Strange happenings last night.

[roberth]

When I call the cops, I just show my white privilege card and they let me go. :shrugs:

Hell, they let me drive and run the siren.

[cstone]

I won't take sides but here us a very popular YouTube video titled Don't Talk to Cops...
https://youtu.be/i8z7NC5sgik

That video should be titled; Don't Talk to Cops without consulting with a lawyer first. Preferably you should have a lawyer present while answering questions.

I firmly believe that this is usually good advice, although in the OP's example, since he chose not to call the police, no lawyers were necessary.

Life is seldom so very black and white and most of us can't tell one shade of gray from another.

[vectorsc]

I couldn't agree more. And as you said, there is an overall opportunity cost to not calling the cops. These people are obviously douchebags to be touching off a round in the neighborhood as a result of what was probably a drug fueled dumbass-fest. And it would be nice to give the cops a shot at them. That said, no need to call your lawyer at 1am.

That video should be titled; Don't Talk to Cops without consulting with a lawyer first. Preferably you should have a lawyer present while answering questions.

I firmly believe that this is usually good advice, although in the OP's example, since he chose not to call the police, no lawyers were necessary.

Life is seldom so very black and white and most of us can't tell one shade of gray from another.

[osok-308]

Im glad the both of you understand my position on this. No thats not sarcasm.

If you arent involved in a crime but merely witness it yes you should have some concern that calling the police to respond may have negative consequences for you.

Examples from this very situation:

"So you had a gun you said. Lets go collect that to make sure you werent the one firing."

"Do you mind if we search your entire house looking for a bullet hole?"

"Did you know that some random law among the 262,517 ordinances that apply to you is in violation here?"

And im glad for those of you who dont feel that inviting the police in and inviting in trouble are one in the same - it means you haven't had the bad experiences with that one guy on the force every good cop desparately wishes they could fire.

This is all avoided from calling the police non-emergent line and saying " I live in the xxxx block of xxxxx Street. I heard an argument and what sounded like a gunshot. here is a description of the car. i wish to remain anonymous." Cops get calls all the time from people who refuse to give their name or any further contact information. Example of how to call the cops and not have your life intruded on. You don't HAVE to mention that you have a gun for your self-protection.

Most police aren't out to punish the average Joe for BS small things. Every cop I've ever met wanted to get bad guys (people who hurt other people for no reason) off of the streets.

[fportmen45]

This is all avoided from calling the police non-emergent line and saying " I live in the xxxx block of xxxxx Street. I heard an argument and what sounded like a gunshot. here is a description of the car. i wish to remain anonymous." Cops get calls all the time from people who refuse to give their name or any further contact information. Example of how to call the cops and not have your life intruded on. You don't HAVE to mention that you have a gun for your self-protection.

Most police aren't out to punish the average Joe for BS small things. Every cop I've ever met wanted to get bad guys (people who hurt other people for no reason) off of the streets.

This. With my previous example, as an example, the cops came into my home, did their thing & left. I was armed, my wife was armed - did they care? Nope. Were we taping it on our phones threatening to put it on youtube while adjusting our tinfoil hats? Nope. Were they very reassuring? Yup. Did they offer home protection advice? Yup. Last, but not least, were they totally professional? Yup.

[beast556]

This. With my previous example, as an example, the cops came into my home, did their thing & left. I was armed, my wife was armed - did they care? Nope. Were we taping it on our phones threatening to put it on youtube while adjusting our tinfoil hats? Nope. Were they very reassuring? Yup. Did they offer home protection advice? Yup. Last, but not least, were they totally professional? Yup.

Thank you for sharing your little story with us. To bad we dont live in a perfect world and all interactions go this well all the time.

Let me share my storie of the first LE interaction I had. My brother and I were walking to school I was in 6th grade and my brother was in 5th. Two cop cars come screeching to a hault female officer grabs me and male officer grabs my brother and throws him to the ground starts kicking him and then gets down and starts chokeing him, yelling confess to me now and this will be over. After about two minutes wich in kid time felt like an eternity. I hear over the radio we have suspect in custody. Female cop told me if you say anything about this she would put us in jail and they got in there cars and took off. We were scared to death and never told any one it shook bolth of us to the core. The look on my brothers face is burned in to my memory, sheer terror. Every interaction that I have ever had with law enforcement has been negative.

[fportmen45]

Thank you for sharing your little story with us. To bad we dont live in a perfect world and all interactions go this well all the time.

Let me share my storie of the first LE interaction I had. My brother and I were walking to school I was in 6th grade and my brother was in 5th. Two cop cars come screeching to a hault female officer grabs me and male officer grabs my brother and throws him to the ground starts kicking him and then gets down and starts chokeing him, yelling confess to me now and this will be over. After about two minutes wich in kid time felt like an eternity. I hear over the radio we have suspect in custody. Female cop told me if you say anything about this she would put us in jail and they got in there cars and took off. We were scared to death and never told any one it shook bolth of us to the core. The look on my brothers face is burned in to my memory, sheer terror. Every interaction that I have ever had with law enforcement has been negative.

Your solution to the current climate? What did your parents do?

EDIT: "Thank you for sharing your little story with us." Belittling and again speaks volumes about the gang mentality.

[osok-308]

Thank you for sharing your little story with us. To bad we dont live in a perfect world and all interactions go this well all the time.

Let me share my storie of the first LE interaction I had. My brother and I were walking to school I was in 6th grade and my brother was in 5th. Two cop cars come screeching to a hault female officer grabs me and male officer grabs my brother and throws him to the ground starts kicking him and then gets down and starts chokeing him, yelling confess to me now and this will be over. After about two minutes wich in kid time felt like an eternity. I hear over the radio we have suspect in custody. Female cop told me if you say anything about this she would put us in jail and they got in there cars and took off. We were scared to death and never told any one it shook bolth of us to the core. The look on my brothers face is burned in to my memory, sheer terror. Every interaction that I have ever had with law enforcement has been negative.

I am truly sorry if this was an interaction that you had with police. I'm assuming that since your experience happened when you were in 6th grade, that this was probably upwards of 20 years ago (correct me if I'm wrong). I sincerely hope that the actions of a select few didn't make you dislike/distrust all cops, I mean, that's what the anti-gunners do to gun owners all the time (like every time that a mass shooting happens). Don't let the actions of a select few cause you to distrust them all. Most police that I know would never do anything like the story that you mentioned above. There are also mandatory reporting laws, where if a LEO uses excessive force, it MUST be reported within 24 hours. If not, those police will lose their jobs.

[cstone]

Thank you for sharing your little story with us. To bad we dont live in a perfect world and all interactions go this well all the time.

Let me share my storie of the first LE interaction I had. My brother and I were walking to school I was in 6th grade and my brother was in 5th. Two cop cars come screeching to a hault female officer grabs me and male officer grabs my brother and throws him to the ground starts kicking him and then gets down and starts chokeing him, yelling confess to me now and this will be over. After about two minutes wich in kid time felt like an eternity. I hear over the radio we have suspect in custody. Female cop told me if you say anything about this she would put us in jail and they got in there cars and took off. We were scared to death and never told any one it shook bolth of us to the core. The look on my brothers face is burned in to my memory, sheer terror. Every interaction that I have ever had with law enforcement has been negative.

I'm sorry that happened to you and your brother. I assume this happened many years ago, but if it is within 20 years, the officers are likely still working in that same department. Ever check on them to see if they are still there?

As was mentioned earlier, no one wants bad officers to leave the profession more than good officers. Do good officers sometimes to bad things? You betcha. Do bad officers do good things? Occasionally. It isn't like there is a schedule that decides whether an individual officer will be bad or good on any given week, shift, call. Sometimes while in the pursuit of a good end, bad decisions are made and innocent people are hurt. That is what your situation sounds like to me.

When you say that every interaction you have ever had with law enforcement has been negative, I don't know how many interactions you are writing about, but often when I look a problem, I try to remove variables to isolate the source of the problem. If a person has 100 encounters with 100 different police officers. If all 100 of those negative encounters involving 100 different police officers are under different circumstances, how likely is the probability that the person encountered 100 different bad police officers on 100 different occasions? I hope you can see where I'm going with this.

I've said this to my kids, and I've said it to people I've supervised; most of life is about mental attitude. You have no control over the mental attitude of others but when you focus, you should have control over your own attitude. You can allow people to push your buttons and get from you what they want, or you can choose how you want to react or not to others. Your choice. We all are responsible for our actions. We all have choices on what we do.

Be safe.

[osok-308]

When you say that every interaction you have ever had with law enforcement has been negative, I don't know how many interactions you are writing about, but often when I look a problem, I try to remove variables to isolate the source of the problem. If a person has 100 encounters with 100 different police officers. If all 100 of those negative encounters involving 100 different police officers are under different circumstances, how likely is the probability that the person encountered 100 different bad police officers on 100 different occasions? I hope you can see where I'm going with this.

It's like I heard growing up:

If Bill has a problem with Joe, Steve, and Craig, maybe Joe, Steve, and Craig aren't the problem.