It is common to get advice like “never look a polar bear in the eye.” The same appears to be true with Dayton police officers. Driver John Felton has posted a video of a pull over by a police officer who told him that he was pulled over because he “made direct eye contact” with him while driving by.
The officer remains polite in the video tape below but he admits near the end that he followed the driver (who is clearly upset) “Because you made direct eye contact with me and held onto it when I was passing you.”
The officer handed John Felton a warning for a traffic signal violation. Felton had to sit on the roadside after being following by the officer for some time.
The city arranged for Felton to have a conversation with the officer, facilitated by the Dayton Mediation Center. Felton, who has retained a lawyer, says that he was stopped because of his Michigan plates even though he grew up in the area.
The traffic violation of not signaling more than 100 feet before making a turn is something that most drivers have done repeatedly.
When Felton objected to the concept of suspicious eye contact, the officer said “I am not going to argue about it anymore with you, sir. I’ll just scan your license and give you a citation for the violation, and you could take it to court.”
Here is the video:
Source: CNN
Cop haters tend to be nocturnal, evidenced by the last couple comments.
And lest we make cops an endangered species, here are some facts:
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“Often, people who are sympathetic to police will quote that 83 police have died in the line of duty in 2015. And that is true, but what they aren’t telling you is that 13 of those officers had heart attacks or that 19 died in car accidents or that three died because of 9/11-related illnesses.
A total of 26 police officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty this year. Each of those is tragic and a reflection of the violence in our country. This, though, is not some race-based dramatic uptick in police shooting deaths. Forty-seven officers were shot and killed in 2014 and we are on pace to have fewer than that this year. Comparatively, 662 people have been shot and killed by police in America as of September 1 and a total of 792 people have been killed by police altogether this year.
Not only that, but as the media attempts to blame black activists for these deaths, the truth they aren’t telling you is that half of all police who’ve been shot and killed this year were actually African Americans. That, though, is inconvenient for their narrative.
We should be able to have the emotional maturity and intellectual honesty to discuss these issues without misstating or skewing the facts (or outright lying about them). It only makes matters worse.
Not only that, but far more police are dying by suicide than they are at the hands of others.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/02/1417623/-To-be-clear-the-number-of-police-officers-shot-killed-is-down-this-year-and-1-2-killed-are-Black#
The whole good cop/bad cop question can be disposed of much more decisively. We need not enumerate what proportion of cops appears to be good or listen to someone’s anecdote about his Uncle Charlie, an allegedly good cop. We need only consider the following: (1) a cop’s job is to enforce the laws, all of them; (2) many of the laws are manifestly unjust, and some are even cruel and wicked; (3) therefore every cop has agreed to act as an enforcer for laws that are manifestly unjust or even cruel and wicked. There are no good cops. ~Robert Higgs
ACLU issues statement on BCSO deputy-involved shooting
Bexar County deputies fatally shot Gilbert Flores Friday
By Robert Taylor – Web – News Editor
http://www.ksat.com/news/aclu-issues-statement-on-bcso-deputy-involved-shooting
Executive Director of the ACLU of Texas Terri Burke issued the following statement:
“The video of Gilbert Flores’ fatal shooting by two deputies of the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office raises serious concerns over whether these officers used force that was proportional to the circumstances. Like other events that that we’ve seen across the country involving interactions with law enforcement, this one points to a troubling trend of overzealous and abusive policing. The video doesn’t show every aspect of the interaction, but it certainly raises serious questions about whether the level of force was constitutionally permissible. We call on the Sheriff’s department and the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office to conduct a transparent investigation and hold any wrongdoers accountable.”
ACLU of Texas Senior Policy Strategist Matt Simpson issued this statement:
“Were it not for the footage captured by a concerned member of the public, Texans would have no record of yet another interaction with police that turned deadly. To provide more objective evidence of police encounters, all law-enforcement agencies should adopt use of body-worn cameras. Though not a complete solution for incidents of deterring officer or civilian misconduct, body-worn cameras would enable law enforcement to become more transparent to the public, promote police accountability, and help ensure interactions with community members are fair and lawful.”
Rep. Joaquin Castro (Texas-20) also talked about the need for more body cameras in his statement on the shooting, released Tuesday.
“The encounter is extremely disturbing as it appears to show an unarmed man with his hands up being shot by a deputy. This incident is further evidence that police officers and deputies should wear body cameras. The widely-supported technology brings transparency and accountability that protects law enforcement and civilians alike. With regard to the specific case in San Antonio, I trust that District Attorney Nico LaHood will pursue an indictment if all the evidence merits it,” Castro said.
KSAT.COM EXCLUSIVE: Unedited video of fatal deputy-involved shooting
Gilbert Flores shot, killed by deputies Greg Vasquez, Robert Sanchez
http://www.ksat.com/news/ksatcom-exclusive-unedited-video-of-fatal-deputy-involved-shooting
Look but don’t see,,,
… Watchout!
@po: well said.
Wrong video link. I hope this one works because it’s interesting to watch.
http://youtu.be/Mobi_AsyAUw
In this video, this officer politely asked the motorist for his drivers lic and insurance about 10 to 12 times. I would have stopped on the 4th try. This is the kind of BS that cops put up with all day long and it’s worse than ever. Their not paid enough for this crap.
http://youtu.be/Mobi_AsyAUw?list=PLLGcMu2N-UrIwMorblpIw4Au1wr4_9Jsz
Lisa, Much of the problem w/ black male contact w/ males cops, be they black or white, is so many inner city black/males have no father in the home. So, they have a huge chip on their shoulder when they encounter an older male. I coached inner city Little League and had to deal w/ that dynamic. But, I had the advantage a cop doesn’t usually have. I got to spend lots of time w/ these chippy boys and they got to know me. They saw I knew baseball, could play the game, and we got along quite well.
“Well … at least the officer did not try to impound the video. Apparently in Dayton you can video but you can’t look.
Raises the important question it the driver had lowered his gaze to the ground when passing the officer would the officer then issue a ticket for failure maintain full time an attention?”. . . .
I agree! I used to be an officer and I’ve never seen anything like this. Most get suspicious if you avoid eye contact, but only after their pulled over for running a red light or expired tags.
We pulled a woman over for driving erratically. Talked to her and she seemed fine, she said she was tired. What got her in trouble was instead of just moving down the road, she motioned for my partner to come closer to her, to make a smart azz comment to Jim and he smelled pot & alcohol. We arrested her. She also had crack in her jean pocket and brought that into the jail, another two counts added because we asked her if she had anything to hide. All she had to do was move on, but she had to put her 2 cents of mouths worth in, and it cost her 2 felony charges.
This guys smart azz comments just added fuel to the fire. Just shut up and comply and the majority of cops will let you roll on down the road.
My understanding of Nick’s rant above is that only he is qualified to speak on cops and black people. The former becasue he knows a 1000 cops, and the latter because he knows a 1000 ghettos!
Nice!
Even going after his father JT now!
wolf, The Black Lives Matter chant from Minneapolis last week is one YouTube. It wasn’t one person, it was many people marching and chanting, “Pigs in a blanket, fry the bacon.” WTF should I take from that? The Houston cop, Daron Goforth was shot that same day.
wolf, That incident you described happened in DeKalb County, GA. If you read my comments over time, I am VERY tough on cops when it’s called for. This incident described in this post is a nothingburger. But, JT has some obsession about cops so he’ll post anything, even nitpicky stuff like this. There’s unrest in the poor, black community. Some of it is on Obama. But, they can’t call him out so they act out in other ways. The cop shooting a fleeing man in Carolina was REALLY bad. There are some bad, racist, hater cops. I have said that many times. I KNOW many cops. The vast majority are good people. I have worked w/ certainly over a thousand during my 40 years in the justice field. The haters here are CLUELESS @ what it’s like to be a cop in the inner city. These liberal hand wringers would crap their pants if they were ever in the inner city. I just know too much and know how little these haters know. They get all their info from left wing rags. I have real world experience. I would love to know what some of these anonymous trolls do for a living, if anything. I use my real name and give out information about myself. I walk the walk. They just talk.
Hi Nick and DBQ – if we are thinking of the same event, the Chicago area officer was killed by another officer after they went to the wrong house and shot the owner and killed his dog. I doubt that black lives matter had much to do with it. If we are thinking of the different incidents, sorry. I am not sure what is so bad about supporting police but opposing unethical, illegal, or unnecessarily brutal officers. The brush with which Nick and others paint BLM is the same brush that they object to being used on officers.
There is a wild crime spree of shooting at cops all over this country by black criminals– that has sprung up just in the past week…. and it will not end well. Indulging the whining of the irresponsible confrontationist element of their population is only going to serve the forces of disorder.
We’re headed back to Jack London conditions at this speed.
Here’s a different voice of a responsible citizen
The whole concept of discussion and exchange of ideas is lost on poor Nick. Anyone who disagrees with him gets his ire.
Fascinating!
Paul, there are a great many cops and a great many communities where cops and residents manage to work together quite well. One of my buddies is a cop in a rougher part of town, and he does a great job interacting with the community, he is very well liked and respected.
Too often however, force, brute force is the tool cops use to police.
It’s really a shame these absolutist right wingers who populate this discussion. There is no middle ground. Either you love and support the police unconditionally or you are a cop-hater who thinks it’s funny, or appropriate or otherwise deserving that cops get killed. It’s tempting to just ignore you dipshirts and go back to the actual discussion, but I do hold out hope that it might dawn on you that there ARE bad police out there doing bad things who give a bad name to the good police out there doing great work and making a real difference. And the idiots who support the bad cops unconditionally are making the world a much worse place. The vast majority of police are hardworking honorable people. Just like the vast majority of citizens are law abiding and are not out committing crimes. Get a grip. Get some freaking perspective and stop coming here for your daily dose of attention.
i see the Huffpo lemmings have jumped on a video. It is poor quality. I see a man w/ his hands up. Then I see jump cuts on the video and the man apparently down. Unless there’s more, it’s just diversionary “Look squirrel” horseshit. Report on this when you got something more. Plus, the guy looks white? BLACK LIVES MATTER!
In many ways, the secrecy which surrounds peace officer personnel actions works against them now. In so many cases, there is an immediate response by an agency, which represents that an investigation will be done but often also suggests that the agency assumes the officer is not in the wrong or assumes that the affected individual is a criminal and not worth believing. Nothing else is released in public unless a civil action is filed, at which point public statements by the agency generally reiterate a defensive position. An agency may have conducted a full investigation, reached a legitimate conclusion based on the available evidence, and imposed an appropriate level of discipline–but the public will never be told. Eliminating the use of grand juries in officer involved shooting cases, as proposed in California, might actually improve things. At least members of the public could actually be informed of the evidence relied on when no charges are brought. When prosecutors who generally don’t use grand juries suddenly need the confidentiality when presenting evidence regarding an officer involved shooting, it is bound to raise questions.