Originally posted by: Bowfinger
Originally posted by: JD50
What an asshole.
That's uncalled-for. Granted, in a perfect world, she would have had the integrity and personal courage to push back on her bosses and refuse to violate the Constitution of the United States of America. Unfortunately, it's not a perfect world, she undoubtedly has a family to feed and bills to pay, and she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think she did an acceptable job of recognizing the man she stopped was properly asserting his rights. It would have been better had she done so more quickly, but at least she ultimately let him pass and didn't escalate the infraction, unlike the other example above. They were assholes. She was just a poor cop stuck in a no-win situation.
Removing tongue from cheek, that's the really hard part about examples like the OP. Being a cop sucks. It's a largely thankless job where good men and women literally put their lives on the line every day to protect a public who mostly ignores them until someone screws up. I think our public safety employees deserve tremendous respect
That said, what is the appropriate response when good cops are charged with enforcing bad laws or, as in this case, executing inappropriate tactics? As American citizens, we have certain rights guaranteed to us by our Constitution. We have every right to resist any government official who attempts to violate those rights. On the other hand, it's critical to recognize that in cases like the above, the issue isn't individual officers nearly as much as it is the agency they work for.
In short, how does one target the message without unduly harassing the messenger? I would have taken a different approach than the subject of the OP, but I can't condemn what he did as unreasonable. He wasn't violent. He was in no way abusive or demeaning to the officer. He simply stuck to the letter of the law and demanded that she, someone sworn to uphold the law, do so too.
What I do find appalling are the people here who viciously attack this man for asserting his legal rights. Sorry comrades, but welcome to America. Kindly leave your brown shirts and jack boots back in your despotic dystopia. As much as you may applaud the intent of the stops, the end does not justify the means.