(no subject)

[theweaselking]

From Michael Paladin:

A fast food restaurant cashier in Dayton, Ohio, found that it doesn’t help to be right when you’re dealing with police thugs. The cashier took an order from a cop at the drive-thru window. She gave him change for a ten, but the cop claimed he gave her a twenty. The manager confirmed that there wasn’t even a twenty in the register, but the cop came in behind the counter, pepper sprayed the cashier, and arrested her. Analysis of the tape confirms that the cashier was right, and the cop was wrong. Naturally, the cop was cleared of any wrongdoing, but the cashier was paid $60,000 in damages.

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I often wonder why so many Americans are terrified of cops. Then I see things like this and I remember that police in the USA really aren't anything like Canadian cops - there's a deep cultural difference in how they're perceived, how they're treated, and the type of people who get into grunt-level copdom.

It doesn't help that she's ignorant and combative, but he's not supposed to be. It's his JOB to act with more sanity and self-restraint than a fast food clerk.

Comments

[pope-guilty.livejournal.com]

I'm on the same side as you here- I'm not saying that saying someone's under arrest constitutes a lawful arrest. I'm saying that the justice system is horrifyingly corrupt and that it protects cops, even when they are unjust and brutal.

[winterkoninkje.livejournal.com]

It's not so much that the justice system is corrupt (though that may also be the case), but rather that police departments are a brotherhood and so they often take a tactic of protecting (and judging) their own. If the cops aren't willing to give the necessary evidence to the courts, the courts don't have very much recourse unless they do something drastic (like calling in the national guard). Not saying that's much better, but it's a bit different.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

That's sadly the case I've seen too often. The police look after their own no matter what the police have done and juries nearly always blindly believe the police no matter what.

There's not much the courts can do against rogue police unless some good police step in