You’d be amazed what some police officers will call “assault on an officer” or “resisting arrest” with a straight face—that’s a problem even without touching any racial-disparity issues.
Oh, I heard some crazy examples. Like, in theory a cop needs a legal reason to arrest you, but in practice you can be arrested for a crime, and resisting arrest is itself a crime. So the cop can create a self-consistent time loop, where he predicts that you will resist arrest, arrest you for this specific crime, and if you resist that arrest, that retroactively makes the arrest legal. (Sorry, I don’t have a link, but at least in one situation the court said that such reasoning was okay.) And how does the cop prove that you resisted the arrest? That’s trivial; his word against yours is enough. But if a technical proof on camera is needed, he can just kick you or pinch you in a place away from camera, have your reaction recorded, and interpret it as your spontaneous attack.
But this is a problem separate from racism.
the evidence is complex, patchy and difficult to interpret
Agreed. Just the fact that something is too complicated to prove, doesn’t make it automatically false. Doesn’t make it automatically true, either. It’s true that higher average racism in general society most likely implies higher average racism among cops. It’s also true that innocent black people are going to be killed disproportionally more often whether there is a racism or not. So… further research is needed?
So the cop can create a self-consistent time loop, where he predicts that you will resist arrest, arrest you for this specific crime, and if you resist that arrest, that retroactively makes the arrest legal. (Sorry, I don’t have a link, but at least in one situation the court said that such reasoning was okay.)
Here’s an example via one of my favorite blogs, if you’d like to have a look. Summary—a lawyer who was verbally objecting (calmly) to a cop’s interaction with her client was told that she would be “arrested for resisting arrest” if she did not stop verbally objecting. She said “please do” and was promptly arrested and left handcuffed in a holding cell for an hour. Whole thing caught on camera—the interaction takes less than two minutes.
On a more serious note, the arrest of Sandra Bland followed similar lines. Again, all on camera—the officer’s own dash cam, not a bystander’s recording.
Just the fact that something is too complicated to prove, doesn’t make it automatically false. Doesn’t make it automatically true, either. It’s true that higher average racism in general society most likely implies higher average racism among cops. It’s also true that innocent black people are going to be killed disproportionally more often whether there is a racism or not. So… further research is needed?
That’s a neat, clear statement of what I took over a thousand words to say. What is this sorcery!
Oh, I heard some crazy examples. Like, in theory a cop needs a legal reason to arrest you, but in practice you can be arrested for a crime, and resisting arrest is itself a crime. So the cop can create a self-consistent time loop, where he predicts that you will resist arrest, arrest you for this specific crime, and if you resist that arrest, that retroactively makes the arrest legal. (Sorry, I don’t have a link, but at least in one situation the court said that such reasoning was okay.) And how does the cop prove that you resisted the arrest? That’s trivial; his word against yours is enough. But if a technical proof on camera is needed, he can just kick you or pinch you in a place away from camera, have your reaction recorded, and interpret it as your spontaneous attack.
But this is a problem separate from racism.
Agreed. Just the fact that something is too complicated to prove, doesn’t make it automatically false. Doesn’t make it automatically true, either. It’s true that higher average racism in general society most likely implies higher average racism among cops. It’s also true that innocent black people are going to be killed disproportionally more often whether there is a racism or not. So… further research is needed?
Here’s an example via one of my favorite blogs, if you’d like to have a look. Summary—a lawyer who was verbally objecting (calmly) to a cop’s interaction with her client was told that she would be “arrested for resisting arrest” if she did not stop verbally objecting. She said “please do” and was promptly arrested and left handcuffed in a holding cell for an hour. Whole thing caught on camera—the interaction takes less than two minutes.
On a more serious note, the arrest of Sandra Bland followed similar lines. Again, all on camera—the officer’s own dash cam, not a bystander’s recording.
That’s a neat, clear statement of what I took over a thousand words to say. What is this sorcery!