We have yet another motorcyclist who have gained Internet fame for his dangerous antics in a chase with police. The suspect even took selfies and slowed to taunt California highway patrol officers in pursuit.
He has been charged with reckless driving. I am sure the police were not amused. One rather large officer was shown with his knee on the back the suspect even after he had surrendered and was cuffed on the ground. I am not sure the kneeing was necessary given the surrender, particularly given the size of the officer who speaks with other officers with his full weight on the suspect.
As no one else has brought this up, I will, namely the highly questionable cost/benefit ratio of high-speed police chases, particularly since “91.4% of all chases are for non-violent crimes.”
—The IACP Police Pursuit Database, 2008, page 56 (pdf)
“Franklin County Police Chief: ‘Hot pursuits can be deadly’
By ROSCOE BARNES III Staff writer
Updated: 04/03/2008 12:44:27 AM EDT0 Comments
“Hot police pursuits might make for good television. In reality, however, they offer more than entertainment.
” ‘It’s serious business,’ said Chief John Phillippy of the Greencastle Police Department. ‘The days of the cowboy and Indians stuff are long past.’ [Would that more police officers realized this]
“There were three deaths as a result of three police pursuit cases in Franklin County in the last six months.
“Hot pursuits can be deadly, and given the dangerous nature of the cases, some local police departments are taking a second look at their hot pursuit policies. They want to update and possibly revise them in order to make them safer and more effective.”
http://www.publicopiniononline.com/ci_8790289
“Quick Facts
“• Crashes as a result of police chases and police response calls kill more than one person a day, and one-third of the people killed are innocent bystanders.
“• On average, these crashes kill one officer every six weeks.
“• According to a 2004 Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center analysis of nine years of national statistics [submitted on a voluntary basis], “One third of these pursuit fatalities occur to innocent bystanders.”
“• The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) gathers pursuit fatalities on a voluntary basis. A 2002 FBI Bulletin notes, “The absence of mandatory reporting hampers the government’s ability to track the actual number of deaths.” Under-reporting of pursuit fatalities still exists today. According to NHTSA, crashes as a result of police pursuits kill at least one person a day. Sometimes, it is more than one person a day. Of those killed, at least a third are innocent bystanders
.
“• PursuitSAFETY no longer uploads data from NHTSA, since the data is incomplete.
“The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin…
“Police pursuit records provide some frightening statistics.
• First, the majority of police pursuits involve a stop for a traffic violation.
• Second, one person dies everyday as a result of a police pursuit.
• On average, from 1994 through 1998, one law enforcement officer was killed every 11 weeks in a pursuit. [By 2010, that number increased to one officer killed every six weeks in a pursuit.]
• Innocent third parties who just happened to be in the way constitute 42 percent of persons killed or injured in police pursuits.
• Further, 1 out of every 100 pursuits results in a fatality.” —The FBI Report
“USA Today, April 22, 2010: About 360 people are killed each year in police chases, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Geoffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina who has studied police pursuits since the 1980s, says the actual number of fatalities is ‘three or four times higher.’ Another complicating factor: bystanders killed after police stop chasing suspects — even seconds afterward — are not counted.
91.4% of all chases are for non-violent crimes.
—The IACP Police Pursuit Database, 2008, page 56 (pdf)
” ’90 seconds. That’s the time an officer saves between driving 80 and 100 mph over a 10-mile stretch.’
—Former Illinois State Police director Larry Trent
” ‘Pursuits are the most dangerous police tactic, killing more innocent bystanders than a bullet from an officer’s firearm. A traffic crash constitutes the most common terminating event in an urban pursuit.’
—Ret. Police Chief D.P. Van Blaricom, Bellevue, WA
“ ‘Nationally, we say about one-third of our police pursuits conclude in a collision. You tell me another law enforcement activity where one-third of the time it goes bad and they continue to do it.’
—Capt. Travis Yates, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Police Department
“It is estimated there are about 70,000 chases each year in the United States. However, there is no national database to provide this information. PursuitSAFETY’s stance on penalties for drivers who flee.”
http://pursuitsafety.org/mediakit/statistics.html
I suggest that the basic question here is what’s more important, police officer and private citizen safety, or the need to control and exact immediate obedience from non-violent offenders of traffic laws?
Chinggis think Mr. Rogers do lousy job. Only get 3.5 yaks out of ten. Some things good, though. Apology is good. Keep you from being second course at Mongolian BBQ. Also right that all Mongols are good looking.
To get high score need bad jokes, lousy puns. Like this:
Police who stop motorcycle man must be musical police. Heard them sing “I Kneed You. “
I think we should just taze them bro.
Trooper, De Blasio is a Clinton/Obama hybrid. He will eventually turn NYC back to a city that will plead for someone w/ common sense.
People like this motorcyclist often have narcissistic personality disorder. They have a demented need to bring attention to themselves. Now, some personality disorders w/ talent, like actors, comedians, etc. can bring attention to themselves in a positive fashion. But, folk like this motorcyclist, and OTHERS, have no talent, intellect, or positive qualities. So, they must feed their monkey via negative means. YouTube, blogs, etc. give these narcissistic personality disorder people a forum. This motorcyclist got exactly what he wanted. If you close your eyes, it is easy to visualize a person w/ a selfie stick cruising around this blog, saying “LOOK @ ME, LOOK @ ME!!” The ONLY remedy is to ignore. You can’t cuff and lock up a commenter.
@Nick Spinelli “You can’t cuff and lock up a commenter.”
Though some would if they could! LOL!
They should just give him a Desk Disappearance Ticket. Comrade De Blasio is forcing the NYPD to go back to that policy in his continual attempt to bring the 1970’s back to NYC.
This week alone I had the front gate of my store graffitied and a “youte” pulled a gun on a grandmother outside my front door while he was on his way to sign up for college.
This is going to be a great summer.
Well, I’m glad to be in JT’s corner this time. Y’all like him so much when he’s representing the Republican House, but no so much when he draws attention to police abuse, or climate change or the illegality of torture. Funny.
Trooper York – what, treat him like he was an illegal alien?
🙂
Another selfish, self absorbed high speed chase in CA, complete with selfie. WE have those all the time. It’s quite common for innocent bystanders and police to get in severe accidents because of high speed car chases. These criminals seem to have no idea, or just don’t care, that they can kill people all around them because they don’t want to pay for their crimes.
Since we have these regularly (they are a spectator TV sport), yes, they do pin the suspect down to the ground. Since they’ve already risked people’s lives to try to escape arrest, who knows what else they’ll do. Sometimes they have used needles hidden in their clothes, so officers get stuck wrestling or patting a squirming suspect down. (I saw this happen on a show where a journalist did ride alongs, poor guy.) Or they’re armed or fight.
So, as a motorist with a family on CA roads, I don’t feel much sympathy when one of these guys is held down with a knee while he’s cuffed. They’re not beating him.
Of course the cop was too rough with this poor guy. Why did the even handcuff him anyway? They should have just ask him nicely to show out at the police station. I mean it is not like he is some sort of crazed out of control person who would be reckless.
Thanks to all the police experts who have weighed in with their cogent and perceptive comments based on their vast experience.
@Chinggis Khan
“Chinggis not let Mr. Rogers fill in for Chinggis if Mr. Rogers not spell Chinggis name right.”
Please accept my sincerest apology, Mr. Khan. It was late, I was tired, you have an unusual name, and frankly, all you Mongolians look alike to me. It won’t happen again, though.
Other than misspelling your name, though, how’d I do?
Kenneth Rogers sees himself as Sheriff Andy Taylor. And while I loved Andy, when I got into law enforcement I saw the world was not Mayberry, and one could GET KILLED being Sheriff Taylor. Unless you have had a job where cuffing people was required, folks commenting are, to varying degrees, talkin’ out of their asses.
@ Nicholas Spinelli
“Kenneth Rogers sees himself as Sheriff Andy Taylor.”
You mistake me, Nicholas Spinelli. I meant that’s what I hoped I’d have said after I had ‘cuffed and knee-capped him: “Let’s see you stand up on your bike now, Dogbreath.”
And although it isn’t Mayberry, but is in fact, a jungle out there, it’s a good idea in terms of your financial security to keep in mind some case law regarding handcuffing and excessive force.
Ihttp://policelink.monster.com/training/articles/39734-handcuffing-as-excessive-force
Inga (Annie): “The knee and weight behind it is excessive.”
Your observational skills are magical!
JT: “I am not sure the kneeing was necessary given the surrender, particularly given the size of the officer who speaks with other officers with his full weight on the suspect.”
“full weight”? Really? How would you know?
It doesn’t look that his “full weight” was being used.
My experience handcuffing was in a correctional setting and as a probation officer. I had a muscular young man feign compliance and then wheel around and clock me hard. That never happened again!! As Darren stated well, the cop was spot on and if one doesn’t want to get cuffed, well then don’t do stuff like this. Anyone whining about this, including JT, are simply flat ass wrong.
@ Nick Spinelli
“My experience handcuffing was in a correctional setting and as a probation officer. I had a muscular young man feign compliance and then wheel around and clock me hard. That never happened again!!”
Not that I’m comparing you with him, but this reminds me of something one of our brainiest and wise-most presidents once said:
“…fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
Although we’re the beneficiaries, policy-wise, of Junior’s third and fourth terms, I sure do miss the comic relief provided by his malapropisms.
That’s why I always vote “Yes!” in those online polls that periodically pop up with his picture, asking, “Do you miss me, yet?” 🙂
http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/georgewbush/a/top10bushisms.htm
JT had an emotional outburst? LOL!
Oooops :-{ I meant TJustice. It’s early out here. I haven’t had my second cup of coffee……those are my excuses and I stick with them.
🙂
His diminished prospects in life will be a burden for the rest of society. I don’t think people get that when they so blithely sentence people.
If we are perfectly safe, we are dead. So many put being “safe” and financially secure at the top of their list of things to do in life.
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
I agree with Helen Keller on this one.
Chinggis not let Mr. Rogers fill in for Chinggis if Mr. Rogers not spell Chinggis name right. Chinggis let Mr. Rogers go back to his neighborhood. Clean up yak droppings. Motorcyclist lucky no yak droppings in road. Otherwise motorcyclist have yaksident.
JT had an emotional outburst? LOL!
Since Darren speaks from actual real world experience about the procedure of handcuffing and restraining an obviously deranged subject, I will defer to him and completely ignore the biased and emotional outbursts from JT and Inga who do not have a clue.
Not only did the cyclist put himself in danger, he could have caused many others on a crowded freeway to be killed or injured by his self centered behavior. Driving on a California Freeway is dangerous enough without this type of action.
@ Jane
I don’t feel the least bit sorry for the “young man” and his diminished prospects in life. He chose to be an idiot and put other people in danger. He chose to break the law. He CHOSE badly and actions have consequences. Too bad his parents didn’t teach him these life lessons.