04-12-2021, 01:12 PM
(04-12-2021, 01:03 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Again, not knowing the full story, I can't see them initiating a traffic stop with guns drawn as automatically wrong. Only one officer made any inappropriate statements, the other actually made a good effort to deescalate the situation. A lot has been made of conflicting instructions, but the non-compliance started the instant the Lt. stopped the car. The initial officer had to instruct him to show his hands around ten times before he finally complied. There were no conflicting instructions at that time. This was also the time the Lt. felt the need to say he was a servicemen, which has nothing to do with the situation at all.
I've been in a traffic stop in which the van I was in was stopped with guns drawn. Everyone in the car complied with instructions, we were ordered out of the car, we all did so. I identified myself as a peace officer once the officers had the scene under control. Our group was mixed white, Asian and Hispanic btw. We had zero problems and were able to go on our way once they determined we weren't who they were looking for. Shocking, I know.
I could see saying you are a serviceman as a very valid thing to say as to explain why you are dressed in full camo. It could have rightfully been assumed that the aggression could have been attributed to someone in a military getup potentially having weapons in the vehicle.
I have driven miles with lights on to get to a better spot to get safely off the road and was not approached with guns drawn. Shocking that the response can be so different. Anecdotal experience doesn't really have any large-scale barring on this case or any others though but figured I might as well throw one in too.
In the end, the officers acted inappropriately as determined by their own system of review. The Chief arrived on the scene and released the Lt. with no charges filed at the time of the event, meaning he did not believe any actions of the Lt. warranted even a misdemeanor at that time. Then, IA found the use of force by the officer to be inappropriate and disciplined the officers while also requiring department-wide re-training. All of these incidents happened BEFORE the media was involved which combined would seem to suggest that the Lt. did nothing wrong, maybe not ideal but not wrong, while the officers most certainly did do something wrong.
