3 ms·

I'm not following you. I've had the police stop me plenty of times in order to ask for my ID and search me. The reasons were bullshit, and as a white kid, it

I'm not following you. I've had the police stop me plenty of times in order to ask for my ID and search me. The reasons were bullshit, and as a white kid, it gave me a little taste of what my black friends have to deal with on a regular basis. It is quite oppressive-feeling, to know you've done nothing wrong while having a cop saying and acting otherwise. That said, I do think you have a point, in that police departments can get disconnected from the communities they serve by becoming too focused on "getting bad guys". I'm a big fan of community-based policing as a result: http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/police/cbp.htm http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/city/police/cbp.htm

alsetmusic 10y ago
To build on that a bit, I also had a number of police encounters when I was younger (a few justified and others that were obvious fishing expeditions). I haven't been stopped or asked for ID in many years, but frequently ponder how various scenarios would play out if I exercised my rights with nothing to hide today. I ask myself at what point standing up for myself becomes a liability. The answer is that I would have to try to read the personality and mood of the officer because many see lawful refusal to display ID or consent to search as evidence that I have something to hide. I base this on personal experience from having sheriffs assert that they smelled marijuana in a car that I'd borrowed from a family member who didn't partake years after I'd stopped smoking (thus, there was no lingering scent and they were waiting for me to make a mistake to reveal some amount of guilt). One of the officers clearly seemed annoyed that I would not consent to a warrantles search and threatened to arrest me and impound my vehicle in order to conduct a search. I called his bluff and was released, but only after ten minutes of attempts to scare me into submission. Officers with the same attitude may also confuse or ignore the limits of their legal authority, as seen when a guy was arrested for burning a flag last week. Others seem genuinely unaware that they cannot require ID at random. In these situations, it's a roll of the dice and a potential night in jail if you won't roll over for them.

alsetmusic 10y ago

To build on that a bit, I also had a number of police encounters when I was younger (a few justified and others that were obvious fishing expeditions). I haven't been stopped or asked for ID in many years, but frequently ponder how various scenarios would play out if I exercised my rights with nothing to hide today. I ask myself at what point standing up for myself becomes a liability. The answer is that I would have to try to read the personality and mood of the officer because many see lawful refusal to display ID or consent to search as evidence that I have something to hide. I base this on personal experience from having sheriffs assert that they smelled marijuana in a car that I'd borrowed from a family member who didn't partake years after I'd stopped smoking (thus, there was no lingering scent and they were waiting for me to make a mistake to reveal some amount of guilt). One of the officers clearly seemed annoyed that I would not consent to a warrantles search and threatened to arrest me and impound my vehicle in order to conduct a search. I called his bluff and was released, but only after ten minutes of attempts to scare me into submission. Officers with the same attitude may also confuse or ignore the limits of their legal authority, as seen when a guy was arrested for burning a flag last week. Others seem genuinely unaware that they cannot require ID at random. In these situations, it's a roll of the dice and a potential night in jail if you won't roll over for them.