I have a confession to make. While I am always openly pleasant and polite to police (for reasons of self-preservation), I hold extremely antagonistic opinions about most police. I understand they have tough jobs, but more often than not, my experiences have been that when you introduce police into a benign situation, their attitudes and behaviors are what makes the situation worse.
If you want an example of the thug-like mentality of many police, I suggest you check out this website and watch this shocking video.
And, as Richard Bennett notes, the Supremes have now made it illegal for Hiibel to refuse to provide identification.
JohnO
Let’s ask, “How could this situation have been avoided?” From the police perspective, they had a call about possible domestic violence, so they came upon the scene to begin the investigation. The only problem I saw (with the beginning) is that the suspect asked what he was being investigated for, but the officer refused to tell him. However, instead of complying with a simple request, the suspect started acting like a complete asshole. From the police perspective, there is the refusal of a potential suspect to identify himself. Maybe he has prior arrests or outstanding warrents. How are the police to know? If the suspect had simply given him his i.d. (assuming there was nothing for him to hide), he could have potentially avoided or diffused the whole situation.
As far as the daughter, yes the video makes the police to look like big thugs. But again, put yourself into the shoes of the police. They are coming upon a potential domestic VIOLENCE scene, they are trying to deal with an uncooperative and argumentitive person, and then another unknown rushes from the truck. The police look bad because she turned out to be an emotional teenager who was upset that her father was being arrested. But what if she had a gun? Then we’d be talking about some injured or dead officers.
The point is, the officers aren’t precognizant. I know there are a lot of policemen out there who act like jerks because they can, but others are simply trying to get home alive each night from a dangerous job.
John Cole
JohnO- IF thepolice had told him why he was there, then maybe he would have been cooperative.
However, the cop was being a coy asshole, and refused to tell him why he needed to see his id.
If I were standing there, minding my own business, and a cop told me he wanted to see id “just because,” I would have done the same thing.
RagePundit
There’s ways to compensate….burn these cops out of their homes, or shoot one of their children, if they have any.
Then they’ll maybe learn a lesson…