04-15-2021, 08:16 AM
(04-15-2021, 01:43 AM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: At the risk of wasting my time I'm going to point out a few things. A large number of felony arrests occur due to routine traffic stops. Traffic stops are inherently unpredictable, you never know what the person driving the car is doing, has been doing, has warrants, etc. It is not unheard of for traffic stops to lead to ambushes, especially of late. I'm not these officers, I don't have all the details (like everyone else here), but I cannot automatically condemn their initiating a high risk stop like so many here have done.
I'll make one last point about "conflicting commands". It is absolutely possible to have both hands outside your window and still open the car door. It is also possible to inform an officer that you will be slowly moving one hand to disconnect your seatbelt and unlocking the door, before again placing both hands outside the car before opening the door. It is also imminently possible to comply with officer's instruction as much as possible, and verbalize your attempts to do so. But I fear I am shouting into the void on this one.
Ironically enough the idea of "risk vs threat" came up in the Floyd trial the other day and I'll use a portion of the discussion around the standards. There is a vast difference between the risk of violence and the threat of violence, the risk of violence NEVER constitutes the use of force, or escalating response, only the real threat of violence does. Police work is inherently risky and so using the perceived risk of a sketchy stop to automatically escalate situations is inappropriate and against standard training. Officers who can't de-escalate a tense or risky situation have no business being an officer.
I stated earlier, they NEVER indicated any sort of threat via radio communication to them or the public before the stop occurred. Any such threat SHOULD have been relayed over the radio before the stop occurred. The officer did however determine it was a "high-risk stop" without identifying what factors would make it such. Simply put, they decided a potential "eluding" charge that never was filed made it "high risk". That isn't acceptable, the use of force was found to be unacceptable as a whole by IA, the escalation of the situation via the verbal conduct by one of the officers was unacceptable. You can keep talking about all the info we don't know, but those who do know have not defended any of the actions by the officers. Hell, one of the officers involved even defended the guy for not pulling over right away.
