The Cops and The Church Guy

May 8, 2011: A quick conversation downtown with a cop and a guy that walked into a church with his signs.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• FreeKeene
• Cop
• Watch

[mackler]

I ran the guy's numbers. They were holy last year, but expired on Dec 31st.

[Vindaven]

@Maat922 I think we found our common ground, Mat. Thanks for the conversation.

[THEHRHOFTIME]

That cop approached you like he wanted to throw down!!!!

[Maat922]

@Vindaven (cont'd) The "moral of the story", as it were, is that we're all in this together, so we ought to take better care of one another, cops included. However, since the police are granted powers that we don't have, it's extremely wise to keep them on their toes. It is fully within one's rights to pay attention to them in the course of their duties. It's nothing more than a failsafe on something that could be a huge bomb, and on occasion in the past, has really bombed too often.

[networkedfreedom]

@Vindaven You lump everyone together as 'copblockers'. Again this is unwarranted. And libertarian journalists don't claim to be unbiased. I don't dislike cops personally, I dislike it when people knowingly or uncritically enforce unjust laws. Your comment about videos not showing the full story reveals that no amount of evidence will satisfy you. Your comment about understanding the law is a red herring.

[networkedfreedom]

@Vindaven No presumption of harassment was made. That is an unwarranted assumption on your part, therefore the filmer was not wrong. You don't know how the cop might have talked to the man. You weren't there. There was no rude behavior detectable from this video, except where the cop unnecessarily gets rude with the filmer. This video was not anti-cop. Your comments are a series of false assumptions.

[Maat922]

@Vindaven (cont'd) NOT to mention, with the recent lawsuit in Georgia where the genius who wanted to be a cop was (literally) disqualified from the position due to his high-IQ (yes, I'm serious), it's blatantly obvious that the new-and-improved method for hiring new officers requires that they be "less than intelligent"...kinda makes you think. I'd rather put my safety in the hands of myself (or a fellow "civilian sheepdog") than some steroid-cranked power junky who watches way too much TV.

[Maat922]

@Vindaven (cont'd) To say that the avergae cop has "better" or "more" moral fortitude is going out on a pretty shaky limb. I should know. There are 4 cops in my family, I know their general collective "blue line" standpoint, so I know precisely how far the "blue line" allows itself to slide, on average, against constitutional protections. To give anyone more power than would be equal to your own is simply dangerous.

[Maat922]

@Vindaven I personally wouldn't support the cop shooting anyone, but that's because with an armed citizenry (as you will find in Keene), the chances of a man with a gun going bonkers drops significantly in the first place; he'd choose a different state for that BS if he had any brains at all. Beyond that, it doesn't really matter who takes the guy down when/if he cocks/levels his gun. Whether he attempts "suicide by cop" or citizen is irrelevent.

[Vindaven]

@Maat922 Good well thought out reply!

I consider myself a liberal. However, I believe the police are better morally than you seem to give them credit for... saying they "all too often cannot be trusted with their badges". I think the average cop is more moral than the average non-cop.

Would the free-keeners support a cop that shot and killed a crazy guy holding (not shooting - yet) a gun? I don't think so - which I think is wrong. IMO: Cops should be allowed to one-up use of force.

[DeraJa]

This man appears to be schizophrenic