First of all I can't make a comment on the tape until I watch it until I am satisfied I am looking at it objectionally.
I will tell you what concerns me about this
.When my son was about 13, we came home from the KH, and he and his buddy, asked to go in the backyard to play basketball. We had a house that had an alley behind us, but in the yard was concrete poured for a basketball court.The kids were not out there five mins and I saw blue flashing lights reflecting in the windows. By the time I got outside, my son was already leaned over the trunk of a police car and handcuffed. And the other boy was being questioned, and ruffed up a bit.
I was like,,,,,,,,,,,what the hell could have happened in just a matter of minutes for this to happen?
The kids played with 3 basketballs and the balls went over the fence into the alley when they played. So when they all three went over, they gathered them up.Across the alley were businesses on a major road. One being a doctors office.
The alarm had gone off at the doctors office and the police were responding to the call as my son was getting a ball that lodged between the bottom of a pickup truck and the concrete. That is how the ball stopped.So when the cops pulled up he had croutched down at that time, getting the ball. He came up, got scared and ran. They took after him. Now, kids are growing up and do stupid crap. So him trying to run home, made him look very guilty of the call the cops were on.
They caught him and were questioning him when I came outside. Not very nicely either. I understand the frustration of the cops.
I asked what was going on. Who are you ma'am. His mother. Your lucky your son is alive right now, he ran off from us and we would have had every right to shoot him!!!! They took him in overnight. They did not tell me where they were taking him. They did not tell me why they were taking him. They did not tell me how I could get him out. Nothing.I waited until morning and started again to get him and find out what was going on. Fineally, a cop found out where he was and gave me some info. They said I could pick him up at a certain time in the afternoon. When I did get there, I spoke with the chief of something, he told me, my son was questioned overnight and they felt certain he was not involved with anything that happened with the alarm going off in the doctors office. My sons whereabouts were not told to protect him from the press!!! He apologized for any misunderstanding and hoped we all learned something from it.
When I see these kids on this youtube video, I dont see a violent bunch of kids. Mouthy and doing something they know they should not, Yeah I see that. I see no weopans, heck they had skateboards in thier hands, they could have knocked the hell out of that cop and ran off and probably got away. I dont know.
There are kids that have been accidently killed by cops, and that is very scary for a parent to hear. You want them to respect but also to have good judgement for themselves too and not be abused.I certainly think this cop needs to sharpen his skills on dealing with kids.
As a passerby, I would have been horrified to see something like this. I could recover much better from a fly-by skater than what was displayed there in the street.
To truely fix this problem, I would dissect the scenerio very much and learn from it and train my officers to better handle this. Those cops are on bikes and walking the streets there. It is a tourist town, very peaceful, three lakes close by, so alot of campers, lake people, older people, flea market type stuff going on. The witnesses have assemblies there very close to where this happened.There is a horsetrack there and it is renowned for its springs and bathhouses. There is a very dervisified bunch of people there all living together.To see that much aggression just does not fit into the atmosphere of that community.
I am still sorting out my thoughts on the whole thing. The problem I see with most PROBLEMS is the escalation that takes place and makes things worse. I have dealt with abuse and learned how to de-escalate situations. There are several different ways IMO this cop could have handled those pesky skateboarders!Kids are gonna be kids, I like to think we could still have kids like The Little Rascals and Dennis the Menace. Creative kids doing stupid silly stuff but really, harmless. Look how much Dennis provoked ....whatever that guys name was.
Thanks for the listening ear,
purps
go skateboarding day: cop v.s. skaters
by purplesofa 54 Replies latest jw friends
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purplesofa
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delilah
Kids are gonna be kids, I like to think we could still have kids like The Little Rascals and Dennis the Menace. Creative kids doing stupid silly stuff but really, harmless. Look how much Dennis provoked ....whatever that guys name was.
Unfortunately Purps, we live in a far different world than what we and even our parents grew up in. It's far more dangerous, and the kids (some) seem to be hell-bent on being a menace to society. Today, they are packing guns and knives to a fist fight...and the girls seem to be worse than the guys with fighting and laying on the beatings. I worry for my boys...
I'd really hate to be a cop these days....and I'd really hate to be a teacher too, for that matter. There is a real loss of respect these days....if you or I had ever shown such disrespect to our elders, or if we ever had a cop escort us home, we got a whooping like nobody's business. So we just stayed out of trouble. It wasn't worth it.
However, I still think there are plenty of kids out there who are creative, and silly, and harmless....like Dennis the Menace, provoking old Mr. Wilson....
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gymbob
In the video, both cop AND skateboarder are doing things they shouldn't do.
This really isn't about skatboarding. Nobody's made a law against skateboarding! The kid in the video keeps saying, "I was just riding my skateboard"....No, you were riding your skateboard someplace you KNEW you were not suppose to, and didn't stop when a LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER asked you to.
It's like somebdy saying, "I was just riding my bike", when in reality, they were going 15 mph down the freeway on a 10 speed! There's a law against that, just like the skateboard law.
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rwagoner
I work in a small area....there are probably 50,000 people in three connected cities. But even in a fairly rural, Norman Rockwell type of New England setting the days of the little rascals and dennis the menace are long gone. Gone and replaced with drugs, gangs, weapons, murder and any other host of problems.
A traffic stop recently ended with an officer being shot 4 times and then run over by the perp...killed....all for just a traffic stop. We had two teenagers stab two residents to death in their home. We've had children...children try to burn their families home down. Just two weeks ago I took a call for a woman whose estranged husband had broken in, beat her with a bat, sexually assaulted her and covered over 80% of her body with lye. It is hard to picture the innocence that we once had in this country....maybe I'm jaded or cynical but we live in a very different world than the one that I grew up in.
To think of many of the skate boarders that we deal with as just miscievious little kids is a stretch. As another poster mentioned, some have a skate and destroy attitude and their lack of respect for other people and property costs tens of thousands of dollars a year. (Marble and Granite are expensive)
In the example that you gave of your son....in our town they would most certainly have been taken to the PD and questioned if officers responding to an alarm at a Doctor's office found them crouching behind a truck. However given his age you would clearly have been notified and the questioning would not have been an overnight event. We rarely even hold serious offenders who have been charged with a crime overnight...they are either offered bail or taken to the county jail.
Again...Brutality is wrong but times have changed and we live in a dangerous world and cops go out on patrol every shift and have to treat every encounter with a cautious and sceptical eye in order to go home to their families at night. Every call, no matter how safe, routine or innocent it seems must be treated as a potential threat until it is proven to be otherwise.
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Tigerman
Well, rwagnor, you make it sound like every cop in the country is putting his life on the line every time they clock into work. Sorry, but you ain't bullshittin' me. I've lived and worked in many parts of the USA and THE problem with most cops is their f...in' ego. However, I suppose most guys do become cops ( not police officers ) cause they get to live out their childhood fantasies . . you sound like one of those guys; making excuses and coming up with BS reasons to justify strangling a 16 year old kid cause he may have done some damage to " public property". Oh my God ! Not property damage. Who are you working for anyway, the local insurance peddler?
Get a grip !
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purplesofa
We...people in general, have alot of accumulated pain and hurts, bad experiances and history.
It seems to distort whats happening at the present , where we can't be objective. It's the way we grow and learn, I realize that.
It is a protection, a shield.....it's helping to destroy what little bit of sense and sanity we have left I think.
We are an angry lot of people, rebellious and scared. It's a shame for all.....IMHO
purps
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rwagoner
Okay...I dont know how many times that I need to say that I don't condone what this officer did.
Tigerman: I am a dispatcher...not an officer....pretty clear about that.
Concerning your point about ego...sure, there are some John Wayne types but they are the few, not the norm. And YES...I do mean to state..not imply but state the fact that EVERY POLICE OFFICER PUTS THEIR LIFE AT RISK EACH AND EVERY TIME THEY GO TO WORK. If you thinks that is BS then there is nothing that I can say to change your opinion but I'd encourage you to consider a career in Law Enforcement...we never have enough candidates for open positions.
I've stated my opinions and re-stated my lack of support for the Officer's actions. I love a serious, adult, civil discussion, even when not everyone agrees but I won't get into a war of words or get personal. I simply acknowledge that we may not agree and wish you well.
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Tigerman
rwagnor . . just re-read your original post. You are not even a cop! Just a wannabe. Take a hike.
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rwagoner
LOL
I don't what-to-be anything. I am an E911 Dispatcher and have been serving my community for 26 years. I have had a physical disability since I was born and use a wheelchair. I never wanted to be a Police Officer or Fire Fighter and I am quite happy that I am able to contribute as a dispatcher. I do thank you for the 5 second psychoanalysis and personality profile though. I'm sure that it will be very helpful as I continue my career.
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gymbob
Some cops are jerks, like the one in the video. But you don't have to be a cop to be a jerk, just read Tigerman's posts.....