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When I put myself in the place of the constable, he seemed to be calm and polite. I understand how frustrating it is when you are trying to do your job and peop

When I put myself in the place of the constable, he seemed to be calm and polite. I understand how frustrating it is when you are trying to do your job and people won't cooperate. That is not the question. The assertion is that the lady was terrified, the constable failed to acknowledge this, and failed to act appropriately. The constable doesn't seem like a raging racist to me. That makes this video even more important to learn from. Let me recap. 1. The car was not moving. 2. It was dark. 3. The constable thinks the window is too tinted, but it's hard to tell in the dark. 4. The lady doesn't want to be handled by police. 5. The constable agrees to get a woman officer on site, but is suspicious about the civilian's failure to cooperate. 6. The constable is irritated about being defied. 7. The officer chooses not to wait 10 minutes for the lady officer to arrive. The end result is a confrontation between a civilian and police officers, then somebody jailed for legally tinted windows. I am not black. I cannot completely put myself in the woman's place. But I don't have to do that to see problems here. 1. Making an issue of a parked car with possibly tinted windows after dark is a clear fishing expedition. It doesn't have to be racially motivated to be wrong. 2. De-escalate. De-escalate. De-escalate. Just chill for 10 minutes and let the lady officer show up. While you're waiting, ask the woman about the weather, if she's done anything interesting that day. Did she pay to have the windows tinted? Small talk. Build some rapport. Maybe even just outline a bit of what is going to happen when the lady officer does show up. If the constable was suspicious about the tinting, the most he would have expected was to write a citation. But he was prepared from the very beginning to smash windows and detain by force if necessary. Why would that be necessary? Why was there some expectation of that from the outset? The fellow seems nice. He seems polite. He seems very suspicious. He acts suspicious. He escalates when he is defied. There's no real way around it. He picked a fight. That's not nice. I can totally see myself mishandling this situation. To me, that makes it a great video to pick apart and study inside and out to learn from. Lesson #1: Why did you approach the car in the first place? What was your true suspicion? What was your real intent? Be honest. This is really, really important. Getting this answer right really, really matters.

vidarh 6y ago
I think this is spot on. It's not that this officer need to have gone after her for being black. The big issue is that he just simply can not comprehend - as he indicates from the start - why she would be afraid of the police if she hasn't done anything wrong. And then everything goes downhill once he's made the decision not to believe that she's actually scared, and interprets everything in that light. Unfortunately this problem self-amplifies - this woman got one more reason to be afraid of the police, and this story gives other people reasons to be afraid of the police, and the only way to deal with that is for the police to learn to deal with that fear. What people also seem to forget is that irrespective of racism, police needs to be able to deal with people who get panic attacks or have mental health issues or are intoxicated all the time. If they can not understand that someone might be genuinely in panic without being a criminal, and acting accordingly, the racism or not those officers will treat innocent people in ways they don't deserve.
randompwd 6y ago
The car was stopped by police while she was driving (other aticles mention it was a hard stop- cop car pulled in front of her) > Just chill for 10 minutes Not an option AT ALL. Chill outside the vehicle is what was offered to her, she refused Once stopped, that woman is in police custody. If anything happens her or she injures herself whilst in police custody, it is a MASSIVE deal. As the officer knows nothing about this woman other than she is refusing to engage, he had reason to believe she may have something in the car which was of danger to the woman herself or others. This may be something as benign as a bag of drugs which she then chokes on. Ridiculous as it sounds, that's why policies and procedures are put in place. At the end of the day, coppers on the street who interact with the public everyday are much more attuned to peoples behaviour than armchair experts on the internet.
- freeopinion 6y ago
  It is ridiculous to claim that the woman is safer outside of her vehicle than inside. Outside her vehicle she doesn't benefit from the HEPA air filter of her car. She could get bitten by a stray dog. She could step on the needle of a careless drug user. She could be struck by a frisbee. See how stupid it is to make dumb hypotheticals? Here's a not-so-hypothetical. She could get in a physical confrontation with a police officer. It seems incredible that anyone would argue she is safer outside her car than inside her car. There is no reason for her to have to get out of her car. If the window is too tinted, write the citation. If the vehicle is unfit for the road, let her call a tow truck or a friend with a trailer without getting out of her car until she feels safe. You write that is sounds ridiculous. That is because it IS ridiculous. That is why policies and procedures are put in place? Coppers on the street are not the only people who interact with the public everyday. When their policies and procedures are ridiculous, they should not get a free pass. Here's a thought experiment for you. Imagine the officer was a librarian instead. A librarian with lots of experience interacting with the public. Imagine that the suspected infraction was an overdue or ruined book. Do the policies and procedures still make sense? Does the officer's behavior still make sense?

vidarh 6y ago

I think this is spot on. It's not that this officer need to have gone after her for being black. The big issue is that he just simply can not comprehend - as he indicates from the start - why she would be afraid of the police if she hasn't done anything wrong. And then everything goes downhill once he's made the decision not to believe that she's actually scared, and interprets everything in that light. Unfortunately this problem self-amplifies - this woman got one more reason to be afraid of the police, and this story gives other people reasons to be afraid of the police, and the only way to deal with that is for the police to learn to deal with that fear. What people also seem to forget is that irrespective of racism, police needs to be able to deal with people who get panic attacks or have mental health issues or are intoxicated all the time. If they can not understand that someone might be genuinely in panic without being a criminal, and acting accordingly, the racism or not those officers will treat innocent people in ways they don't deserve.

randompwd 6y ago

The car was stopped by police while she was driving (other aticles mention it was a hard stop- cop car pulled in front of her) > Just chill for 10 minutes Not an option AT ALL. Chill outside the vehicle is what was offered to her, she refused Once stopped, that woman is in police custody. If anything happens her or she injures herself whilst in police custody, it is a MASSIVE deal. As the officer knows nothing about this woman other than she is refusing to engage, he had reason to believe she may have something in the car which was of danger to the woman herself or others. This may be something as benign as a bag of drugs which she then chokes on. Ridiculous as it sounds, that's why policies and procedures are put in place. At the end of the day, coppers on the street who interact with the public everyday are much more attuned to peoples behaviour than armchair experts on the internet.

freeopinion 6y ago
It is ridiculous to claim that the woman is safer outside of her vehicle than inside. Outside her vehicle she doesn't benefit from the HEPA air filter of her car. She could get bitten by a stray dog. She could step on the needle of a careless drug user. She could be struck by a frisbee. See how stupid it is to make dumb hypotheticals? Here's a not-so-hypothetical. She could get in a physical confrontation with a police officer. It seems incredible that anyone would argue she is safer outside her car than inside her car. There is no reason for her to have to get out of her car. If the window is too tinted, write the citation. If the vehicle is unfit for the road, let her call a tow truck or a friend with a trailer without getting out of her car until she feels safe. You write that is sounds ridiculous. That is because it IS ridiculous. That is why policies and procedures are put in place? Coppers on the street are not the only people who interact with the public everyday. When their policies and procedures are ridiculous, they should not get a free pass. Here's a thought experiment for you. Imagine the officer was a librarian instead. A librarian with lots of experience interacting with the public. Imagine that the suspected infraction was an overdue or ruined book. Do the policies and procedures still make sense? Does the officer's behavior still make sense?