Christ, even if the young man was cracking wise, so the fuck what? And you have no idea whether this kid is some kind of holy roller who was genuinely trying to be polite or if he was just trying to be nice to diffuse the situation. Does that give the cop the right to threaten his civil rights? Does that give the cop cause to yell in face, cuss him out, and threaten arrest? Not in this country, or at least it’s not supposed to.
By the way, is there ANY situation in which you don’t immediately side with the cop/neighborhood watchman over the unarmed person of color?
a. His red-faced baboon-like dominance display shows that he’s not capable of controlling his temper and acts irrationally as a result
b. His behavior was, by any measure, completely unprofessional and reflects terribly on the police department and
c. He made threats to unlawfully arrest the kid without even the remotest whiff of probable cause (and yes, cops like to abuse wishy-washy charges like disorderly conduct to take out their frustrations on hapless citizens, but they don’t get away with it when caught on tape)
I say kudos to this kid…helping people see who the REAL thugs on the streets are.
Right, he deserved a ticket, not to be verbally assaulted by someone who is supposed to be serving and protecting him and he certainly didn’t deserve to be threatened with arrest for a non-arrestable offense.
Me too. I absolutely hate cops like this. Tiny penis’d morons who become cops so they can make up for the fact that they repeatedly got their asses kicked in high school. Guys like this are why other cops get shot, why people run from the cops, and why people don’t trust the police. No matter whether or not he thought the kid was being a smart ass, he’s the public servant and should’ve walked away. Instead, he chose to have a temper tantrum.
Doubt it. Check out his posting history - particulary in regards to the other unarmed male shot and killed in MO.
Yep, it’s without fail that if the victim is a minority then that poster always, always, always blames them for their poor treatment or death. And they’re always a “punk”.
At no time is it permissible, acceptable, or appropriate for a policeman to verbally assault someone in this way.
Period.
Full Stop.
No matter the attitude that Valdes did or did not display—the policeman was required to behave in a professional and respectful manner.
Nothing that Valdes did made the police officer’s response acceptable by any civilized standard.
I still loved it. I don’t really care about the cop or the kid. I just love seeing a wise ass punk being chewed out. I’ve see these type wise asses here in NYC all the time, and I am tired of their BS. I can’t stand wise ass punks.
The cop’s previous history has nothing to do with this incident. Why should person B have to pay the consequences if the cop had a bad experience with person A?
Essentially the cop is threatening to cook up some excuse to jail someone who was sarcastic. Nobody sane would think that is appropriate.
Yes, there’s that. Also, I would think a defense attorney with a case set to go to trial with this cop as a primary witness would be thrilled to have this video.
Attorney: Have you ever threatened to arrest someone who didn’t commit an arrestable offense, but simply because you felt they were being disrespectful?
Officer Jackass: No
Attorney: Your honor I’d like to introduce defense exhibit B…
If your argument is that the cop’s outburst may have been brought on by something other than the admittedly wise-ass comment of “god bless you,” then you’re really straining. It’s pretty damn clear from the video that the cop flew off the handle because the kid “sassed” him. The kid is calm and unemotional and the cop should have been as well…not to mention mature enough to ignore some sarcastic quip from someone he just gave a ticket.
Nobody’s arguing he didn’t deserve the ticket, but the no license plate thing endangered nobody. The ticket and why he got it have nothing to do with this…just like the altercation in the car has nothing to do with 8 bullets entering Michael Brown while he’s 10 feet or more from the police car and cop.
What’s so hard for you to understand and accept about this cop being a bad cop in this instance? He escalated the confrontation needlessly, made indefensible threats of false arrest and showed that he clearly has a short fuse and poor control over his emotional state while carrying around a firearm in public and operates under some heavy delusions of grandeur in terms of the level of respect and deference he thinks he should be shown.
