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It’s not worth the danger of the chase for a traffic violation, and not worth the danger of the chase for the drugs.

    • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Taking the article at face value, the cops didn’t know about the drugs until the chase had ended in the crash they caused. All they knew, as the chase began, was that a driver hadn’t stopped for an alleged but unspecified traffic violation — 30 in a 25, perhaps, or a rolling stop at a sign.

      That’s not enough, in my opinion, to merit a chase all across the county, onto the interstate, and a PIT-maneuver-induced crash. These cops inflicted a lot of danger on your home town over a traffic violation. Bad cops, absolutely.

    • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, police shouldn’t be engaging in car chases. This might not be a very egregious case, but police chases often end very poorly and result in dead cops, dead suspects, and/or dead civilians. Personal property for civilians also tend to get caught in the crossfire. Suspects of color also are treated more harshly, and often receive an extrajudicial death.

      The bigger problem is police enforcing laws that criminalize rather than reduce harm. Drug trafficking is bad, but it’s incentivized because users of illegal drugs get treated as criminals rather than people in need of medical treatment.

      • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        What should police do when someone chooses not to be pulled over?

        Is it just an automatic give up because they happen to be in a car? They can do whatever they want and it’s not worth trying to enforce anymore?

        I agree high speed chases are terrible… but there is no other solution. Checking their plates only works if they aren’t obscured, and if police weren’t allowed to chase, there isn’t much disincentive to obscure your plates and just refuse to pull over.

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          If someone decides to run, then no police should not take chase. If it’s an infraction like speeding, the officer can record the plates and issue a fine for the infraction as well as evading police officers. You know, like what happens when police take chase.

          • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Can you address the other part, how to deal with people obscuring their plates… it’s already way too common, what would happen if obscured plates and not pulling over meant you couldn’t be caught for any crime? Car chases are sometimes currently the only way to solve a problem that needs to be solved. And no matter how safe the officers try to make it, which most of them do, there is of course automatically elevated risk.

            Ideally we need a different solution, but we don’t have one yet.

            • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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              1 year ago

              Obscured plates? There’s a guy in NYC that goes around and fixes them on parked cars. (NYPD can’t be bothered.) That seems like a fine way, though, tow and impound the cars when they’re parked.

              • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOP
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                1 year ago

                …tow and impound the cars when they’re parked.

                But there’d be no chase, no inherent danger, no exciting video for the 6:00 News, and no 'roided up cops would get the chance to say, “You think you can run from me, fucker?”

                And all that is the whole point of the chase.

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Just because this particular chase didn’t go bad doesn’t make it a good thing or an argument for police chases. This both an exception to the rule and the best case scenario. Most chases don’t end like this. Most chases end with at least one person dead, usually the suspect. Remember, innocent until proven guilty. It’s not a good thing for cops to kill suspects that run.

          Police selectively enforce laws all the time. Drug policy needs to change, but police don’t need to enforce it the way they do. Enforcement in the war on drugs is highly discriminatory, so it takes a joint effort between police not enforcing and politicians changing these laws for the change to happen.

        • 【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          You don’t understand this issue. You’re wasting your breath, talking about something you obviously don’t know about about.

          The facts that they gave chase, risking the lives of innocent bystanders, for any traffic violation is a serious problem. Period.

    • snooggums@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      But, if you show me multiple gallon zip lock bags of a controlled substance (regardless of your belief of whether it should be controlled or not) from the arrest… it’s absolutely ‘with intent to distribute’ at that point.

      How did the cops know that was in the car when they escalated a traffic stop for a traffic violation into a high speed chase?

      • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Where do you get high speed chase? Nothing in the article states the speed.

        A chase just means they didn’t stop when the lights and sirens came on.

        • snooggums@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          The title of the article is “Georgia cops proudly show off ecstasy pills, after high-speed freeway chase over traffic violation, and crash caused by PIT-maneuver”

            • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              The original headline at the news site is “Driver caught with $400K in Ecstasy pills, cash after high-speed I-20 chase.”

              • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                1 year ago

                Read the article. That isn’t what they describe at all.

                Cops start a pursuit when the suspect fails to yield. Once they lose visual they stop the pursuit. They don’t say what speed or how long but they stoped perusing

                A short time later they see the suspect and pit the car.

                The article is poorly written but this doesn’t appear to be bad policing. They knocked off the pursuit when it wasn’t safe and immediately stopped him when they don’t the suspect later.

                I love to bash shitty cops but this is how I want them to behave unless I see evidence otherwise.

                • snooggums@kbin.social
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                  1 year ago

                  So since the title has the words high speed chase, but they don’t repeat it in the text of the article, the headline can be ignored?

                  Go back to school and learn to read.

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                    1 year ago

                    Nice ad hominem.

                    The article doesn’t describe that headline at all. It describes the opposite of the headline.

                • Doug Holland@lemmy.worldOP
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                  1 year ago

                  Yeah, “high speed” isn’t mentioned in the article. It’s in the headline, though, and if we’re believing the TV station’s coverage enough to have a conversation about it, the headline is part of the coverage.

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                    1 year ago

                    Headlines are to hype the article.

                    When you read the article the exact opposite is described.

                    As I said it’s a poorly written article but based on the actual article. I do not see an issue.

                    I only found one other cite and it was similar.

                    I have a huge issue with idiotic chases but this doesn’t appear to be one.

    • A7thStone@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This time their stupid driving did not cause much damage. Other times that manuever has caused loss of life for those involved and innocent bystanders. Police should not be using pit manuevers at all. They are dangerous even for trained professionals in a controlled environment.

        • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          regardless of your opinion about PITs, this very specific situation does not reflect negatively on police

          “Police generally shoulndnt shoot at black kids, but this black kid was a real asshole, so it’s justified.”

          The pigs didnt know what was in the car when they risked the life of the driver and many people around.

    • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The article is really short but I don’t see an issue with what happened here.

      Sounds like the cops were reasonable since they didn’t pursue at all cost. That’s a large issue of mine. Often they pursue at all cost and that’s a no no.

    • alvvayson@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Also, society has decided that these drugs are illegal to sell and told the police officers “catch criminals for us, we’ll pay you”.

      The coppers did a good and lawful job on this one and are totally in the right to be proud of their work.

      I personally disagree with the whole drug criminalization thing and I also totally think we should hold the police accountable when they abuse their powers.

      But this ain’t that.

      The poster is an idiot or a bad faith actor.

      • iHUNTcriminals@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s not the drugs that are bad. It’s what the dealers and organizations do to be able to keep selling them. Treat dealers and criminals like nazis and crooked cops/politicians/businessmen.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      “Ends justifies the means”? You’re saying the police risking lives and property over a traffic violation is ok because it worked, and they got lucky with what the guy was carrying?