Re: the good cop/bad cop situation, why would good cops even WANT to keep bad ones in line? Cops haven’t needed or used an Officer O’Friendly image in decades. They don’t want you to like them. They get obedience from the threat of disproportionate force, to be liberally applied at the first sign of disrespect or doubt. If that doesn’t intimidate you, they call a buddy to help work you over.

The ideal situation is a bunch of good cops and one bad cop. The bad cop spend his time beating holy hell into people for no goddamn reason, and the good cops all reap the benefit of the resulting fearful uncertainty. After all, there’s no telling if the cop who just ordered you to zip up your jacket is a good one or not. Better to just do it and not be made an example of.

Ok, my opinion.

@GregLondon: loved your clever points re: the last (that I saw) Palestinian/Israeli thread. This time your comments seem….less thought out.

As someone said: PTSD with a gun and a badge?

As a white Strineyan I don’t see any racism, I too was expecting nig-nog this and that etc. I was also very impressed that the family didn’t freak and that Medic could have dropped that copper with one punch. Full kudos to all.

Also http://www.dps.state.ok.us/ohp/tngrct/Acad1.pdf is on administrative leave.

I remember a tall weedy guy at high school always being picked on by the bullies. He joined the cops, filled out, grew taller and is now exacting revenge on everyone for breathing. Just sayin`.

Thanks for the mention of my stories. I have another two scheduled.

This incident has outraged not only folks in OK, but throughout the country. This is not representative of routine or normal police behavior.

Yesterday I published the story of what the trooper’s lawyer had to say. He called his client a “hometown hero” and had a lot to say about why the trooper was actually the victim here (!) and the crimes that were commited by the paramedic.

No, I am not making that up! ;}

Here’s the story:
tinyurl.com/m8r8tk

I intend to stay on this story. It’s an important one.

Best wishes,
Patricia Phillips
Oklahoma Crime writer, Clarity Media/Examiner dot com

Frankly, I am curious as the ACTUAL benefits of some forms of policing in the first place.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/content.newsok.com/documents/j12emtnarrative1.pdf

Specifically, the officer said “you should consider checking your rearview mirrors” with respect to their first encounter. As he passed, the police officer perceived a hand gesture on the part of the driver (described as the “universally recognized gesture” of surprise or “what did I do?”) as the driver flipping him off. Probably some glare on the windshield obscuring one hand, and it made it look like he was being flipped off.

He probably had just enough time to arrive on scene at the car theft to think to himself he should give the ambulance driver a piece of his mind, and it escalated from there.

Again, the medic did a great job under the circumstances. The cop- not so much. Chalk it up to PTSD from his time in Iraq. Do something ugly to his permanent record, pay out a big wad of cash to the patient (and probably the medic and the driver), and just bury it forever. If the cop manages to get his life under control at some future point in time- good for him. If not, there goes his career, hopefully without taking out himself or someone with him.

Very ugly stuff from the medic’s formal report:

“Throughout the entire encounter after officer 606 had physically assaulted me, and prevented me from maintaining any patient care, I repeatedly asked who I should contact to report the assault committed upon me by officer 606. I was told several times by both officers that it was not their job to tell me who to contact to report an offending officer. I politely asked this question several times since I found their answers to be somewhat incredulous. After about the forth request I was told that I should contact the Okfuskee S.O., and the county D.A. Otherwise, the two new officers on the scene refused to hear my complaint against officer 606. I was informed that it “is not our job to receive criminal complaints against another officer”.”

RickB @21 says PTSD is a factor here. If so, then the OHP should have had enough common sense to not hire a man who had only just returned from active duty. Where I live, candidates for hire have to wait 18 months before consideration.

As long as “Good Cops” consent to hide “Bad Cops” – there are no “Good Cops”…

Because this is the South and everything is oriented towards making sure the ni**ers keep in their place. It’s hard work being the master race. You have to work extra to make sure no one gets the idea there is the slightest chance for rebellion.

It wasn’t a case of alpha male against alpha male. The EMT knew what was coming and he wanted to protect his driver from even more extreme violence. The presence of the other witnesses prevented escalation of the event, they didn’t add to it. If it had been just the EMT, the driver and the cop alone it would have been far worse.

And I agree with whoever said he should have just told the paramedic and driver he’d escort them to the hospital, where he’d then deal with them.

I don’t know who should yield to whom, but the officer is driving way faster than the ambulance (and faster than the emergency seems to call for — it’s not like someone called to say they were being held at knife point), he pulls around the ambulance when it looks like he couldn’t have seen an oncoming car had there been one, and he whips straight out to go after the ambulance as though angry that he wasn’t needed at the stolen car scene. That’s speculation, but he just seems to be on a rampage. It seems to me that police officers are by training and experience able to ignore perceived or real slights. They must get them from stoned, drunk, etc., perps all the time.

Whether or not he suffers PTSD, someone who’s been in active combat should be given a cooling off period before being allowed to take on this kind of job. I’ve talked to enough veterans to know that, in combat, your mind is pretty much on “kill or be killed,” and I would imagine that that is hard for anyone to switch off.

“The cadets were then sent down
the hallway to face the wall where graduation
photos of past academies were displayed. The
cadets were told that you have to “earn the right
to wear the brown shirt.”

hey, lookey there, only 35 posts, and already a “all cops are evil” post. Nice.

Church@33: The problem is that the people who are in a position to make a dispationate call are the ones that would rely on you in a potential future incident. So, it becomes a prisoner’s dillema game.

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Takuan@55: who becomes a cop? Bullies who want to keep bullying after high school, victims who want to be the ass kickers for a change after high school and a few who genuinely want to fight evil and help people. Who is left after three years? The job changes people and squeezes out those that won’t change.

Tak, you’re just hopeless.

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Cngrtltns, BB, strrng p th nsn fr dvrtsng dllrs.

Oh, and if he is suffering from PTSD, then he needs to be removed from service before he kills someone. Obviously his experiences in Iraq have effectively ended his career as a police officer….

And to the cop…if he is claiming PTSD…then he is not only embarrassing cops, but the military as well…just one more a**hole ruining the good reputation of otherwise honorable instituions. Be a man, and admit you messed up. Take ur punishment and move on.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’d rather have less cops who I can trust, rather than more cops who I can’t. I find a bad cop to be more dangerous than any standard criminal.

I would have to agree. I have lived in and around Prince Georges County in Maryland and I find that a person has to be very cautious when interacting with the county police, who are notorious for their use of violence. As an average citizen with no criminal background, I have not been reassured when interacting with them.

Unfortunately, it still lives in Mr. London’s mind, and he sees it everywhere he looks.

when I said “find” one, I meant actually get up out of your chair, take off your tinfoil hat, leave your bedroom-faraday cage, go outside into the real world, and find a real live human being who is a cop and say thank you to them. I triple-dog dare you.

After you asserted on an earlier thread that bike helmet laws were nothing but a scheme by “the man” to keep poor people down, I’m pretty sure you don’t interact with reality much. It’ll be good for you.

On your mark, get set, Go!

(yeah, right. you’ll never do it.)
.

Dragonfrog,

you took “this never happens” and turned it into “this didn’t happen in this case”.

If you don’t see a difference, I don’t know what to tell you.

choffice@dps.state.ok.us

Be polite, coherent, and ask nicely for Trooper Martin’s head on a pike.

the ones we want to avoid giving too much authority to are the same ones who show up at the academy, day one, with the haircut.

The whole galaxy knows that your mother was a cop. Other people have different experiences with cops than you did. Disagree with it if you want, but do it a little more politely.

as long as some good cops consent to hide bad cops, they’re no good cops?

she’s a good paramedic now.