tacs that could be mistaken for pills, mind you, but a labelled plastic container of tic-tacs).

So, yeah, bored cops in suburban areas can be huge dicks for no reason, and especially look to harass kids.

[Borgholio]

So, yeah, bored cops in suburban areas can be huge dicks for no reason, and especially look to harass kids.

The city of Santa Ana, CA raised holy hell a few years back when it became public that Irvine police were picking up homeless people and dropping them off across the city line in Santa Ana just to get rid of them. They really were THAT bored.

[RogueIce]

Orange and white, but yeah, they were. Honestly if I was a cop, I'd peg them as hammered just for doing this. Hey KS (or anybody), is that legitimate probable cause for a traffic stop?

I was riding in the back of a buddy's car when we got pulled over by a state trooper because he was weaving a bit (we were talking and Nick, the driver, got distracted). First words out of the trooper's mouth after asking for license and registration was whether Nick had been drinking (he hadn't been, so the trooper shook his finger at us and sent us on our way). So, yes, driving in a way that makes you look intoxicated is definitely probable cause.

I was asking specifically about slowing way down when a Crown Vic that is not a marked cop car gets behind you, not general intoxicated-looking behavior like weaving; sorry if that was unclear.

Driving too slow is a reason to stop somebody (Unsafe Speed, Impeding Traffic or something similar, IIRC) so yes, they could potentially be stopped for that. Interstates tend to have a definite minimum speed limit posted, but you can be stopped and potentially ticketed even on regular surface streets. For instance, Florida's law has this:

316.183 Unlawful speed.—

(5) No person shall drive a motor vehicle at such a slow speed as to impede or block the normal and reasonable movement of traffic, except when reduced speed is necessary for safe operation or in compliance with law.