Every police chase is a danger to innocent people’s lives. Some chases are necessary, but a broken taillight is not worth that risk.
Every police chase is a danger to innocent people’s lives. Some chases are necessary, but a broken taillight is not worth that risk.
Absolutely. I’d go so far as to say that the vast majority of police chases are unnecessary.
To a lot of cops, the occasional high-speed chase is one of the job’s best perks, right up there with beating people up.
Yeah, media portrayals and other cops keep attracting adrenaline junkies and people who want to control other people to the job and that’s two of the absolute WORST traits a cop could ever have.
I went to school for law enforcement and changed my mind after realizing it wasn’t for me but I had a professor who said people get into policing for 1 of 3 reasons:
- It’s the family business
- To get power/control over others
- To genuinely help and protect people
It seemed at the time like he could tell the 3rd group was shrinking.
If you know that a light is broken you have a number plate which means that you can just send a ticket to the owner. At least that’s how it works here in Germany. If the owner didn’t drive then they’re welcome to tell police who drove, unless they reported the car as stolen they’re on the hook.
Oh and German police don’t chase pretty much ever and definitely not on the Autobahn. That’s what helicopters are for.
That’s how it is here in Denmark too. As usual, us Nordics do it the common sense way while US cops are pretty much as idiotic as they’re malicious, making them doubly dangerous to themselves and especially others.
Not saying that German and Danish cops don’t have their ACAB moments, mind you, but they ARE less awful (in part due to more and better training) and our systems constrain them much more effectively than the insane pro-cop US one.
That’s what helicopters are for.
I’m just imagining German police choppers fitted with big ol’ electromagnets, snatching suspects off the Autobahn and lifting them into the air.
It’s actually why police deaths have gone down a bunch recently. It’s also why they die more by felonious assaults now than anything else.
Most police departments don’t chase unless the person they’re chasing has done something felonious like robbery, threaten to harm, etc.
In almost any town you’ll see people bitching about them not pulling people over anymore because a good chunk of people WANT them to do this still. It surprises me every time.
Let the typical traffic stops run. LET THEM. Radios operate at the speed of light. Cars do not.
(I’ll admit I did get away once. 1987, 16-yo, Tulsa OK, smack in the middle of the city. I was speeding like hell, cop was stuck in traffic, other lane. He lit up, I lit down and dodged into an industrial park. Still can’t believe that worked. Probably get SWAT after me today.)
Are you comparing police chases to enforcing traffic laws? One may lead to the other but you can’t just stop enforcing laws because some people run. Also, if they do run I suspect they’ll just get a ticket in the mail or the cops show up at their house. I know some people drive unregistered and uninsured but that’s an even smaller portion still.
Each time the public asks for an exercise in discretion, the pigs go and show us why it’s not a good idea.
You should see what they do to jaywalkers
A jaywalker killed by a speeding cop is the next story I’m posting.
Does it include resisting arrest and knees on the neck?
Blaming the police for this seems like a real stretch…
It is 100% the drivers fault for running away, as implied by the article, to try to his illegal firearm.It’s not a zero sum game, I’d give both 100% blame.
So the police have no agency? They are required to make no decisions on whether what they are doing is worth it?
What about if they just started shooting at the car and hitting bystanders? Would that be 100% the driver’s fault, too?
Much like firing a weapon in a crowded area, a car chase is inherently dangerous and I would say any sane person in the vicinity of a cop trying to pull someone over for a broken tail light would prefer that person go free than to have their lives put in danger for a ticket for a broken tail light.
People often don’t act in their best interest or the best interest of society.
I currently live in a US city where the police haven’t enforced traffic laws since the mid 2010s. It has by far some of the highest accident rates in the country. Not just accidents, the “mad max” level shit that goes on like roving bands of dirt bikes is insane (like 20-30 together). It has become such a huge issue, it is destroying businesses, tourism, home ownership, etc, in the city.
To further expand, although you didn’t mention it. People in this thread say just get them later… How exactly? Probably a 5th of the license plates in this same city are fake. People are literally just printing fake temporary tags.
And no I’m not exaggerating about my examples, if anything I’m understating the problem for this particular city.
You live in a US city where the police haven’t enforced traffic laws since the mid 2010s. And no, you’re not exaggerating. Is the city Fast and Furious?
I live around Atlanta and it’s extremely uncommon to see someone pulled over from a traffic violation. Almost literally everyone that drives on 75 or 85 in the city is doing 75+ in a 55 and I’ve seen cops drive by them. Yep, cops going by them even faster. Hell, you’d probably be at a bigger risk traveling the speed limit there.
Over here, on the civilized side of the Atlantic Ocean, you’ll get a nice photo of yourself. Taken by a traffic camera and sent conveniently by mail. Along with a friendly note stating the amount that you owe the municipality. Having to stop a driver unless they pose an immediate risk seems ridiculous. This just doesn’t happen here.
Most of us over here oppose those types of cameras. We’re not so keen on government surveillance. I know it’s ironic that we’ll willingly let companies surveil us.
However, even with those, things don’t always happen around cameras. Especially when people know where they are. Don’t know how common this is over there but we see the same effect when we know there is a cop sitting at a speed trap.
You don’t have cops killing people for busted taillights? How quaint.
An awful lot of vague bullshit in your claims. I’m not calling you a liar, but I require receipts. You sound exactly like every right-wing nutjob who insists BLM burned Portland to the ground, having never set foot on the west coast in their life.
People foam out of the mouth here any time someone says “someone that’s not a cop made a bad decision”.
The cops abuse their power plenty, but if you’re running from the cops in your pickup with your kid in the car, you chose violence here. Blaming solely the cops here is idiotic and implies that the driver of the pickup has no agency.
Look, nobody is saying the person who ran isn’t wrong. It’s a given, though. Nobody is saying the driver bears no responsibility for the outcome.
People foam at the mouth when others give police a complete pass for endangering the public. Criminals don’t work for us. Criminals aren’t supposed to be protecting us. Police are. So when they behave in a way that increases danger to us, of course we take issue with someone saying they’re blameless because a criminal did a crime.
Actually, many in this thread are strongly implying just that.
