ways to deal with cops and AVOID police brutality

Post Reply New Topic

please read this and pass it on to anyhwere you think it might help or to whoever needs to know this information! i know police brutality is nothing new but i just wanted to pass this article on to people anyway. it has some good suggestions in it for dealing with the cops if you ever happen to be in a simliar situation. they mention that anyone who is a minority, has dyed hair, or even visible piercings could be at risk so I'm sure this applies to many people. So watch your back and be careful;)

here's a recap of the suggestions if you don't have time to read the whole article. it's for if a cop pulls you over when you're in a car but i think it's good to keep in mind if interacting with a cop in public at all!
getting pulled over:
1) Turn the dome-light on.
2) Turn on your hazards.
3) Turn off the engine.
4) Roll down the windows (all of them if you have automatic).
5) Keep your hands on the wheel.
6) Tell all passengers to keep their hands on their laps.
7) Tell everyone to stare straight ahead.
Do not say anything unless spoken to first.
9) When cop asks for license, registration, etc tell them where those items are and then ASK permission to move, "my registration is in my glove-box, may I lean over to get it?" or, "my drivers license is in my wallet which is in my right rear pocket, may I reach for it?"
10) Always address officer by their formal title a-la S&M scene, "Yes Sir, No Sir"
11) When cop is speaking, make eye contact.


this is a link to the web site i got it from

http://punkistani.livejournal.com/63067.html

down below is the article & some people's responses to it
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Real concerns about Police Brutality
It was 1999, and I was in 10th Grade when we got news of Amadou Diallo, the immigrant from Guinea who was murdered by four police officers. Simply because he "resembled a rapist", they encircled the stairwell by his house. When he reached in his pocket to pull out a wallet, they began firing at him. Amadou tumbled down the stairs, and they continued firing, a total of 41 shots, landing nineteen.

Sadly, that type of violence nothing new. And since last April, White cop on minority brutality have become a local issue. On April 30th, Karen Chen and three other members of the Chinese Progressive Association were parked outside a Super 88, where they were approached by a state trooper. While they spoke with him, a Quincy police car pulled up and pepper sprayed the lot of them. With pepper sprayed eyes, five foot tall Karen Chen was tackled by three White, male police officers, who beat her until she had a black eye. Knocking one of her friends out in the process.

Ten days earlier on April 20th, five Black students from Somerville High School with absolutely no prior police records were maced and beaten by ten White, male police officers, for having the audacity to visit a local carnival. The police had charged them with harassing customers in a store, when even the clerk on duty that night has stated that there was no disturbance.

Later on, this past November we had the UCLA Taser incident, where campus security asked local police to intervene when an Iranian student would not produce a school id when using a school computer. The story is that he was on his way out when the White, male police grabbed his arm. He yelled "Don't touch me" and was promptly tasered. They then ask him to "stop threatening" them, and he explicitly denies making any threats in his tasered state. A female student asked the officers for their names and badge numbers, and they threatened her with tasering as well. yeesh! (The video)

And then, this month as a result of drunken, reckless driving on one's wedding night, an unarmed Black man and passengers had 50 bullets smash through his car via angry, White, male police officers. The groom was murdered and at least one of his passengers was injured.

Now I work in Somerville, and I've dated a five foot tall Chinese girl from Quincy. I'm deathly afraid of anything similar happening to either of us, as the brutality that happened in/near either town was unprovoked. If three male officers can bludgeon a five foot Chinese woman with no credible alibi, what chance do any of us have?
Here's some advice:
Whenever you get pulled over, never assume its just for speeding. Cops can pull you over for resembling a criminal, even if the description is as vague as 'dark skinned, 5'11" man in knit cap and black shirt'. Put your hands on the wheel, and stare at the window until the officer makes it over. Roll it down and follow his instructions. If he asks to see your registration or lisence, explicitly state, "Yes officer, I will now reach into my pocket to pull my wallet out." Do the same for your registration. You do not want to be tasered, maced, shot or beaten. And there is a real trend of white male cops acting up and murdering/attacking minorities. That includes people with long or dyed hair and visable piercings.

Here's another, non-race related police brutality case I'd like to bring up:

A teenager accused of robbing a student of two new Playstation 3s on the day the popular game consoles were introduced was shot to death by police sent to arrest him.
source: CNN


Roommate Mike Rhoton said Strickland was unarmed, but may have been holding a video game controller when he went to the door as it was bashed in by officers.

wait, there's more...

The sheriff said Strickland was shot by members of a special police unit who went to help university officers serve warrants. He would not say why the special team was assisting.

Strickland's dog, a German shepherd, also was shot to death.

Okay... so not only did this "special police unit" mistake a videogame controller for a gun, but they were so intimidated by a single dog, they had to kill it?

Really, this country's police gets more and more frightening every day.


[info]ever_abstract
2006-12-12 03:11 pm UTC (link)
Do you remember when I got pulled over freshman year with you, Seanna and AJ in the car?

My dad was a cop, and a racist-prick of one to boot. Here's what he always taught me about getting pulled over:

1) Turn the dome-light on.
2) Turn on your hazards.
3) Turn off the engine.
4) Roll down the windows (all of them if you have automatic).
5) Keep your hands on the wheel.
6) Tell all passengers to keep their hands on their laps.
7) Tell everyone to stare straight ahead.
Do not say anything unless spoken to first.
9) When cop asks for license, registration, etc tell them where those items are and then ASK permission to move, "my registration is in my glove-box, may I lean over to get it?" or, "my drivers license is in my wallet which is in my right rear pocket, may I reach for it?"
10) Always address officer by their formal title a-la S&M scene, "Yes Sir, No Sir"
11) When cop is speaking, make eye contact.

I've been following the story about the guy in Queens who got shot to death the morning of his own wedding for being a black guy in a car with other black guys outside of a strip club coming home from a bachelor party. It's really twisted how things work. Those cops are on paid administrative leave pending further investigation. We both know how that case is probably going to turn out though...

[info]sabotabby
2006-12-12 03:20 pm UTC (link)
Really, this country's police gets more and more frightening every day.

Not just your country. Here in Toronto, the family of a 17-year-old kid shot to death by police is still fighting to find out why.

This is institutional. A disproportionate amount of violent, power-hungry people end up in the police force. When they're given guns and told to shoot first and ask questions later, it's inevitable that they're going to follow those instructions.

[info]strange_quark
2006-12-12 04:26 pm UTC (link)
i'm five one. jeeze. the co-president and founding member of the five one club takes offense. as far as i know nothing has been really resolved so far in the karen chen case. the most incredible part of that case was that they were charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest! what! they didn't even have anything to be arrested for in the first place.


[info]hushdawg
2006-12-12 05:35 pm UTC (link)
This is the unfortunate natural cause of action when one race is told it is superior for 600 years in a country and then is suddenly told "No, you're not superior anymore" and the government pays lip service toward equality while the dominating factor is that this same race is the ruling class.

I'm just glad that "minorities" (I hate that term) have started learning that rich white a**holes will never really represent either the working class OR ethnic groups.

We see the Big White Political Machine run over anyone who is of a different ethnicity; and this mentality gets filtered down through law enforcement at all levels.

Not only that; let's bear in mind here that the big guys of the KKK throughout the burning 60s were all cops. Add to that the fact that the KKK is not and has never been isolated to the Southern States (in fact it is worse in Ohio than in Mississippi). What you end up with is an entire generation of racist cops who train the next generation and the next and so on.

The only difference between the white cop brutality today and the white cop bruality 20 years ago is that there are more minorities with journalism degrees who are willing to report it.

Stop voting for rich white a**holes and support working class men and women who get into politics... the change will take a while; but that is the only real way that it will happen.


By the way.. anyone ever wonder why the police officers aren't immediately tried for murder?
They have to first be tried to determine if the action was a course of duty or not; then if it was not a course of duty they are sent to criminal trial.
So, it all depends on whether or not the judge is willing to see that "course of duty" doesn't just mean that the guy is wearing a badge.

How can there be obedience to the law if there is no consequence for breaking it?

[info]cybergothdiva
2006-12-12 09:50 pm UTC (link)
thanks for posting that.

[info]cybergothdiva
2006-12-12 09:51 pm UTC (link)
mind if i encourage people to look at this post since it is public?

[info]punkistani
2006-12-12 11:06 pm UTC (link)
go for it
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
if anyone else knows any other stories or helpful things for communicating with the cops, please share them here. i'm sure others have had trouble communicating with authority figures and sometimes it gets you in worse trouble. it's happened to me before! so be careful:)

Thanks for posting this. I think we, as autistics, might be unfairly targeted because of our issues with body language. It is good to have some specific guidelines for how to interact with the police.

Don't ever think that police and courts and what not are there to help. A cops job is to put people in the ground or in jail and don't ever forget that, and a prosecutors job is to put people in prison. Show your ID be as calm and cool as you can but never answer any questions without your lawyer.

Cops are a**holes to everyone, not just people of color, and this rhetoric of stop voting for white people is particularly racist and inflammatory. How about this: stop voting for corrupt politicians, a persons morality has nothing to do with their skin color.

If everyone stares straight ahead they might wonder if you're all on drugs I'd think so perhaps just looking normal, of course not everyone can convincingly fake they aren't nervous around cops and trying to hard to fake that might also look suspicious...

Also I can hardly make eye contact with people in general let alone cops who by default make me nervous...I think in these situations the trained police officers need to be more responsible for their behavior...I get being cooperative but most people cannot drastically alter their behavior just to avoid police brutality...not making eye contact for instance is hardly grounds for police brutality for instance...in cases I have dealt with cops they only once mentioned I didn't make eye contact and I told them that's how I was since I was a kid and they didn't push it further that time. Also mental illness needs to be taken into account, sometimes depending on the persons condition different approaches may need to be used, probably best to try and calmly deal with the individual instead of say ganging up on them and screaming at them for instance.

Be born white

What is to say all autistics would be capable of following all the specific guidelines...I think it is certainly more up to the police to follow specific guidelines than citizens especially those with a mental condition that is obviously going to interfere with acting 'normal'. Cops need to have it en-grained in their mind that abnormal behavior in general is not grounds to brutalize that person or escalate the situation. Sort of unfair to expect people with mental conditions to pretend not to have them or some how magically gain control of symptoms when under the stress of dealing with cops.....though seems some cops do sort of expect that or at least thing an inability to do that is reason to abuse their power.

And yes I have been unfairly targeted by them, when I was 15...they did not follow their guidelines at all in how they dealt with me hence part of why they make me anxious initially luckily since than most encounters they did not escalate my anxiety by trying to be intimidating, though this once pretty sure a female cop was trying to provoke me somehow but another one stepped in not sure if it was intentional I was just glad that one took me in the hall(it was an apartment they came to) and just let me leave instead of continuing to ask me stupid questions. But yeah it was an ex of my cousins they where after not me and I didn't have a clue as to what was going on later found out a friend of my cousins called the cops on him for some reason(wont go into all the detail but he did eventually get charged for some things he apparently involved himself in).

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 03 Jan 2015, 1:18 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Be born white and rich, is probably more accurate.