The Adventures in Policing Thread Part II

That's a bit incomplete. Dude already initially acted like an entitled rich asshole by saying don't knock on my window after the slightest knock. Then when asked to roll the window down again, he takes at least 10 seconds to do so and does so by answering "don't tell me what to do".

 

Nobody was beaten senseless nor murdered.

 

I don't even think it's a dick move to close your window. It's Miami, it's probably hot and humid, so you close the window or just leave it open a crack so you're not air conditioning the street.

Edit: did not coordinate with Dr W, just posted pretty much the same thing right after he did.

 

This right here.

The police in this situation seem to have expected not just compliance, but deference. And they were pissed off they weren't getting it.

 

Again, that's not exactly how it went down. He was acting like an entitled brat from the start. Then he didn't follow request to lower the window again. Waited more than 10 seconds and then told the cop not to give him orders. I've described the sequence in another post. Definitely cops should have done a better job, but this guy went on TV telling a quite different story saying he was chill and just a bit slow to comply ... I guess because he hadn't see the whole body cam footage because he was combative and disrespectful from the very start. It all started with how he answered rudely and told the cop to not knock on his window.

I've been stopped many times for speeding. More than I'd like to admit. Every time they got my license and registration they stand there for some time and ask you some questions like do you know how fast you were going before they actually walk back their car to check your info and write you a ticket or not. My guess is sometimes they want to see if you're drunk or on drugs. You don't put your window up until the cop is clearly walking back to the car which didn't happen here from the video footage. Tyreek acted stupid more than once in this exchange.

 

Nah .. he admitted he just didn't want to be recognized by cars going by. At least that's his story.

 

None of that is illegal and does not justify the cop forcing him out of the car, on the ground and cuffing him.

 

I don't know exact laws, but I'd imagine not answering to a lawful request like rolling down your window for communication is illegal. He was borderline crossing that line.

 

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida, criminal defense law firm Meltzer & Bell says drivers are required to roll down their windows when they are pulled over in order to ensure smooth interaction with law enforcement.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/09/10/traffic-stops-rolling-down-window/75160308007/

 

Did you read your own link? It says you have to roll your window down at the beginning of the stop. It doesn't say you have to keep your window rolled down. Once you've provided the legally required information, you don't have to interact further with the police - this means you can roll up your window.

And none of this - NONE OF IT - justifies dragging a suspect out of the car, kneeling on his back and cuffing him. There's no indication that Mills did not do the legally required steps of providing his identification and vehicle information. There's a ton of evidence that the officers violated his civil rights.

The cops aren't there to be your buddy. When they engage you in discussion, they're not taking a genuine interest in your well being. They're trying to get you to incriminate yourself. They may not be required to read you your Miranda rights for a traffic violation, but rest assured that anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. If you get pulled over, what day is it? Friday - specifically, Shut The ******** Up Friday. (video contains repeated use of the F-word.)

 

One of the things the cop has to do is look at the license and make sure you're the person on the license. Given how the exchange went from the start, I don't even see a time for the cop to have done that. It's very conceivable that he was still going through that procedure and that's why he didn't want the window up yet.

 

It's like, cops don't need help coming up with excuses to violate peoples' civil rights. We don't need to be making excuses for them. These cops ********ed up bigtime, and they're going to cost their city a lot of money by the time the lawsuit is settled, but neither the individual cops nor their union will be the ones who are paying - it's the taxpayers who pay. Apparently that's easier than asking cops to not be authoritarian dickbags.

 

Wasn't Rhonda Santis trying to hire cops from other states by offering a relocation bonus, and a bunch of cops with violent records took him up on it? This seems like the expected outcome of such a program. (Story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/22/ron-desantis-police-relocation-violent-records)