Quote Originally Posted by theGinsue View Post
there is a certain amount of leniency provided to the LE community to make it increasingly uncomfortable for you to refuse to cooperate.
I had to address this because this is, how do they say, hitting the nail on the head. Kev will probably agree with me here, as would any of our LEOs, that while society and precedence can influence LEO behavior- not to mention policy instituted by higher ranking administration- the line between non-cooperation and standing up for your rights has been blurred quite a bit over the years. I've seen it, experienced it, and heard about it. It's very sad, and in a case like this- police trying to locate a fleeing suspect- I fear that the doors open for abusive tactics to be employed when tensions are running high. I would hope that we as a society would wake the hell up and see these transgressions and aid in "pumping the brakes" so that cops don't get themselves in trouble.

Moreover, on the flip side, we do not want to "pussify" our LEOs by putting a bunch of barriers in the way so that they question their actions in a hostile situation. As the Army taught me, hesitation can kill you, but that correlates quite differently to civilian law enforcement. I guess my point is that it's become so commonplace that in a high stress situation, like the one in this case, many don't stop and think if their rights are being violated and simply comply with toeing the line of constitutional rights tactics. I'm not saying the PD blatantly violated rights, they were under a lot of stress and on edge because of the circumstances and maybe used a little too aggressive options in trying to locate the suspect. Hopefully in the future, if, as Ginsue put it best, they didn't have a clear sight or exact location of the suspect, they would recognize a lack of need for use of such tactics. Of course there probably isn't going to be much backlash so we can all chalk this one up to setting a new precedence.