William Barr is a soulless moral monster who probably sucks Trump off on the regular. However,
he is not wrong about this.
I'm not arguing for mouthing off with obscenities or actual physical resistance either (because clearly no good ever comes off that) but surely there is some wiggle room between just asking questions/explaining yourself and just straight up "OBEY OR DIE!"
There absolutely is room for a conversation. But if the cop says no, or doesn't want to talk, that's it. Their job is to enforce the law, not debate philosophy. If they believe you have broken the law, you have the right to public legal representation. If you refuse their instructions, it's their right to arrest you for it. If you resist arrest, it's their right to use force. If they fear for their lives because of your resistance, at least in the US, that means you risk getting shot.
Are there problems with training, discipline, racism, and more within various police departments in various states? Absolutely. But you don't solve these problems by undermining police authority. You create needless risk to your life, and you do a disservice to the office by forcing them to make tough calls. The fact that many good officers are afraid of being accused of racism, only makes it harder for those good cops to do their jobs properly.
Incidents of unwarranted police violence are rarer than the internet would have us believe, because some incidents are widely publicized even if what actually happened is incredibly ambiguous based on the footage. All this does is undermine the legitimacy of law enforcement, feeding into the attitude that resisting police instructions is a good idea. It fucking isn't. Don't do it. Viral internet videos will not solve this problem, unless they are unambiguous examples of police brutality and lawbreaking.
People get killed while complying all the time.
That's bullshit. Obviously there is an incidence rate, and it's probably higher in the US than other countries. But
all the time is hyperbolic to say the least.
People have been shot before they were even able to turn around, much less resist arrest
Why do the cops have their guns drawn on your in the first place? Are your hands up when you turned around? Did the police instruct you to turn around? Every situation is unique. Speaking in broad terms about rare incidents helps nobody.
Kinda hard to complain when you're dead, b. Not to mention the folk who comply and still get killed.
If only complying insured that one's life wasn't in danger. It doesn't.
This. We have bodycam footage of people complying and still getting murdered. Fuck the GOP.
Again, this is almost never the case. Prove me wrong. Especially you UnpopularBlargh.
Complying means making yourself as meek and non-confrontational as possible, along with following instructions *like you don't want to get shot*. I have never seen a video where any such person was shot.
There have been a couple very horrible incidents I will grant, involving people with mental health issues - but these are not evidence of the things people think they are. Mental health is poorly understood, and police procedure and training needs a lot of work. But again, non-compliance won't solve the problem.
Very short sighted, complying or failure to complying is not an issue. The issue is a combination of racists in the police ranks, corruption and how police are trained in the United States (the amount of guns in the country doesn't help either).
Failure to comply absolutely is an issue; and in almost every so-called police shooting, whether touted as racist or not, there is evidence of this occurring. But you are absolutely right otherwise. Racism is an issue, albeit in select states and state departments, and in numbers that, as far as I can tell, do not exceed the per-capita incidence rate in the general population.
Apparently it's up to you to burn through all your cash and free time to prove it down the road, long after you have already put up with defamation, suffering, pain, and the humiliation of the initial arrest (if you even survive).
This country drastically needs a law enforcement overhaul
You have the right to a public attorney for which you do not have to pay money. You should also go to the media, and record evidence with your phone as always. Again, you don't know half the time why you are being arrested - sometimes a cop could be responding to a call about someone else, for whom you have been mistaken. Racism makes incidences of this more likely too. If they're responding to a violent suspect, they may draw their guns immediately.
I'm not going to say law enforcement are doing a good job. Far from it. But I must emphasize again that despite is other evils, Barr's
advice here is sound
. Resisting arrest, or failure to comply with police instructions, is stupid. We want police to be better, but if we want that, we have to better too.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don't necessarily agree with Barr's wording. "Zero tolerance" policies of any kind are subject to abuse and should be avoided. You can't shoot everyone who resists arrest, or argues with police,
obviously. My message should be clear: try not to give the police any excuse to arrest you or use force against you, and in 99.99% of cases, they will not.
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