CNN has put the Police Report on the arrest of the University of Florida student who was tased online.
It is quite possible to see on video everything that happened. Yet the police are trying to lay a felony rap on the guy for *resisting arrest.* And the reason given for the arrest - that he "was inciting a riot."
We need the police for social protection, but here is a basic truth. Some policemen and women lie like they breathe.
Even when, as in this case, they know there is a video of their actions, they cannot help themselves.
2 comments:
First off, there are few things more annoying than a person at a lecture asking an extremely stupid question, which is exactly what that kid was asking.
I do think felony charges are too much, but the idiotic kid was making an ass out of himself and did deserve to be taken out by force. He was creating a disturbance by refusing to cooperate with police and from that point forward he was trespassing after being told to leave. What the cops should have done was just cuff him, take him outside and have him cool-off. Tasing, I think, was going too far.
I also think that this kid, from the getgo, was wanting to make a scene like this and the cops just made his job easier by tasing him. If they would have jut took him outside and had him get into a police car to cool off, or taking him to jil if he did not cool off, this would not have the media coverage that it now has and this kid wouldn't be overglorified like what is happening now.
He did deserve to be taken outside and go to jail, he did not need to get tased and he should not face felony charges.
What's funny is the Senator advised the police to let him finish and that he would answer the questions. Are the police really above taking orders from our democratically elected "leaders?" I'm not trying to slice semantics of local, university, and federal authority, its a simple matter of respecting authority. If the questioner should respect authority, the police also need to remember they are not the final authority just because they are trusted to use violence when necessary in extreme cases of danger.
Some people never have a problem with police. Some people like me get pulled over for riding my bike in my own neighborhood at night "because its illegal to operate a bicycle after sundown with a front headlight." I've been stopped a half mile from my house because my temporary tag was in my back window and the cop was accusing me of stealing my own guitar and amplifier. After an hour of being harassed, threatened, and detained, he asked me why I was out seven minutes past curfew.
The last time I got pulled over for having an expired tag, the cop told me the "good news" was that he saved $100 on his car insurance. The "bad news" was that having a backup copy of my driver's license is a criminal offense and I'd have to go to court and this would be on my record as a criminal conviction punishable with up to 30 days in jail, a $500 fine, and 1 year of a suspended license..
But like Halsall said, some ridiculous number of cases are dealt with before trial and unless you get a lawyer you're pretty much guilty.
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