Cop asked to leave cafe because he made a customer "uncomfortable"

[Packy]

Wow. Armed Police, everywhere. Y'know, Lee Oswald was shot to death by an impetuous and impulsive and emotionally unbalanced vigilante (who normally carried a problem-solver while banking the daily receipts for his saloon) IN THE BASEMENT OF THE DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT. Oswald was being escorted from a POLICE ELEVATOR to a POLICE CAR, while handcuffed to a POLICE OFFICER. You can't get much more Secure than that, can you? Unless you are Ronnie "Dick" Reagun & Jim Brady, White house Press secretary, being escorted by Secret Service Agents, to your limo. Well, can you? Hope that helps you some. Thankk Mee.

[bae]

... spitting in someone's food? Granted, the latter is vile and disgusting, I won't deny that, but if I had to choose between the two - if one of these absolutely had to happen to me, I'd take the second - much less drama overall

Rob, if someone spits on me in my job, or in my food, there's a whole lot of drama that's going to happen. There will be a *ton* of exposure paperwork to fill out, and post-exposure monitoring. The person doing the spitting will be restrained, tied to a backboard, and transported to a medical facility where their fluids will be drawn against their will for evaluation, and their medical history taken. Then they will spend some time in jail. And if they aren't judgement-proof, you can bet they will lose a good portion of their net worth in the proceedings that will accompany all of this.

I realize that in Rob's World, spitting on The Man is a respected gesture of rebellion, to be honored in solidarity by all the other stressed-out servers, but in The Real World, things are different.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I'm sure there are problems of abuse out there Rob, but it is inherently difficult to sort out when many of the accusers may be of questionable veracity. That doesn't mean they lose their rights, no one should, but it does make it difficult to resolve some of the accusations. Sticking with the public cases where we do know many of the facts, I'd say the criminal justice system got it right in Ferguson, Staten Island, and Alabama. As much as you like convictions for the sake of convictions, the forensic and video evidence supports the criminal justice outcomes for the cops in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. The cop in Alabama was fired and is being prosecuted but they have not had the trial yet. I don't think the cops did anything wrong regarding Taraji Henson's son.

If the police got it right in Alabama, why was the officer involved arrested and charged? I'm sorry, I'm not following you. Wouldn't the fact that the officer involved was arrested and charged indicate that something might be amiss with his actions? Rob

[bae]

If the police got it right in Alabama, why was the officer involved arrested and charged?

Do you understand how our legal system works?

[gimmethesimplelife]

Do you understand how our legal system works?

My take is that you see it one way, perhaps because of what you do, and I see it another way, because of what I've seen with my own eyes, and learned to live in fear of. And beyond the police themselves and the numerous issues that are present with them, I have further issues of fear with the justice system itself. Take the fact that the United States has by far the highest number of incarcerated people in the world, and I'll have to fact check this next that I type here but I think I remember reading that 25% of the world's incarcerated people are in the US but we have only 5% of the world's population? Something is seriously wrong with this in my book. Not only that, but recently there have been a number of cases where DNA evidence has proven that incarcerated people victimized by the "justice system" were indeed innocent. How do these victims get their time stolen from them by the "justice system" back? I also have a great deal of fear of the "justice system" as if you don't have the money to hire good legal representation, you are vulnerable to this to some degree too, though it does help to have white skin to minimize your risk of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Honestly, the police overall in America and the "justice system" in America - they both are sub par overall for me. Definitely both have aspects of the third world to them. Rob

[gimmethesimplelife]

I'm sure there are problems of abuse out there Rob, but it is inherently difficult to sort out when many of the accusers may be of questionable veracity. That doesn't mean they lose their rights, no one should, but it does make it difficult to resolve some of the accusations. Sticking with the public cases where we do know many of the facts, I'd say the criminal justice system got it right in Ferguson, Staten Island, and Alabama. As much as you like convictions for the sake of convictions, the forensic and video evidence supports the criminal justice outcomes for the cops in the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. The cop in Alabama was fired and is being prosecuted but they have not had the trial yet. I don't think the cops did anything wrong regarding Taraji Henson's son.

If the officer involved here does not find himself facing some kind of consequence for his actions that led to paralysis on one side for his victim (due to the fact that the victim spoke no English and could not answer the officer's questions), honestly, is there any reason for any of us to remain in the United States? To me that screams FLEE loud and clear as human rights obviously mean nothing in America if this officer is let go. Rob

[bae]

My take is that you see it one way,

My take is that the question you asked ("If the police got it right in Alabama, why was the officer involved arrested and charged?") shows a fundamental misunderstanding.

If someone is arrested, are they guilty? If someone is charged, are they guilty? (For bonus points, how does the "charge" happen, and who does it?). If someone is put on trial, are they guilty?

When is guilt established? By whom? What is the process, and what is the standard?

[bae]

If the officer involved here does not find himself facing some kind of consequence for his actions that led to paralysis on one side for his victim (due to the fact that the victim spoke no English and could not answer the officer's questions), honestly, is there any reason for any of us to remain in the United States? To me that screams FLEE loud and clear as human rights obviously mean nothing in America if this officer is let go. Rob

Geeze, Rob, how can you even morally remain on this planet if the UN Commission on Human Rights does not step in and impose consequences on a single (not-yet-tried-and-convicted) officer's actions in the State of Alabama?

[gimmethesimplelife]

Geeze, Rob, how can you even morally remain on this planet if the UN Commission on Human Rights does not step in and impose consequences on a single (not-yet-tried-and-convicted) officer's actions in the State of Alabama?

Any of us could be that elderly man from India who is now partially paralyzed thanks to police brutality. Any of us. I am unable to gloss that fact over and I am unable to forgive America for this reality. Once more, any of us could be the partially paralyzed victim. Rob

[Yossarian]

If the police got it right in Alabama, why was the officer involved arrested and charged? I'm sorry, I'm not following you. Wouldn't the fact that the officer involved was arrested and charged indicate that something might be amiss with his actions? Rob

Well, we'll see. But he was fired and charged with a crime. I don't know what more you could want at this stage. My point was that the system seems to be working correctly. Until you have Robocop you will have to rely on people doing the job and people will always make mistakes or do bad things. Let's see how the system works this time.

In my hood we are good with the cops. But that isn't to say they don't ever do something wrong. They apparently screwed up here but the system still worked: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/...sing-at-police