On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 6:54 PM, Jerry Johnson<[email protected]> wrote: > If in fact Gates was threatening the cop by asking for his badge number, and > promising to rain hell down on him, in front of other cops and witnesses, > the police officer's ability to just "walk away" may have been limited for > both pride and legal and professional reasons.
WTF? Threatening the cop by asking for his badge number? That should be every citizens first response. If there is not immediate danger to life and limb then I'm not going to do a damn thing until the cop shows me that they are, indeed, a cop and have identified themselves. And promising to rain hell down on them? How is that threatening? If the cop is doing the right thing, he's got a whole review process already tilted in his favor and a powerful union backing up his ass. Sounds like police state talk to me. They work for us. Period. A tough job, no doubt, and I am happy that they do it. But every citizen has the right to be presented with identification of the person exerting authority in the situation and to loudly proclaim that they will seek legal recourse under their rights. Unless the dude is seriously obstructing an critical investigation or threatening them with non-legal (i.e., physical harm) means, that is the end of the story. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:300880 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
