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While what you write is true, I find it telling that folks can only point to a few cases of actual police misconduct. There are no doubt bad cops out there (cops are human and humans aren't perfect), but the number of actual cases of misconduct vs. the very, very high number of police interactions on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis shows me that things are not as out of control as some like to portray.
Oh, it happens--WAY more than you think. The media just doesn't like to report on it.
Yes it should when the officer or people present are in perceived danger. How that perception is made all depends on the suspect's behavior and response to commands. People think they are above the law, and they pay a big price for it.
The law is clear, you must comply with police orders. If those orders were improper or illegal, you willhave a chance for due process after the situation is over to assert your rights. In the middle of the situation is NOT THE TIME
If you're still alive. Remember the Daniel Shavers shooting in Arizona a little while back? The cops had the guy, who was unarmed, covered with AR 15s and had the situation under control. Yet, they had the guy crawl around on the floor on his belly while they barked out a string of confusing and contradictory commands until finally Shavers made a move, trying to pull up his trousers apparently, that they could interpret as "making a move consistent with reaching for a firearm" at which point one cop unloaded on him. No due process for Daniel Shavers. Just a homicidal cop satisfying his urge to kill.
And, like many before you, you are WRONG in your interpretation of those cases.
Firstly, in Warren v. District of Columbia (which, by the way, is NOT a Supreme Court case, but rather a case of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals), all the court held there was that the police did not owe a specific duty to protect citizens based on the public duty doctrine. But the court made clear that such a duty was owed to the public at large; i.e. individual members of the public could not sustain a lawsuit under the circumstances of that case. Still, its important to note that the public duty doctrine is not a constitutional doctrine, but rather a doctrine established under common law that can be modified/eliminated/replaced by legislation.
As for the Gonzales case, all the Supreme Court held was that the police could not be sued under USC Section 1983 (the federal law that implements much of the 14th Amendment) for failure to enforce a restraining order because a restraining order is not a property right protected by the 14th Amendment.
Still, and those two cases aside (and noting that they do not stand for what you claim), there is nothing preventing cities/states to explicitly enhance/specify/adopt/etc. the duties owed by police officer to protect citizens. For instance, Al Sharpton has sued the NYPD before for failing to protect him as he was prepping for a march and was assaulted (the suit was settled): https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/09/n...-stabbing.html
Now, I write this not to say that people should rely on the cops to protect them. Indeed, the cops are often minutes away when seconds matter. But that in no way takes away from the amazing work that the police do in this country day in and day out.
What do you consider criminal? Being in possession of a plant the government doesn't of? Selling those plants to willing customers?
I would say :
someone in my house un invited.
Someone trying to rob me.
Someone selling illegal narcotics.
Someone robbing a bank.
I can keep going, but you already knew what crimes I was talking about and I never mentioned drugs, especially weed because I don't care about pot smokers. Right there with jay walking.
There could be 5000 cases of substantiated police brutality in this country each year (I haven't even been able to look through that list to do my own research into the facts of the cases . . . and time and time again has proven that I should be skeptical of what "activists" claim is police brutality); note, I'm not claiming that there are that many . . . merely giving a number for the sake of argument. But there are also over 1 million encounters with between uniform law enforcement officers and the public in this country each year. While even one case of police brutality would be one case too many, when compared to the overall number of interactions, you get the sense that we are not in crisis mode.
I'll gladly pay the price for the hard work that the men and women in blue put in day in and day out. A few bad apples don't spoil the bunch in this case.
"Hard work." It's way harder owning a business, or being a chef like my girlfriend.
"Hard work." It's way harder owning a business, or being a chef like my girlfriend.
The 10 Deadliest Jobs: Deaths per 100,000
Being a cop isn't even in the top 10.
The fact that being a police officer is not among the 10 deadliest jobs does not make it a safe job or mean that it is not hard work. I stand by what I wrote, though I can appreciate that you feel different.
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