To say that this headline which appeared at the Washington Post today is not helping would be putting it lightly.
In many cases when you see a headline as egregious and click-bait-y as this, the corresponding article doesn’t quite measure up. But in this case the content is worse than the headline.
This is what fascist asshole Sunil Dutta of the Los Angeles Police Department has to say:
Regardless of what happened with Mike Brown, in the overwhelming majority of cases it is not the cops, but the people they stop, who can prevent detentions from turning into tragedies. [...]
We are still learning what transpired between Officer Darren Wilson and Brown, but in most cases it’s less ambiguous — and officers are rarely at fault. When they use force, they are defending their, or the public’s, safety.
Even though it might sound harsh and impolitic, here is the bottom line: if you don’t want to get shot, tased, pepper-sprayed, struck with a baton or thrown to the ground, just do what I tell you. Don’t argue with me, don’t call me names, don’t tell me that I can’t stop you, don’t say I’m a racist pig, don’t threaten that you’ll sue me and take away my badge. Don’t scream at me that you pay my salary, and don’t even think of aggressively walking towards me. Most field stops are complete in minutes. How difficult is it to cooperate for that long?
Don’t even think about walking “aggressively.” Don’t even think about reminding him of his civic responsibility. Don’t call him names.
If you do any of those things, he might have to break your face.
Finally, cops are legally prohibited from using excessive force: The moment a suspect submits and stops resisting, the officers must cease use of force.
I’m sure Eric Garner of New York would have something to say about that if he were still alive. Michael Brown of Ferguson may as well.
It would be easier to take the qualifiers offered by Dutta seriously, such as working as an internal affairs investigator, if he didn’t so casually command you to respect his unquestionable authority.