I’ve seen a ton of videos out there that show officers giving someone the beat down during the commission of a crime, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. The following compilation of videos are, in my opinion examples of police going way beyond the limitations imposed by the laws of the United States.

Some people have argued that videos such as these may be terrible, but they are only an extremely small and not representative sample of police conduct in general. Well, forgive me for being skeptical, but I believe that for every one of these that actually gets caught on video there are probably hundreds that do not. In fact it has been my experience with police officers that they tend to selectively enforce laws as they deem suitable to their individual benefit at the time - even when they are inappropriate or flat our incorrect.
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A study just released from George Mason University’s economics department has finally proven what everyone always sort of just knew. Local law enforcement officials target certain drivers and issue more, and higher dollar fines whenever they can get away with it.

Police officers have long argued that they issue tickets solely in the public interests, but ask almost anyone about the last ticket they received and you’ll often hear of some trivial incident like “failing to stop for 2 complete seconds at a stop sign on a Wednesday night at 2am.”

Now you know why…
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From the Florida Times-Union

Last Saturday Police in Jacksonville, Florida were working under cover, selling drugs and busting users. When they went over to 81 year old Issac Singletary’s front yard and started up he tried to run them off his property, apparantly threatening them with his .38 revolver.

Problem is, rather than the police getting the hell off his property, they pulled their weapons and killed him.
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Imagine this… you’re a rookie cop staking out the mean streets of the Atlanta Convention Center where the raucous American Historical Association is holding their “Annual Meeting”. As you stand there eating your doughnut you witness a man in a three piece suit carrying conference materials cross the middle of the street right between the racy Hilton and questionable Hyatt!

What do you do? Call 5 fellow officers over, toss his ass on the ground, stick a knee in his neck and haul his jaywalking ass to jail of course! (Should have given him a good beat down too!) Who cares if he’s a jolly old foreigner with a British accent in a three piece suit? The public must be protected!
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In the new era of citizen reporting there are a number of new questions regarding issues such as audio and video recording interactions with police officials. Add these to the traditional questions about what is required, or not, and you’ve got one very confused public.

After all the publicity about police abuse of power I decided to try to find some reputable advice on exactly what I can and can’t do if I’m ever involved in, or feel the need to play “big brother” during, a police incident.

On a side note, I’m a well-to-do white guy that’s never been involved in any criminal activity but even I’m afraid of the police. On a few occasions I’ve encountered unprofessional, undereducated and over-ego’ed officers. Even if 90% of encounters are pleasant, 10% can really ruin your day… or worse.

Anyway, I found the following information to be informative.
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The state of Arizona has recently unveiled a new laser unit designed to detect the distance at which cars are following one another.

Using a new laser device that measures the distance between two moving vehicles, officers are citing hundreds of motorists with tailgating tickets that can run more than $100. And they are promising more to come.

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Wow. I wish someone had a video of this… on one hand it would be hillarious. On the other hand, I wonder why a police officer had to resort to using a Taser to separate a little boy from a fight with a girl.

I mean, what the heck? When I was a kid a teacher would just step in and end a fight like this. Now you’ve got a heavily armed police officer standing there and you’re telling me that she couldn’t pull an 80 lb. boy off a girl he was hitting?

They didn’t mention any weapons on the boy, so if that is the case, then that officer needs to be fired for her own safety. If she can’t take an 11 year old she would stand no chance against a grown man.

Here’s the story:
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Did you know that even if you’re an 80 year old god-fearing woman, if the police kick your door in at 2am and kill you, you have no recourse so long as some criminal drug using informant previously swore that there were drugs in your home?

And that’s not just a hypothetical situation. It actually happened. And so did a whole bunch of other shocking examples just like it.
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WESTWOOD, CA (AP) — A student shocked with a Taser gun by a campus police officer after refusing requests to show his ID card thought he was being singled out because of his Middle Eastern appearance, his lawyer said.

Attorney Stephen Yagman said he plans to file a federal civil rights lawsuit accusing the UCLA police of ”brutal excessive force,” as well as false arrest stemming from the Tuesday night incident at a campus library.
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The Internet continues to change the world as people learn how powerful having an equal voice can be. As a prime example, ordinary citizens have begun to employ the tools of the web to act as a watchdog against government exceeding it’s bounds. As an example see CopWatchLA.org.

One area seeing rapid growth is the surveillance of local police officials. It seems that sometimes officers either believe they are omnipotent, or forget that they are paid not only to enforce the laws, but also to exercise appropriate restraint while doing so.
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This is a 5 minute video put together by a group of young people calling themselves “the five year plan”. In it, they demonstrates what happens when a group of drivers decide to strictly obey the posted speed limit on a major US highway.

Interesting stuff, and it’s all absolutely real…
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