White cops harass and pepper spray Black Army Lieutenant in Windsor, VA

Anonymous
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Anonymous wrote:This idiot failed repeatedly to follow basic commands. The cops did sctew up at times ny giving conflicting commands.


He was pepper sprayed while calmly sitting in his car, with his hands outside the window, just after asking why he was being detained. That is indefensible.


He had been sitting there arguing with the cops for a good long while by that point.

He had every opportunity to not be an idiot, and at each decision point chose idiot.

If you don't want a tense confrontation with the cops, obey directions, don't argue, don't resist.


Was the smart thing to reach to his waist and unbuckle his seatbelt? I would be scared. At least with his hands out of the car, he made sure he was not a threat.

They never even bothered to tell him why they were pulling him over. If they had, he could say "there's a license plate in my window."


Like someone else said, Philando Castile did that and he's dead.

Yes, since they were telling him to do that. Imagine if he had just announced he was undoing his seat belt, done so, opened the door, and gotten out slowly with his hands in view. It isn't complicated nor difficult.

Arguing with the cops is stupid.

You don't know what they think they are doing. You may be innocent. Maybe the cops have the wrong guy...but if the guy they are looking for just shot some people, they are going to be ready for the worst.

So lose the attitude. Don't play lawyer and tell the cops what they are allowed to direct you to do. (Especially when you are wrong. ) Don't argue. Don't resist them.

Just do as directed, slowly, and keep your hands in view.



Like someone else said, Philando Castile did that and he's dead.


So it's a good idea to disobey lawful police orders because the cop in the Philando Castile case screwed up? I love reading these LE threads which contain dozens of idiotic comments from DCUM morons with absolutely no LE training or experience.

A big part of the problem is that the big cop just doesn't get it. The other problem is that most cops are afraid to fight people because they have become dependent on using tazers for the last 15 years.


The point is that it doesn't matter. You can do everything right, and a trigger happy bully can still murder you and call it your fault.

There was no freaking reason to fight here. The man had his hands out the window and was asking questions. Open your mouth and talk to him like a freaking human being.

For too long cops have been on the wrong side of history when it came to treatment of Black people and respect for their rights. Now, in this supposed post racial era where Black people are supposedly equal, we're all just supposed to forget how things were as recently as our parents lifetimes.

Black people don't trust police and they are rightfully terrified. We've done absolutely NOTHING to address the sins of the past, NOTHING to reform police forces that a mere generation ago were hosing down black children with fire hoses and attacking them with dogs. And yall want to act like everything would be okay if we just properly submit to your authority??? Come on. Get real!! Nothing will change until police acknowledge THEIR responsibility in all of this. You have an entire race of people that do not trust you and for damn good reasons.


Yes, you’re right. You can do everything right and still get shot. But that is extremely, extremely rare. Just look at the statistics at how many interactions police have with people per day and how many people were unjustifiably shot. It is minuscule. Your best bet by far is to comply. I’m not sure if you saw the video this guy took from his cell phone but he was clearly setting up the officers and tempting them to do something wrong. I assume he was looking for a pay day.

The fact is, when a subject becomes non compliant it is a huge red flag for police and gets them raised up. They are human beings and a lot of the reaction you are seeing from them is fear about what that guy was up to. Maybe they were wrong and I agree their instructions were unclear, but it is a natural human response to want to control the situation rather than some racial victimizing thing. Try walking a day in their shoes and you will understand why these situations (late at night, tinted out SUV with who knows what in the back, bizarrely non-compliant subject, etc). It’s not to say their actions were perfect but it is a complete stretch to say they were driven by race. Also I believe the cop who deployed the spray was Hispanic.


Excuses, justifications, and deflections. Also, Hispanic is an ethnicity, not a race. For example, I am Puerto Rican. I am also Black. I have a friend who is Cuban. She is white. Hispanic countries and people are not immune from white supremacy.

You're so quick to empathize with the officers. "Walk a day in their shoes." Why not also empathize with their victims for a change? Walk a day in their shoes. The officer is the professional. The burden on getting things right, even when they are afraid, should be on them. Not on the civilian.


Right, so you admit you are not trying to see things from the perspective of officers at all. You have no interest in actually understanding why they behave they way they do but would rather see things only from your perspective and ignorantly criticize. If you really wanted to address the problem you would try to get to the bottom of it rather than being happy to continue playing the victim.

Officers make mistakes just like civilians do. Just because they do does not make them racist/ethnicitist/whatever woke categorization you want to use. Officers deal with life or death situations constantly and I don’t think it’s shocking that they sometimes make the wrong call. Believe it or not, they make mistakes with white subjects all the time, too. And believe it or not, lots of officers are minorities, especially in DC, NYC, etc. Frankly I prefer that they err on the side of keeping themselves and the public safe. When a civilian interacts with an officer they have the burden to comply - that is unquestionably on them. When a subject is being deliberately non compliant they are taking a huge unnecessary risk to themselves and the officers. And guess what - each one of us walks in one of these “victims’” shoes every single day so it is easy to emphathize there. Any day any one of us could be approached by an officer, and the vast majority of us would COMPLY regardless of race.


No. Officers have an enormous amount of power that we provide to them. They get to arrest people. They get to pull them over. They get use force on them if they can justify it. They are *given* guns and other weapons to do their job. All of this power that we the people give to cops. They cannot use that power without following some simple rules. People that are being policed have some basic rights. And one of those rights is to ask what they are being detained for. Does the Miranda sound stupid to you? It does to me. But it is important that authorities invoke acknowledge the rights of the accused and use their power only for good. So in every instance, the responsibility is on the part of the officer. This would be true if it were a middle aged white woman, a black military officer, or a coked out Asian junkie.


You are just factually incorrect. An officer does not have to tell a subject why he is being stopped/detained/arrested at the time of the stop/arrest. You might find that surprising but it is the truth. Eventually yes, but in the heat of the moment, no. Same thing with Miranda rights. An officer only needs to give them if they are going to do a custodial interrogation. You know nothing about policing or criminal law. Stop acting like an expert based on your thoughts of what sounds nice.


No they don’t have to say why they are stopping the vehicle but in that situation it would have taken the heat down a few notches. “Why don’t you have a license plate?” would have given the man an opportunity to explain and realize it was a valid stop. If it had been a stolen vehicle the fat one was not using anything like proper tactics. I have to assume at the point he was intent on taking the soldier out of the car he knew the vehicle wasn’t stolen. He must have had poor training.

No matter. The State Attorney General has called for a civil rights investigation. This probably ends with Windsor disbanding their police force and losing their speed trap income stream. The State Police and Sheriff’s Department can handle it.


Officer needs a reason to ask you to step out of the car: Pennsylvania vs. Mimms. Cops can ask you to exit the vehicle only if they have "objective observable facts to support a suspicion that criminal activity was afoot or that the occupants of the vehicle posed a threat to police safety"

Neither was true at the time the car was pulled over. They could clearly see the temporary tags by the point in time that the car was stopped.

They saw he had tags by the time they pulled him over. They had no reason and therefore
Anonymous
Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.
Anonymous
I haven't read all the pages of this thread and just saw the video for the first time yesterday.

Truly outrageous behavior by the cops. They have no right to terrorize people just because they are police. Sorry, if I have done NOTHING wrong, I don't have to do what you say just because you're a cop. This is America folks, not some dictatorship. You do not have the right to pepper spray me in the face without even saying what I'm accused of.

Glad they were fired! They deserve worse. How much you want to bet that jerk abused people all the time.

To people saying do what the cop says and don't resist no matter what – you are insane.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:

It doesn’t matter whether a subject thinks a stop is valid or not. It is not up to them to judge. They need to comply. And when they don’t, they are the ones who have raised the heat. But yes, the second officer’s tactics were questionable.


Only in an authoritarian country or if you are white and the "suspect" is black.

Seriously, YOU are part of the problem here.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


Police don't need PC to order you out of your car. You have no idea what you are talking about.
Anonymous
Just reported. Caron watched his uncle Eric Garner murdered by the police over a cigarette in NYC. Yeah. I fully understand not stopping your car on a dark, country road. He wasn’t lying when he said he was afraid of them. He should be. Dirty cops kill people in broad daylight, imagine what they do in the dark without witnesses.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


Police don't need PC to order you out of your car. You have no idea what you are talking about.


True. They have a weapon and a partner and you don’t. You better comply ... but have your cell phone live streaming too, just in case. Or, have a posse.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:He was clearly baiting these idiot cops into this and it played out better than he could have ever imagined. Now he's probably going to win a $1M settlement.


No doubt!

The city of Ferguson paid out 1 mil to the family of someone who tried to murder a police officer.


So obviously that means Nazario should've been tazed, amirite?
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


Police don't need PC to order you out of your car. You have no idea what you are talking about.


They have to have reasonable suspicion based on facts, not a hunch or profiling. They had nothing.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


and they've been doing this to black people forever.

When I moved to DC in the 90s, I worked for a defense firm and had a security clearance. My best friend also worked at that company and both of us had family who lived in a southern state. I first learned about DWB after I moved here.

My friend was black. We both drove the same make/model Toyata and most holidays we each drove back and forth on 95 to head down south to visit our families. Every single time, she was stopped by the police. I'd never experienced that in my life. I remember when she told me about being pulled over 3 different times down and twice back. That happened to her on every single trip and it never happened to me. I had no idea this went on. She was never angry about it and several stops involved long waits as they searched her car. I remember being indignant chastising her for always letting them search her car and she rolled her eyes at my cluelessness, She was so used to this that she just shrugged it off. She was a very responsible analyst with high level clearances and was treated like a criminal any time she took a trip out of state. I can't imagine dealing with that.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


Police don't need PC to order you out of your car. You have no idea what you are talking about.


They have to have reasonable suspicion based on facts, not a hunch or profiling. They had nothing.


All this arguing is showing that the cops don't know the law. They don't but they live like they have the authority to interpret it the way they want. Most cops do not know the law.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


Police don't need PC to order you out of your car. You have no idea what you are talking about.



You think you know what you are talking about. See comment above.
Anonymous


Anonymous
I was coming on here to say that since these pretextual stops profiling black drivers seem to be a permanent facet of policing, laws need to be changed to discourage traffic stops for minor offenses. That may prevent some civil rights abuses or unnecessary deaths of drivers.

I did a little digging and, amazingly, such a law actually did pass in the state of Virginia where I live. I had not heard about that law until now. Basically, as of the beginning of March 2021, the police cannot stop drivers for such minor offenses as a loud exhaust, tinted windows, or things dangling from your mirror.

Here is a summary:

"no law-enforcement officer may lawfully stop a motor vehicle for operating (i) without a light illuminating a license plate, (ii) with defective and unsafe equipment, (iii) without brake lights or a high mount stop light, (iv) without an exhaust system that prevents excessive or unusual levels of noise, (v) with certain sun-shading materials and tinting films, and (vi) with certain objects suspended in the vehicle.

No evidence discovered or obtained as a result of such unlawful stop shall be admissible in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding. The bill also provides that no law-enforcement officer may lawfully stop, search, or seize any person, place, or thing solely on the basis of the odor of marijuana, and no evidence discovered or obtained as a result of such unlawful search or seizure shall be admissible in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding.

https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+SB5029

Apparently Northam passed a number of other policing reform laws in the wake of the G. Floyd incident and other similar incidents, including a ban against no-knock warrants:

https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2020/october/headline-861097-en.html
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Bullshit. The police only have the authority to act reasonably in proportion to the reasonable suspicion they used to justify the traffic stop. Without probable cause of a crime, they don’t have authority to order you out of your car or to search your car or to pepper spray you for asking why they stopped you or to threaten to shoot you for questioning their instructions.


Police don't need PC to order you out of your car. You have no idea what you are talking about.



You think you know what you are talking about. See comment above.


y'all are throwing around legal terms that have specific legal meanings without understanding. Probable Cause is not needed to pull you over. That is what is needed to arrest you. Reasonable suspicion of a violation of law is all that is needed to pull you over. Reasonable suspicion means something you can point to. That is all. "I thought he had no tag based on what I could see at night." That is enough to pull this guy over. The stop was legal. In fact there is no plate. It was affixed inside in the window. But once the stop is made, they get to investigate it. Even is they see the paper tag, they get to look at it, run it and see if it is legal. Once you are pulled over, the police can require you to leave you car if they have a reason to be concerned about their safety. Again, they just need something to point to. Here, the combo of the no plate, not stopping right away, and some hesitation on the part of the driver would justify removing him from the car. The place where this all goes off the rail and becomes improper and illegal is the use of the chemical agent. That cannot be justified no way, no how. Then they rough him up. Then they try to coerce him to give up his First Amendment rights in exchange for letting him go.
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