When I was living in Las Vegas there would be police presence everywhere. Wealthy neighborhood? Security guards at the gate and police around the perimeter alongside more security driving on golf carts around the perimeter. Low-income neighborhood? Police presence driving around the streets. But police presence wasn't the same as the low-income neighborhoods. You drive through there and its high risk traffic stops or nothing.
So I'm walking through the neighborhood around 7 at night on my way to 7-11 and I see 2 squad cars pull over a black sedan that just exited a parking lot at the strip mall. The car immediately does another right turn back into a smaller street next to the strip mall and stops. Two cops with pistols out pointed towards the black sedan stand by their vehicle and I hear a shout "Boutta win the ghetto lottery!" coming from the direction of the black car. I don't know if its the vehicle operator themselves or somone from the group of people that began to crowd around and record the situation.
I stop as I am now at the corner where the traffic stop is going down and also where the 7-11 is located. I walk into the 7-11 and stop right outside the doors by the windows and I keep watching. At this point you see 4 police officers with pistols drawn at this car and I'm thinking the worse is about to happen. They yell for the driver to put hands out the window and use one hand to unbuckle the seat belt and step out slowly. The usual procedures for a high risk. But what is unusual is how these cops are yelling commands over each other and confusing the driver. He is being told by different voices of command to both lay down on his stomach and have his hands above his head. He begins to kneel with hands up but they want him to keep standing to do a turn around. So he gets up again and then does a turn around. It looks like a complete cluster fuck of confusion as one of the officers doesn't just take command over the suspect. Eventually two of the cops make an approach but still yelling commands at the guy to stay down. The driver is yelling "Why am I being pulled over? What is going on? I have my two kids in the car. What is going on?"
One of the cops yells for him cross his legs and he attempts to do so but pushes himself up to readjust and that was the final straw for the two approaching officers who then taser him and jump onto him to prevent him from any slight movement. The police eventually get handcuffs on the driver and put him into the back of one of the patrol vehicles. They do a search around the car and see the two children and are audibly confused immediately as they weren't expecting children.
I end up going into 7-11 to get what I came for and leave while the whole affair continues and more police show up. I come back to the 7-11 two days later and I talk to the cashier who I know as a close acquaintance thanks to my insomnia and nightly snacking habits. I ask him what happened with the situation the other day. He ends up saying that a lot of the people that were watching came into the store and talked about the cops pulling over a vehicle with the wrong description.
This man is going to be traumatized and his children more so. Having worked as an LEO for over 5 years I can tell you that these situations are not meant to be easy on suspects as you want to keep both yourself and the other person safe. But if you are sending in untrained or bare minimum trained fools who don't know how to communicate or, in many instances, deescalate a situation then you aren't going to get any positive public relations, and worse you are going to continue the same cycle of idiocy. And when you send in ill trained workers of any career into a situation that can mean life and death then you are going to end up having blood spilled unnecessarily.
Acoustatic
Thank you for sharing your story man, especially from the perspective of a former LEO. If you give any person a huge amount of power with little to no consequences, they'll eventually do things that aren't legal or morally right. Just like the cops in your post did.
When you have the ability to send someone to a concrete tomb for any reason, it's hard to not let your emotions and personal feelings get in the way. It's a complex issue overall, but at the end of the day: more power, more problems.
BusanBlack
That is exactly it. Give a man power and he will show you his true character.
What always puzzled me was while I was an LEO in the military (Air Force) we have rules of engagement for down range and we had been taught up and down left and right the use of force model because we don't want to make mistakes. We are trained 2 months in basic training and 4 months for the job training. Then when you finally arrive at your assignment you are training on the job for another 6 months then you are required to take tests and pass them with a minimum of 80%.
All of that done without the comfort on being able to cheat because you are placed in a room with a civilian or other career military personnel who give no damn about you passing or not. You then go onto your first duty which isn't much because you are still being trained. All in all a security forces officer will go through one year of training before being left to their own devices.
I worked in S3T which is the training section and I've developed study plans for new SF officers which all required an understanding of use of force and de-escalation tactics.
I've been called to domestic disputes, I've been to shopliftings, and physical altercations but never have I or any other trained SF officer arrived to a situation with the intention of making shit worse. Like at the end of the day these are people I live with and work with and communicate with and I don't want to hurt my image or that of my fellow officers.
But then you get the civilian side and you see officers working where they don't live. Paid the taxes of those cities but spending it in the suburbs. So when do these citizens get to see their tax dollars at work? They don't.
There needs to be reform. Absolutely needs to be reform. If a cop quits his job because he feels like the new world of rules is too difficult then they aren't worth keeping around. We need intelligent men and women working together with their community to thwart poverty and assist those who are in need. Crime doesnt start with a criminal it starts with poverty and the absence of social services.