A deputy in Columbia County, FL stops a blind man for having a folding cane in his back pocket, claiming that she thought it was a firearm. EDITED TO ADD: It’s obvious that the deputy didn’t REALLY believe that the folded walking stick in his back pocket was a firearm, judging by her demeanor when he reached back and pulled it from his pocket. She invented the firearm story because she wanted an excuse to stop and harass him. I believe that she stopped him because she had already decided to harass him and find a reason to arrest him. END EDIT
It is quickly established that her reasonable, articulable suspicion was incorrect. At this point, her legal justification for the stop is over. There is no RAS that a crime was being committed, therefore there is no reason to detain this man. Instead, she then demands that he produce identification and he refuses because he apparently understands the law better than this cop and her sergeant.
After they run his ID, the female deputy asks “Was that so hard?” The man replies, “It’s gonna be. I want your names and badge numbers,” to which the sergeant replies, “You know what, put him in jail for resisting.”
Resisting what? There was no legal reason to put him in handcuffs or demand his ID.
This is the kind of shit that makes me dislike police. The deputies know the charges will be dropped but are using the process to punish people because they know that they will inconvenience you, costing you legal fees, and retaliate by putting you into the system. We should change the law to establish citizen review committees that review police actions and give these committees the power to strip individual officers of their qualified immunity so that they can be personally held accountable when deliberately using the law as a weapon to satisfy personal vendettas.
This kind of stuff makes my blood boil.
23 Comments
E M Johnson · November 7, 2022 at 7:59 am
committee? nahhh, just handle it yourself down the road when their off duty. starts happening often enough the situation will resolve itself. plus dont be stupid about it. no need to loose any more time for assholes like that
Divemedic · November 7, 2022 at 8:04 am
Unfortunately, that is how you wind up in jail.
Echo Hotel · November 7, 2022 at 11:50 am
Only if someone finds out it was you. Use your brain and one can get easily get away with what E M was stating.
E M Johnson · November 7, 2022 at 2:19 pm
exactly, don’t be stupid and most importantly keep your mouth shut. of course I’m not advocating any one commit violence… just saying random terrible shit happens when karma finally comes a’callin for the bill of being an asshole under color of authority
Craig · November 7, 2022 at 8:04 am
These two need an ass whoopin’!
BobF · November 7, 2022 at 8:15 am
1. Modify qualified immunity.
2. Take monetary awards from the officer(s) involved, not the taxpayers or insurance companies.
3. Publicize the hell out of officers’ names when they pull crap like this.
neomunitor · November 7, 2022 at 9:18 am
Hopefully this turned into a rather large civil suit for wrongful arrest and nice settlement for this man that blew back a shit storm on the bad cops. Unfortunately the police unions are, like all unions, primarily occupied with defending the bad apples like these roaches instead of managing collective issues, which is what they should be doing. But if cops keep on throwing their weight around like they are above the law, they will FAFO that someone who looks like Mr. Milquetoast won’t be bullied and will snap. That is liable to be fatal for all parties involved.
Elrod · November 7, 2022 at 9:33 am
It is unfortunate that the citizen had to go through all that, but I’m confident he can find an attorney who will provide the necessary assistance in creating a substantial retirement fund at county expense.
And, whomever sees that video just lowered their opinion of LEOs several more notches; it will not matter that other LEOs did not participate in this event, nor that they might condemn it.
There will come a point, and perhaps it’s already been reached, where public support for LEOs evaporates sufficiently that LEOs will come to wish it hadn’t.
Skeptic · November 7, 2022 at 11:11 am
Still waiting for the “good” LEO’s to condemn this type of conduct from the “bad” LEO’s.
joe · November 7, 2022 at 6:15 pm
condemning the fuck out of it…just retired from le and it’s shit like this, and the way they have acted the last 2 years is one of the reasons…don’t trust them…
BobF · November 7, 2022 at 4:30 pm
And when SHTF and we’re in hopes LEO won’t be on the side of Uncle Sam disarming and destroying us, how do we know who is who? Unless they clean up their ranks, HIGHLY unlikely, anyone betting on help rather than attack is dreaming.
exile1981 · November 7, 2022 at 9:42 am
30 plus years ago i took a shiftfor a female friend who had an exam the next morning and didnt want to work the late night shift.
A drunk came into the video store and demanded i give him a bottle of lysol (drug store was next door and closed). When i said we didnt have or sell it he pulled a knife and threatened me, so I called 911. He kept stabbing the counter and demanding lysol while i was standing as far back on the phone holding a hockey stick we kept handy. Finally the guy wandered out the door to throw up and i vaulted the counter and locked the doors.
I stayed on the line with 911 for hours while the idiot tried to break in before he finally wandered off. The cops never showed that night.
A week later during my usual morning shift they showed up and demanded i sign a form holding them not responsible for no showing and fill out a report on the incident. My boss told them to F off its not our job to do theirs.
Fast forward 15 years and i was working in a rural bank (contract work not as a bank employee) and i heard a guy screaming at the only teller in the building that he wanted a ‘loan’ soi came out of the room i was in. When she refused he said he would force her to give the loan and that he was going to get a machette from his car. As he left the building i ran and held the door shut till the teller got the keys and locked it. She had tripped the panic alarm as well. We could see the rcmp station from the window and watched a cop drive a block and park across the street while the guy tried to get back in with his machette in hand. Finally he drove off and thats when the cop actually came over and claimed he just arrived.
BobF · November 7, 2022 at 4:34 pm
And as a kid I thought Sergeant Preston was real. What a disappointment. 🙂
SiG · November 7, 2022 at 10:30 am
I suspect this kind of stuff is going to get more common.
The “Defund the Police” stuff is making it more into a job for those who can’t do anything better. We’ve been hearing forever that the cops are only in it for the pension and benefits. We read that departments all over the country are dropping their hiring standards and taking applicants they never would have taken before.
People who can do better will. Only the losers will take the job.
Steve S6 · November 7, 2022 at 10:34 am
Cops really in their own self interest should police themselves. This just puts a target on the back of all police if/when WROL hits. They won’t have anyone to blame for that but themselves. In the above case getting charged just makes an official record for his lawyer to use.
Bad Dancer · November 7, 2022 at 10:55 am
I see its already been said but the idea that any damages be awarded from the officers in question, the departments own budget, and in some way the city feels the pain in the wallet instead of a slush fund of tax payer dollars would be a very good step in the right direction. Another would be banning the officers from being rehired by the department after the heat dies down or another department quietly.
Steve · November 7, 2022 at 11:13 am
I used to collect stories like this into a file called “the thin blue line”, but stopped after the file got so big, it was depressing me. It make me realize that cops won’t help you, and instead will harass you because they can hide behind their badge given qualified immunity. Make them responsible for their actions (like the rest of us are), and this behavior will diminish. It won’t stop because there are always going to be “bad apples”, but knowing they will be held responsible will make the cost great enough to deter most.
Anonymous · November 7, 2022 at 12:09 pm
How many of these incidents have to happen before the “bad apple” dipshits get the memo? Pretty odd that the supervisor (or bad apple dipshit #2) is there immediately, this seems like they had the outcome planned before our citizen was even accosted. I hope his attorney subpoenas their cell phone records and texts leading up to this BS arrest when they sue.
Don’t settle! Let it go to discovery at the very least!
Aesop · November 7, 2022 at 1:47 pm
1) The Douchebadge is not a mythical creature. You see them every day. If you’ve very unlucky, you meet them.
2) They’re going to start getting culled, because nobody is left to GAF.
3) When they start metaphorically or actually stringing up bad cops by their genitals, I’ll start to feel bad about #2. Not before.
I was coming home from working as a Red Cross first aid volunteer at an event in the 1990s, when I happened upon an accident, fresh, with the car wheels still spinning.
Two cars had collided head-on, there were five victims, and the two firefighter EMTs were busy doing CPR on one of the victims. There was one police officer 50 yards away trying to hold back looky-loos from the other end of the melee.
I parked off the street short of the mess, and when I started to walk towards the medics, wearing a literal 2′ tall Red Cross on a uniform shirt, and carrying a first aid bag, the sole cop there yelled up the block at me “Where are you going?”
I said I was going to ask the two lone firefighters there if they needed any help, and that if they said no, I’d be on my way.
He nodded and said “Okay.”
The medics present at that point , with their hands rather full, asked me to go help the driver of the other car, that hit the one with four people. I proceeded to do that, finding the driver in the upside-down wreck moaning, and ended up keeping the probably drunk driver from moving, and holding traction on his neck until more help with a C-collar could arrive.
When the back up fire engine company and paramedics arrived and found me there, half went to help their guys working on the driver in cardiac arrest, the other half got a c-collar and backboard, and together, we got the collar on the guy I was stabilizing, strapped him to the board, and safely extricated him from his overturned vehicle, which I had been inside for about 15 minutes. I asked them if they needed me for anything further. As there was a third and fourth ambulance arriving then, they said, no, and thanked me for my assistance. Whereupon I proceeded to walk by the most direct route possible, and started to go back to my car to finish my drive home.
Officer #1 had been joined by additional units, and now Officer Jackboots Douchebadge commanded me to halt, and came over to begin his interrogation, with all the finesse of the gestapo looking for Jooooos! Bearing in mind, I’m in a white uniform shirt with not less than four large “American Red Cross” ID emblems, including the aforementioned 2′ Red Cross on the back, and my Red Cross volunteer photo ID badge pinned to the chest all plainly visible.
“Why did you cross a police line??
“I didn’t do any such thing, Officer. Your other officer gave his assent to me seeing if I could render any medical assistance. The two medics doing CPR looked rather busy.” Which I then explained the above description of what exactly I had done.
“Who do you think you are??
I pointed to my ID badge, and told him I was a state-certified EMT and RN nursing student.
“Where are you a nursing student??”
I gave him the name of the local state college I was attending.
“They don’t have a nursing program there!!”
I told him that this news would be a great shock to my nursing program professors, and promised to report this sad news to them at the first opportunity in class next week. Now he switched from rude asshole, to offended Douchebadge Asshole first class.
“What’s in here?? as he snatched my first aid bag, opened it without any permission, and began to riffle through the contents.
“It’s my first aid kit.”
Bummer for him, nothing you couldn’t get over-the-counter at Rite-Aid, no drugs, nothing sharp or even remotely weapon-like. Just bandages, splints, gauze and tape, a steth and a BP cuff.
Disappointed and pissed that all his witty repartee wasn’t having the intended effect, he reminded me that he could arrest me for interfering with the authorities at an accident.
I wished him well with that clever plan, and suggested he might consult the fire captain and paramedics, who waved at me then as they returned to their truck.
Now steaming but unwilling to trample on his own dick any further, he graciously allowed me to proceed on my way:
“Go home!!”
“Officer, it’s been quite a pleasure chatting with you, and seeing the LAPD’s finest in action up close. The fire department only said ‘Thank you.’ But I can see why you’re so popular down in South Central (this was shortly after the Rodney King riots).”
“Get the fuck out of here before I run you in anyways!!”
“You have a nice day too, Officer.”
I walked ten blocks home from there, because he was watching me like a hawk to see a car or a license plate, and I had no desire to open the door to an ad hoc car search or gratuitous ticket, and put a target on my back after he ran my plates.
I had my wife drive me back about a half an hour later, picked up the car, and then drove over to the station and had a little chat with his desk sergeant at the local division. I told him I had no interest in filing complaint paper on Officer Respect Mah Authoritah, because I wasn’t going to be an asshole just because he was, and that besides, given their rep at the time, I doubted they’d do anything but round file it anyways, but suggested ever so diplomatically that maybe the sergeant might want to have a wee counselling chat with Officer Asshole about his sorely lacking people skills.
He diplomatically replied that “No matter how flat the pancake, there’s always two sides”, but said he would ask his man about the incident before doing anything further.
Which probably amounted to anything from “Stop pissing off the taxpayers” to a backslap, big smile, and a “Nice work, Fuckhead!”
I’ve met good cops, even on duty, even when they were writing me a ticket I deserved. You can do the job without being an asshole. But you have to want to do that. Too many lose interest in that approach within months of hitting the streets.
The shitheads need to be hounded out with real hounds, tarred and feathered, and barred from further government employment. And they should have their pictures and crimes put on a Wall Of Shame right across the lobby from their Wall Of Honor.
I’ve never seen that happen once in my entire life, unless they found them with a dead hooker or a live little boy in their bed, with video evidence.
Most of the country now considers them all guilty until proven innocent, and the bad cops give the good 5% a bad reputation. They might turn that around if they tried really hard for about 50 years, but a good first step would be even wanting to start. They’re too busy collecting a check, and covering their own asses.
Danny · November 7, 2022 at 6:17 pm
I, fortunately, have had only a few encounters with LEO over the years. And every single one was extremely unpleasant.
Most often, they lurk about looking for an easy excuse to put someone down. Many LEO — and I say this only as personal opinion — are human trash masquerading behind a costume and some sort of badge.
Nobody · November 10, 2022 at 4:48 pm
I am really conflicted about this. The officers were egregiously out of line. But he kinda brought it on himself just a tiny bit.
We all know the police are not your friends. Why be dense and give them the slightest chance to get their jollies? She’ll be tingling for years to come thinking back on this encounter. She r-e-a-l-l-y showed him !
Imagine that a trashy, tatted up white slore in Florida might take the smallest opportunity to be an empowered utter cnut (on video no less!) to a man who would appear to lack the financial means to defend himself in court. Of course Sergeant Shithead would play right along (knowing full well he’s on camera). They both think they are in the right and just fuck with him because they can. Is is NOT right, but this is who we are dealing with. Imagine being a cop these days? How poor your life decisions must have been to land you in that role. You are clearly not dealing with the sharpest tools in the workshop.
Our hero is morally and ethically right on every level, but they got his ID anyway, despite his attempts to disengage. He is now permanently on their radar and in their system for life. Not very “grey-man” is it?
To me, he was not being smart. He put himself very much in the way of the Harkonnen fist (apologies to Frank Herbert). It was not right, morally or ethically. But it could have easily been avoided.
I wish our guy the very best of luck with his legal case, and hope he can sue them into the stone age. But these people would not have knowingly behaved that way on camera if there was a snowflakes chance in hell of consequences to them personally.
Divemedic · November 10, 2022 at 4:53 pm
My hat is off to the guy. A right that isn’t exercised is lost. Saying that he brought it on himself is like saying that you should let the cops search your house on demand or simply turn in your guns upon demand.
Once they stopped him to harass him, he was no longer gray man. The time for hiding is over. Now you make an example out of them and become the topic of training for every new hire in the department while simultaneously becoming the reason why the cops in that county don’t get a raise for the next two years, because a good chunk of the budget is going to pay your lawsuit.
Nobody · November 11, 2022 at 5:58 pm
Thanks for the wake-up call Divemedic. I hadn’t thought about it that way. My go-along-to-get-along attitude enables this exact behaviour and is probably why we are in this place as a society right now.
I should know better. I was bullied by a couple of menopausal lesbians at my work a few years back. Just because they hated their lives, hated men and they could make my life utterly miserable without any consequences to themselves – just like the cnut cop in the video. They behaved like that tatted up slore, supremely passive aggressive. Naturally – management had their backs – because we don’t have enough women in science and management or some bullshit slogan.
My mistake was to forgive their first shot at me. I was new at the job, on a short contract and didn’t want to make waves – so I let it go. If I’d been a man about it and taken them straight to HR (as the three women who witnessed their BS urged me to do at the time) they’d have left me alone.
Seems I really need my balls to drop & wake up to myself.
Thanks for the feedback.
Nobody
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