What do you all think about the atmosphere right now?

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Most of what you said is pure, unadulterated BS. This is the United States of America. Unless you actually commit a crime, or do something that gives the police reasonable suspicion that you were involved in a specific crime, you're free to act and dress however you want, and be whatever skin color god gave you, without the police interfering with you going about your daily life for no other reason than how you are dressing or the color of your skin. We're all supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, not presumed to be guilty until proven innocent, but what you say takes that entire concept and turns it on its head. Dressing or acting a certain way is not a crime.

Why don't the police go out and harass white males dressed in fancy suits? That's the type of person who robs, cheats and steals their way to millions of dollars through fraud, insider trading, currency manipulation and other financial crimes. Seems to me that "If someone is acting, talking and dressing like a..." Wall St. executive "...and is potential doing something bad. The fault is somewhat their own as it stems from their very own choices."

The police should be deployed based on actual crime statistics. If a predominantly white area has a lot of crime, the police should focus resources there. So too for a predominantly black area. But focusing police resources at a predominantly black area that does not, in fact, have a lot of crime, based on some theory that black people are more likely to commit crimes, without any specific knowledge that they are planning to commit crimes is, again, a bit backwards.

By that logic, then, if there were several bank robberies in the area and someone with a criminal past and no way to legitimately come up with $10,000 in cash should be stopped for speeding, the officer should not be permitted to question him about the $10,000 since it might be impossible to single out a particular bank robbery in which he was a suspect, the police should just wave at him as he drives away?

As far as I'm concerned, if someone acts like a gangster, then they should be treated like a gangster.

Nothing wrong with stop and frisk. Quite the contrary. It works. Between 2002 and 2013 more than half a million criminals have been convicted due to the practice. EHF-scanners and facial recognition technology could further improve the concept.

Are bank robbers more likely to break the speed limit than everyone else?

And of course, the original point was about how people talk and dress. Do you have any evidence that people who dress a certain way are more likely to commit crimes, independent of other factors?

No, this is not really an applicable example. Having stopped a man near a bunch of bank robberies, found out he had a criminal record and also seeing he has $10,000 in cash in his possession, then yes, of course the officer should be able to question him about it. But the difference between what you said and Orangez said is that in your scenario, the police have a legitimate reason to stop the man initially - he is speeding. In Orangez's scenario, the police could stop him for simply walking down the street wearing an outfit that they don't like, or for being black in a white part of town, with no way of forming a reasonable suspicion that the man had robbed a bank or done anything else wrong.

This is why "stop and frisk" is an invalid tactic. The police don't just get to go on fishing expeditions. Sure, if you randomly stop and search people, you will find that some percentage of them have, say, drugs in their possession. You will then arrest and convict some of them. To then turn around and use that as justification for stopping large numbers of people when most of them had not only not done anything wrong, but when you had no reasonable cause to suspect any of them of having done anything wrong, is invalid. The constitution protects us against unreasonable searches, or at least it is supposed to. It is not reasonable to search people in the absence of legitimate suspicion. Saying "see, we caught all these people because of stop and frisk!" ignores all the people that were unduly searched, and ignores the fact that many or even all of the same people may have been caught anyway if the police had stuck with non-illegal tactics.

Why do people care about this issue now when the Patriot Act as been in law for over 10 years? No one protest the Patriot Act, hence, society allows for this to be done for acts of terrorism. Thus, it is not surprising that this idea is bleeding over to other law enforcement.

The problem is that they already use that mindset to justify every act of excessive force or needless killing they engage in. It's why the guy in the Target holding the BB gun was shot in the back several times before they said, "freeze, police!"

It would be safer for them, whenever they pull over a car, to shoot the driver in the back of the head with a rifle. The problem is that their safety must have limits in order for the rest of us to have any. Pre-emptively rounding up and killing all non-police would be safer for them, too, right? You can't have safety at the expense of everyone else's safety. The result is my family vs. yours, and if you've got the law, guns, and grand juries on you side, then my family, and every else's but yours, is going to lose.

The thing I find odd is when people justify police overreaction on the grounds that the police are just like everyone else, with their main concern being about whether they're going to get home safely. That shouldn't be their *main* concern. We wouldn't expect that in firemen...

Cops know America is one of the most violent countries on earth and until we address our social ills that help reinforce this violent existence you are going to continue to see cops react this way because when they do slack off, the public will demand they be tougher on crime. They always do. On the one hand, people don't want cops looking over their shoulder, on the other, when someone beats or robs them, they want the cops to do what it takes to throw the punk in jail. So you have to decide what it is you want and most people want violent thugs thrown in jail and in order to do this, some cop somewhere has to put the cuffs on him, throw him in a police car and drive him to the jail.

Actually it would depend on various factors whether any given 'big strong guy' could easily get the gun. For one there is the psychological aspect, not everyone really likes having a gun pointed at them due to the fact that if you get shot with one there is a good chance you die which might get in the way of attempting anything like that. It is possible a large violent person could potentially disarm an armed cop if they wanted but I do not think one should be assumed violent due to their physical size or any other physical trait.

One does not have to act like a gangster to be stopped and/or harassed by the cops, it would seem...nor be doing anything un-civilized. Of course acting like a gangster probably is not a smart thing to do because it is possible cops might mistake you for one also real gangsters may not be so fond of it either way not smart.

Also it makes perfect sense more cops would be needed in areas with higher crime rate, however they should still abide by rules and not use excessive force. Also I do not think it is a good thing if cops pre-emptively arrest people because they 'might' commit a crime....there needs to be reasonable suspicion, and since 'looking like a gangster' is actually rather vague it is not really reasonable suspicion.

I can't help but think perhaps cops have also contributed to the level of violence in this country. Also not sure this is one of the most violent countries perhaps but seems there are quite a few countries that probably have a bit more violence going on. One of the social ills is police brutality, and that much of the time there is only a slap on the wrist for it. Also seems like they are trying to become tougher on the general population and anyone who questions it....also they sure don't seem very tough on actual crime. I think there is something wrong when someone can get 20 years in prison for a non violent drug offense, yet a child molester can get 8 years and be back out on the streets and many times end up molesting more kids. Unfortunately its not just violent thugs having cuffs put on them and thrown into a police car and taken to jail.

You would be surprised by how many people convince themselves they don't care if they live or die at that moment. Sure they might care later but it can be too late then.

I really doubt I'd be surprised as I am already aware there is that aspect, but plenty of people would not convince themselves of that...and would probably not consider fighting/disarming a cop who stops them. Not sure ones size or any other physical features implies anything about likelihood to attempt anything like that.

Exactly - if that's your chief concern, don't become a police officer. Don't take a position where its going to be your job to put your life on the line unless you are actually willing to give up your life. Like I posted before, the police are always quick to point out that they put their lives on the line every day, in order to garner sympathy and good will from the rest of us. The problem is that in the mean time they're doing everything they can to protect themselves, to NOT put their lives on the line, even if that means putting other innocent people's lives on the line. Police policies and procedures are structured around that entire concept - basically "better you than me" even though the entire premise of their job is supposed to be "better me than you".

So decided I'd see what was going on on the news last night, I rarely turn that crap on...but figured I'd take a little look a the local news. Apparently some person in this state was arrested for threatening to kill cops online, disturbing part was they implied being part of some kind of organized group(maybe just talking crap to scare people more)...but yeah just isn't good I don't think.

Murder isn't going to help anything, what the f*** are such idiots thinking? That kind of extremism is just as bad as any police abuse of power or police brutality.