Here’s the scoop, and you can blame me for being a moderate liberal who lives in this thing called reality:
If you hit a LEO with “AM I BEING DETAINED OR AM I FREE TO GO?” they will be a dick to you. I speak from experience. I know, I know, everyone believes the youtube videos of people challenging law enforcement. And I’m not a fan of cops – at all. I’m very libertarian in my view of police. I can tell you from firsthand situations – you get combatative with a cop? You get knocked the fuck down and fucked with.
I’m not a big fan of cops.
Speaking of youtube bullshit:
Someone showed me this video today, and I hope you shake your head as hard as I did. I grew up in poverty, in SoCal. Doing shit like this in certain neighborhoods will get you fucking killed on the spot. Apparently these guys have a youtube channel of these kinds of hilarious jackanapes. They continuously try to apologize for it by saying “IT’S A PRANK, LOOK, WE HAVE A CAMERA.” I still maintain that these guys? Are trying to commit suicide.
If you walk up and snatch my cell phone, claiming you just want to “check out what time it is,” and then (once I start beating your ass) yell “IT’S A PRANK, THERE’S A CAMERA,” I’m still probably going to beat your ass to a pulp. If you walk up me in a public space and ask me, out of the blue, if I want to buy a gun, while reaching into your back pocket? I’m going to hit you so hard your granddaughter’s teeth will be born bruised. These guys are fucking idiots. It’s not about race, although they seem to take great glee in targeting black people – I literally grabbed my console pistol at the drive-through ATM today when a white panhandler knocked on my window out of the blue. He wanted a cigarette (I didn’t have any) and he seemed offended that I would go for my gun when I’m PARKED AT THE ATM AND DEPOSITING A CHECK. (I gave him a dollar and told him to go buy his own smokes, god damn it. He fucked off when I waggled my piece.)
Fucking people, man.
I got way tooo much enjoyment watching them get the shit beat out of themselves…and the saddest part is, they *NEVER* learned! Hopefully they never breed….*shakes head*
They did learn. They learned that getting the shit beat out of them and posting it on Youtube garners them lots of views, ad impressions and money.
JL, you do have a way with words. 🙂
Yeah, I don’t care for cops either. But usually, if you’re polite and act like you expect them to be professionals, they are.
Either these people are close to braindead, or the world’s greatest masterminds of causing unjustified racial conflict.
They’re trying to get their ‘prankees’ tossed in jail for assault. Every one of these preppy fucks is ‘fishing for a third strike’ so they can brag about how they sent a ‘nigga away 4 lyfe.’ And I hope every single one of them gets stabbed in the balls.
Also, I just got to the end where the guys are in black with “fuzz” glasses talking about “we’ve got the suspect” to the guy who had the *real* gun. This is fake, because 1) that’s video evidence of idiots acting like police officers (it doesn’t really matter that they aren’t wearing fake uniforms and/or don’t announce themselves as LEO), and 2) they’re deliberately approaching someone whom they know to be armed with a lethal weapon (the same guy who pulls on the guy selling water guns) and all but daring him to shoot them.
I have had plenty of lawyers also repeatedly tell people, be polite and don’t argue with the cops. Know your rights. And, know when to say yes or no to a request from a police officer. But, be polite. The place to argue with police officers is in court with your lawyer doing the arguing.
I’ve gotten out of 3 tickets by being polite and honest with police officers. Meanwhile, I knew a guy who pulled an attitude with a police officer (in Terrell), when he got pulled over for speeding. This resulted in him getting his vehicle searched and being arrested for having a sword cane behind the seat of his truck.
As to the idiot pranksters, it would be all to easy for one of them to end up dead. And, I won’t be surprised if that doesn’t happen one day.
I split the difference once when I had an obvious asshole of a cop who was *holding up traffic* by only traveling 70 on open 4 lane I-10, where everyone was afraid to pass him. I passed him doing 72, just CREEPING by him, and as soon as I’d cleared his grille, he pulled in behind me, and lit me up.
“Any reason you DIDN’T think I’d pull you over for passing me like that?”
“Uh, yeah. I didn’t think you’d want to call attention to the exact same crime you were just committing, or do you think *I* didn’t clock *YOUR* speed before I decided to creep by? You weren’t going with the flow of traffic for this road.”
“I’ve been on this stretch of highway for 5 miles and nobody had passed me yet.”
“That’s because they’re afraid of you. I’m a citizen, and it’s not my job to be afraid of you. But if you look BACK to the highway, you’ll see that traffic is now once again moving at a respectable 75 to 80.”
“I’m not asking you to be afraid of me, I’m asking you to obey the law.”
“Well, that’s fine, you can keep writing that ticket, and when I feel like debating you about it, it’ll be in front of a judge. I’d much rather talk to you IN the courtroom about this.”
He made a bunch of noise about how he ‘doesn’t lose’ cases in court, having been doing this for thirty some odd ungodly years. I remarked that if he was on the force for thirty years, and was still writing speeding tickets, I daren’t infer who he pissed off, and how badly.
He wrote the ticket, I went to court.
He showed up for the first case of the docket, and then walked outside, and let every other case of the day go through with him as a no-show. Now I know how he ‘doesn’t lose’ cases he argues.
Exactly. In so many of those vids, they’d have gotten through faster and without losing any rights if they hadn’t acted like a dick. “Am I being detained?”, should be saved until actually needed.
I thought it might be Tom, glad I was wrong.
Your version of Gecko45 is a great character.
I watched about 90 seconds of “Stupid White Boys Getting Smacked Around.”
Is that actually funny? Or a modern attempt at minstrel show humor?
Too bad they didn’t take on the douche with the camera too.
O__O that video….those morons….that’s not a prank. That’s a video of a bunch of twelve year olds who think it’s cool to melt Daddy’s priceless collection of vinyl thinking that there’s more and he can replace them and he will laugh. Then don’t understand why the hell they’re beaten with a belt and grounded for life, yet STILL go back and melt some more records. That is some of the dumbest most dangerous shit I’ve seen called “pranks”.
ok, not to spoil anything here…
but where is the little mentally compromised burner/doper/weirdo/whackjob in these interviews…?
i won’t even attempt to speculate on her motives for doing it…*
My personal favorite is the puppy dog expressions they get each and every time they are about to get a beating as if they don’t understand why they’re getting the rolled up newspaper. Are they that good at acting or did they grow up so sheltered that they honestly don’t think they’re going to eventually end up dead from this nonsense?
Yeah, that video is the stupidest thing I’ve seen lately. Definitely not funny.
I hate hate hate it when they knock on my car window. Especially in a dark parking lot, late at night. Or gas station when I’m in a strange town. WTF? Why do they get all offended when I startle, and maybe yell at them to leave me alone?
Nowadays I tend to admonish them to go get a cardboard sign. I like the cardboard sign bit. I actually do. It doesn’t scare anyone, it offers the opportunity for passersby to give or to ignore, as well as the opportunity for the sign-bearer to be witty, if able and so inclined.
Yeah, the cop might an attitude with you, and having a lawyer might just piss off the cops, but any cop who sports a ‘tude or gets pissy because you actively asserted your rights was going to fuck you over anyways. You can not talk your way out of anything with the cops, all you can do is give them potential reasons to screw you over. If nothing else, your imperfect memory will cause you to say something wrong, which the cops will then use to slap you with an obstruction charge.
Shut up, answer no questions, and if you are not free to go tell them you want a lawyer.
Ken from Popehat says it best here, and then says it again here.
Alex ex boyfriend maybe?
Reminds me of the prankster idiots that staged a child abduction in a park in Port Angeles, WA then claimed they were making an awareness video.
They’re lucky they didn’t get shot.
I want to see the rest of the clip from the “prank” where the victim pulls a knife on the prankster. How did these assholes not end up dead?
I had someone come up to my passenger window asking for a cigarette while I was at an ATM. Out of the corner of my eye I saw in my driver side mirror, his friend coming up with a knife. Out came the .45, and surprisingly they decided not to stick around. I drove across the street, and called the police and informed them of what happened. Apparently there have been a few robberies there using that same MO. So, they set up shop and caught not one pair, but three different pairs at that same ATM. I was called in, and none of them were the two I saw.
As for cops, always be courteous, and they will be courteous with you. But don’t tell them anything.
Dealing with law enforcement:
1. Be polite. Pissing off the cop cannot help.
2. Determine what your status is. I have no problem with asking if you’re being detained; if they won’t answer (and they probably won’t) walk (don’t run) slowly away. If they tell you to stop, you’re being detained. At that point, rule 3 applies.
3. The MOMENT you even remotely THINK MAYBE that you’re being investigated as a potential, possible suspect, decline to say anything. Politely. Don’t lie. Ever. Simply make no statements.
4. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER consent to any search. EVER. This one is absolute.
I say this as a former prosecutor and defense attorney. I don’t care if the officer is or is not a nice guy or gal; in many cases, the officer being “nice” is a tactic, not a state of mind. Being cooperative is a good way to get yourself arrested. Moreover, having a badge is in many ways a license to lie, and they will, and the courts have said they may do so. Remember: the officer is not there to “get your side of the story,” or to “help you out,” or to “just get the facts.” He is there to get a statement he can use – which he will characterize as a confession – and make an arrest. You must protect yourself first and foremost. Oh, and if possible, have your video running of the encounter.
And if that means that they think I’m a dick, so be it.
Meekly submitting to an illegimate or abusive authority will simply mean there are more erosions of the freedoms that so many have fought and died to protect. No. Absolutely not. Freedom begins with a single word: “No.”
Yep, never ever tell them anything, especially batfe. That has to be the most unprofessional bunch of whackjobs it was my displeasure to ever have to deal with in my life.
Every freaking inspection, it was a different agent & they would try to pull some BS. That’s why I always met them at the storefront so every thing was recorded from multiple angles. I hate those idiots.
I could only get through half that video, couldn’t handle the stupid. All pranks are ‘real’, your physically doing them. Do they know how real theives steal shit? They pretend they’re not stealing shit.
But then as far as I’m concerned even benign pranks deserve a beat down.
I just don’t get the “Jackass” style of so-called ‘comedy’.
There’s a similar video on Youtube of pranks. Kid goes around in a Scream mask and robe, carrying an airsoft M4 (without the orange tip, real fuckin’ smart). Most of the people run from him. Except the last one who pulls a gun on him.
Honestly, if these people do this kind of shit, and get hurt or killed, don’t punish the person doing it. It’s adding chlorine to the gene pool.
Best way someone got out of getting their ass handed to them was by saying “I was taking selfies man!” In fact, I’m pretty sure that was the only guy who didn’t get beat to shit.