...Imprisonment for all and Justice for none

[ADMINISTRATOR]

I feel this needs to be discussed because police misconduct/brutality is really becoming a major undisclosed issue and police misconduct is not merely a problem, it's illegal!

We have no means of fixing the problem. You see, the brothers in blue, almost always get away with their wrong doings. The only time a cop gets nailed is if you have expensive lawyers or its on video camera, and you get it to the television crew and they put pressure on the politicians. Also, your entire family has to take a lie detector test and the results have to get in the newspaper. Unfortunately, sometimes justice is not the goal of the judicial system. So is justice really for all?

Are we really in the land of the free? Or in a land of corruption?

[unoriginal name]

Are we really in the land of the free? Or in a land of corruption?

The land of copruption, maybe! HAHAHAHA!

[Rhekatou]

Are we really in the land of the free? Or in a land of corruption?

The land of copruption, maybe! HAHAHAHA!

Haha, very funny glump *claps sarcastically*

[smartalco]

Stop breaking the law. Then they don't get the chance to be dicks.

[T3chno]

Is it really that hard to wear a seat belt?

[Spawn of Yanni]

Mmhmm, just the other day I saw a black man being denied entry into this one restaurant, and these Jewish folks being burnt alive. Oh, no, wait. I didn't.

You say we see the boys in blue get away with anything these days. But... do we? Or are you getting caught up in videos of Oscar Grant and strange ambulance fiascos?

[MattKestrel]

Honestly, I've never seen anything like this happen outside of a movie or maybe a documentary. Therefore, I consign it to the same level of personal risk as a terrorist attack. The issue seems to be more with media hyping than any real frequency of problems.

[ADMINISTRATOR]

For legal mumbo jumbo I have to say this: Any and all content on this post is in no way intended to be legal advice.

Now that that’s outta the way, I’m sure you don’t see police misconduct on a daily basis, and I have not personally been a victim, but still stuff like this is necessary to discuss sometimes.

I’m sure we’ve all seen or heard of Cops, the show. You can see people get victimized there all the time. Many times, I see how people can legally defend themselves on the spot without a single attorney, even when they are guilty. The problem is most people don’t seem to grasp that they have rights but they don’t know how to use them in a real life situation.

People are wrongfully stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, and even convicted. Many do not know we have the right to answer “No” to an officer. For example, (this is a very basic) if and when a cop stops you for speeding or whatever, and asks “Can I take a look inside your car?” or inside your bag-pack/purse, everyone should by default reply with a simple “No”. When you do that they will 100% ask “Why not?” and you simply need to say “Because I wont allow it”.

However, the loop hole is this. If you’re weaving on the road, or they smell alcohol or weed on you, or see an open container of alcohol, the whole story changes, because at that point the officer has probable cause and at that point they won’t be asking to search your car, instead they will be commanding a search and a sobriety test, in which case you have no choice.

Honestly, laws suck but we need to know them because at the end of the day we all live in a world with corrupted judicial systems (except Mexico, they gave theirs away long ago for tacos).

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

I’m sure we’ve all seen or heard of Cops, the show. You can see people get victimized there all the time. Many times, I see how people can legally defend themselves on the spot without a single attorney, even when they are guilty. The problem is most people don’t seem to grasp that they have rights but they don’t know how to use them in a real life situation.

The exception is when the cops are "old school".

[SkyPanda]

Or when pissing off a cop is not appropriate to the situation, which is always.

[EdoI]

People are wrongfully stopped, searched, arrested, prosecuted, and even convicted. Many do not know we have the right to answer “No” to an officer. For example, (this is a very basic) if and when a cop stops you for speeding or whatever, and asks “Can I take a look inside your car?” or inside your bag-pack/purse, everyone should by default reply with a simple “No”. When you do that they will 100% ask “Why not?” and you simply need to say “Because I wont allow it”.

You're overreacting. You know how many drug dealers and drug addicts would save themselves by doing that? Of course, if I had drugs in my car, I'd simply say "no", and I can go on. On the other side, if I'm 100% clean, he can look inside my car for hours, he won't find anything that would make my budget unstable on any way.

A cop should have right to look inside your car whenever he wants to. Presuming that the cop is a crazy guy that only wants to see you on court is paranoid.

[otters]

A cop should have right to look inside your car whenever he wants to. Presuming that the cop is a crazy guy that only wants to see you on court is paranoid.

Well, strictly speaking, he can't do that without obtaining a warrant (and having due cause) unless he smells marijuana, which has a distinct odor.

[Ampersand]

As obtrusive as it'd be, it would work.

Anyway, I figure I'd either be the best cop or worst cop in history. If I didn't shoot and kill seven people my first day for being belligerent, I think I'd do okay.

[t̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư]

As obtrusive as it'd be, it would work.

There was a Candid Camera-like show where the crew invented a business and hired the mark as a temp to conduct some surveillance. He was supposed to watch a home (via a camera mounted on top of the van) and radio the supervisor when the person in it leaves and drives away. They also had a microphone mounted on top of the van he was in that he could point wherever he wanted. The trick was, they had some actors who were going to start a scene in the house next to the house the mark was watching. It was a loud, dramatic yelling match that involved an affair, and it ended in the two actors having (probably what looked like) sex in front of a window clearly visible from the van. The camera's view was such that watching the house with all the drama left the house the mark was hired to keep an eye on out of the frame.
The first guy was a typical Californian suburbanite. As soon as the drama started happening, he panned over to the scene and observed. He moved back to the house he was supposed to watch a few times, but then ended up watching the drama exclusively. They showed an outside shot of the house he was supposed to be watching, where the light outside turned on, a man got out, turned on his car, and drove off. The guy in the van didn't notice for something like half an hour, and only radio'd his supervisor when he realized the car was gone.
(The next guy was a foreigner, and he switched back to the home he was supposed to watch even though he stayed on the dramatic scene for a bit.)

People who become cops aren't always, or even necessarily often, very different from that first guy. If you could depend on police to be the sort of person that Demonz sarcastically suggested, then a camera in every home would actually be far more okay with me. Well, provided the laws they were enforcing were reasonable, anyway, because that's a completely different issue.

I figure I'd either be the best cop or worst cop in history. If I didn't shoot and kill seven people my first day for being belligerent, I think I'd do okay.

Honestly, I think I'd do a similar job. If I had the authority to do so, I would happily remove the people who can be easily identified as the sort who would only bring pain to the people around them, even if they don't do anything technically illegal. And hell, putting that sort of person in prison will make him even more of an asshole (the name "correctional facility" has got to be some kind of sick fucking joke), make the lives of some more prison guards that much more difficult, and all the while make all the lawful people pay for their food and shelter. Screw that; they simply need to not be in society anymore.

[Vyacheslav]

As an example, I don't think people who get caught with drug abuse should be imprisoned; instead, they should be sent to rehab facilities to help them with their addiction(s).

[ADMINISTRATOR]

if I'm 100% clean, he can look inside my car for hours, he won't find anything that would make my budget unstable on any way.

A cop should have right to look inside your car whenever he wants to.

So you don’t care to have civilian rights? By allowing any search you have everything to lose and nothing to gain. If cops could search whenever, they could go around kicking peoples’ doors and perform unlawful searches. You might as well say you don’t care if they shoot you whenever, and for no reason.

In fact, let's just put cameras in everyone's house so the government can make sure we don't commit any crimes.

Secret cameras are everywhere. Big Brother already spies on citizens and has employed technology to track our every movement. It's all for our own later prosecution.

I would happily remove the people who can be easily identified as the sort who would only bring pain to the people around them, even if they don't do anything technically illegal. And hell, putting that sort of person in prison will make him even more of an asshole (the name "correctional facility" has got to be some kind of sick fucking joke), make the lives of some more prison guards that much more difficult, and all the while make all the lawful people pay for their food and shelter. Screw that; they simply need to not be in society anymore.

I agree, this should apply to repeat offenders, the one's who obviously will never change. I mean, if they can put down "bad dogs" for biting (even once), surely they can put down those animals.

As an example, I don't think people who get caught with drug abuse should be imprisoned; instead, they should be sent to rehab facilities to help them with their addiction(s).

They are given a chance for rehab. The problem is many times addicts end up violating their probation/parole and end up right back in jail, and as Tsukatu pointed out, this costs tax-payers millions, maybe billions each year.

[Atilla]

You're overreacting. You know how many drug dealers and drug addicts would save themselves by doing that? Of course, if I had drugs in my car, I'd simply say "no", and I can go on. On the other side, if I'm 100% clean, he can look inside my car for hours, he won't find anything that would make my budget unstable on any way.

A cop should have right to look inside your car whenever he wants to. Presuming that the cop is a crazy guy that only wants to see you on court is paranoid.

You say he could look in your car for hours without finding anything. Wouldn't you find that irritating? Having someone pull you over and spend several hours going through your stuff and taking down your fuzzy dice and re-arranging all your luggage when you had it stowed perfectly so you could see out the back window properly and you have a plane to catch and you need to be at the airport in a hour damnit and why is he taking so long when there's no reason to believe you actually have drugs in the first place?

It's not even that they're crazy people who want to take you to court, necessarily. I mean, let's say that you and the wife have just come back from a shopping trip and happen to have bondage gear in the boot. A lot of people would find that quite embarrassing and thus find it annoying to have all their stuff searched for no good reason. To say nothing of the potential for discrimination if, for example, you've got LGBT romance novels or a copy of The God Delusion, and the cop is a Christian fundamentalist.

[Drathmoore]

Honestly, I've never seen anything like this happen outside of a movie or maybe a documentary. Therefore, I consign it to the same level of personal risk as a terrorist attack. The issue seems to be more with media hyping than any real frequency of problems.

The reason being is that we live in the UK. Our legal system is the complete opposite; it's too soft. Over here you could probably murder someone and be out within half a year.

...Not that I'm encouraging anyone to try...