Why is Michael Brown dead and we are still alive?

Mr.Huck

Active member
In before cool story Hansel.

People who have been on here for awhile know that I am a dad and a Freeride coach. I did my share of really stupid shit and had the unfortunate experience of having a loaded weapon aimed at me twice. It's a pretty intense experience. Once was when we were walking back from a 7-11 to our dorm in college and stopped to take a leak on someone's fence. A guy who lived across the street thought we were about to break into the house and pulled a gun on us. The other was by a Town of Vail cop, and that was really terrifying because it is so rare that they ever have to pull their guns out, they're likely to pull the trigger by mistake.

A friend of mine and I had been out shooting skeet and shooting a 22 rifle at targets. Later we went out to a bar and I left the guns in the back of my Subaru wagon(STUPID). My shotgun was wrapped up in blanket but my 22 was laying out. It really didn't look much different than a BB gun so I wasn't really worried about it. Anyway, after a few hours and a few beers I had forgotten that I had them in the back of the car. We headed back to my car so I could drop him off at his car, and on the way out of the parking structure we saw a large group of drunk folks coming into the structure and I decided to have a little fun with them. My Subaru had a quirk that if you revved the motor and then let your foot off the accelerator, it would backfire. I did this and the car backfired by these people and they all hit the deck like a bomb had gone off. We continued on our way, but noticed someone at the exit of the parking structure talking into something. Turns out he was a rookie cop they had posted there to call the station when they saw drunks driving out of the structure. We made it to my buddies car and right as he was about to get out of my car, a bunch of cop cars swarmed us. The cop comes up to my window, and asked for my license and registration, but before I could even hand it to him, he noticed the 22 in the back of the car, yelled "GUN", pulled his gun and stuck it in the back of my head. In retrospect it's kind of a miracle that I didn't shit my pants.

Another time I got busted for open container. I thought I wasn't doing anything wrong and I was probably acting a bit like a dick. I found out that they usually just ask you to dump out your drink and throw it away and that's usually it. Because of the of the way I was acting, one cop looks at the other and says, "there has to be something we can bust this prick on". They ended up writing me a ticket and I had to go to court, all because I decided to get lippy.

What's the point, you ask? At no time in any of my confrontations with the police, did I ever consider trying to fight back, point a weapon at them or try to take theirs. That is why I am alive to post this.

Seriously question though, why do you think people now consider it a viable option to fight back against the police? Yeah, if a cop pulls you over, makes you drop your pants and starts unzipping his fly, fight or flight would probably kick in. But people are going this route for no reason at all. I am just trying to figure out what has changed so much, that people are willing to risk their lives over something really trivial like getting busted for shoplifting, in Brown's case.

Post your stories of dealing with the police, because you are alive to tell the tale.

Sparknotes: We all do stupid shit and have to deal with the PoPo. Why do some decide to roll the dice and try to fight when they really don't need to? Post your worst police encounters.
 
Why? Because they're fucking stupid, that's why.

I've had my fair share of run-ins with the cops as well and it never once crossed my mind to fight back, whether it be in an aggressive physical manner or give them lip. Not once.
 
topic:Mr.Huck said:
A friend of mine and I had been out shooting skeet and shooting a 22 rifle at targets. Later we went out to a bar and I left the guns in the back of my Subaru wagon(STUPID). My shotgun was wrapped up in blanket but my 22 was laying out. It really didn't look much different than a BB gun so I wasn't really worried about it. Anyway, after a few hours and a few beers I had forgotten that I had them in the back of the car. We headed back to my car so I could drop him off at his car, and on the way out of the parking structure we saw a large group of drunk folks coming into the structure and I decided to have a little fun with them. My Subaru had a quirk that if you revved the motor and then let your foot off the accelerator, it would backfire. I did this and the car backfired by these people and they all hit the deck like a bomb had gone off. We continued on our way, but noticed someone at the exit of the parking structure talking into something. Turns out he was a rookie cop they had posted there to call the station when they saw drunks driving out of the structure. We made it to my buddies car and right as he was about to get out of my car, a bunch of cop cars swarmed us. The cop comes up to my window, and asked for my license and registration, but before I could even hand it to him, he noticed the 22 in the back of the car, yelled "GUN", pulled his gun and stuck it in the back of my head. In retrospect it's kind of a miracle that I didn't shit my pants.

The fuck? That seems like a huge overreaction to rifles in the trunk. In Montana I see people driving around with guns clearly visible in their trucks all the time. Pretty common in MN during deer season too.
 
13238645:caucasian_chad said:
The fuck? That seems like a huge overreaction to rifles in the trunk. In Montana I see people driving around with guns clearly visible in their trucks all the time. Pretty common in MN during deer season too.

The rookie cop heard the backfire and reported it. The cops originally came up to my car because they thought we were throwing M-80s out the window in the structure. Then the cop saw the guns and probably thought we had been shooting them off in the structure I guess. But yeah, it wasn't like there was any way I could turn around in the drivers seat, reach back over the back seat into the hatchback and grab a single shot rifle, load it, and get myself into a position to fire at him. He could have had Dominos delivered before I could have pointed the gun at him. That's why it isn't great to have encounters with small town cops.
 
Michael Brown wasnt going to do good anyways. Same with everyome that is protesting. They are all just stains on society and need to move on.
 
This is honestly the say all end all argument to this Michael Brown situation. I'm no more of a fan of the cops than anyone else, but when you're confronted by one, respect is the only thing that will get you anywhere. No matter how unjust their reasons may be.
 
damn nsers, if you think that as white kid you are not treated differently by a cop than as a black kid you have clearly not gotten out of your parent's subdivision enough. If I tried to beat up a cop, I have no doubt that I would get the shit beat out of me. But if that same cop shot and killed me while I was unarmed the story would be completely different. No one is condoning trying to fight a cop, its stupid every time. The reaction by many to this event once again highlights how the casual blindness to the plight of others and the willingness to not see what you don't want to is just as destructive as more direct, racist actions.
 
13238787:ghosthop said:
If I tried to beat up a cop, I have no doubt that I would get the shit beat out of me. But if that same cop shot and killed me while I was unarmed the story would be completely different.

But Officer Wilson didn't think he was just going to be beat up by Brown, he thought he was going to be killed by Brown, which I think makes a difference in his decision to use his gun. Not saying you're wrong about blacks being treated different than whites, because I don't think you are, but I don't know if this case really supports your argument. If what Wilson said in his interview last night was true, than I think he was perfectly right in using his gun, regardless of race.
 
Had a taser pointed at me once at an MIP party, apparently jumping out of a back window is frowned upon

Few years later I ended up getting tasered but I volunteered for that one

Sucked but I'd rather get hit by a taser again than pepper sprayed
 
13238787:ghosthop said:
damn nsers, if you think that as white kid you are not treated differently by a cop than as a black kid you have clearly not gotten out of your parent's subdivision enough. If I tried to beat up a cop, I have no doubt that I would get the shit beat out of me. But if that same cop shot and killed me while I was unarmed the story would be completely different. No one is condoning trying to fight a cop, its stupid every time. The reaction by many to this event once again highlights how the casual blindness to the plight of others and the willingness to not see what you don't want to is just as destructive as more direct, racist actions.

I get what you're saying, but what happens after you get shot doesn't really matter. I'm not saying that some cops aren't racist, that they don't profile, and that you don't have a better chance of getting hassled by the cops if you are black. Hypothetically, if I was black and I knew that cops in my area profiled, I would be even more cautious to not be aggressive towards them. Some cops are assholes, but being a dick to them is not going to make the outcome any better. I still believe that the number of times that cops will just fuck with you for no reason is pretty rare.

My bigger concern is that our society is starting to look at cops as the problem instead of the solution. I have never had any interest in being a cop. Personally, I can't think of many jobs that would suck worse, but I have a ton of respect for people who do it. Now you throw in all of these riots whenever a cop is forced to shoot someone. I'm worried that no one in their right mind will want to be a cop and the only people who will do the job will be social sadists. I'm just not sure how rioting and looting is going to lead to an increase in the quality of law enforcement.
 
13238748:baethoven said:
This is honestly the say all end all argument to this Michael Brown situation. I'm no more of a fan of the cops than anyone else, but when you're confronted by one, respect is the only thing that will get you anywhere. No matter how unjust their reasons may be.

Respect is earned not given. I will always have respect for the badge and the risk and the risk and officer takes on by wearing it, but if an officer doesnt respect me or my rights Ill show him zero respect in return.

That being said, Ive only had 1 incident where I had zero respect for the officer I was dealing with.
 
I've had the unfortunate privilege of being threatened with K-9's (heard the yapping) and that's when I knew it was time to quit running. So I gave myself, acted calm, listened to the officers and apologized. They interrogated me, I gave them curt answers. When they found out I went to a respectable school and wasn't a shit head, but someone working 70 hour weeks to help pay for school, they began to respect me more. After sitting for an hour cuffed in a cruiser, I was released, given a court date and eventually received a version of probation.

If you treat people how you want to be treated, it's common to receive similar treatment.
 
13238887:beantownsmuggler said:
Wow, this thread is fucking stupid.

What makes it even worse is that you typed out a book trying to explain your stupid point.

You're stupid because you didn't even read it.

Right on OP, I couldn't have said it better
 
13238961:Ralph_Swaggum said:
I've had the unfortunate privilege of being threatened with K-9's (heard the yapping) and that's when I knew it was time to quit running. So I gave myself, acted calm, listened to the officers and apologized. They interrogated me, I gave them curt answers. When they found out I went to a respectable school and wasn't a shit head, but someone working 70 hour weeks to help pay for school, they began to respect me more. After sitting for an hour cuffed in a cruiser, I was released, given a court date and eventually received a version of probation.

If you treat people how you want to be treated, it's common to receive similar treatment.

what did you do
 
Got clocked with a mag light by a cop in Florida when I talked back to him. From that point on I have been polite in my confrontations with the law.
 
I was 14 and protesting the cutting down of trees by the Berkeley Stadium. The protest got out of hand and cops started to tear gas us. Long story short, I got tackled to the ground by a cop and arrested. Dad picked me up from the station and beat my ass when I got home.
 
I can't answer Huck's question because I really don't know the answer. I'm fairly certain however that if Michael Brown was white, the same thing would've happened, and nobody would know about it because news agencies can't make a story out of a white officer shooting a white teenager in self defence after the teenager tried to take his gun and then attempted to charge him. Dunno, people are looking too hard for racism in cases when it;'s likely that racism never played a factor.
 
It's so fucked that it is justifiable for a cop to shoot you if you punch them. Even more so that it is still justifiable for them to shoot you when you are running away as in michael browns case.
 
13239551:APSheWantsTheD said:
It's so fucked that it is justifiable for a cop to shoot you if you punch them. Even more so that it is still justifiable for them to shoot you when you are running away as in michael browns case.

You're probably trolling but if not then you need to familiarize yourself with what actually happened. Not what you heard Al Sharpton say on MSNBC.
 
13239460:Shredsterr said:
I can't answer Huck's question because I really don't know the answer. I'm fairly certain however that if Michael Brown was white, the same thing would've happened, and nobody would know about it because news agencies can't make a story out of a white officer shooting a white teenager in self defence after the teenager tried to take his gun and then attempted to charge him. Dunno, people are looking too hard for racism in cases when it;'s likely that racism never played a factor.

I find this a huge problem these days, because everyone is always trying to be so politically correct all the time, they just look for anything that could be a sign of racism anywhere. It is actually kind of sickening.

The media do this even more, but that is because they get more views from talking about disasters and unfairness, so they dont give a shit what they show as long as it gets the views.

13239567:omnidata said:
Because I live in Europe.

.
 
im not dead because i dont live in the states, where cops feel its ok to shoot people as a precaution or shoot people by accident because they were trying to shoot a criminal.
 
13239551:APSheWantsTheD said:
It's so fucked that it is justifiable for a cop to shoot you if you punch them. Even more so that it is still justifiable for them to shoot you when you are running away as in michael browns case.

troll harder
 
13239856:Granite_State said:
If you punched another civilian or even an army vet, they certainly wouldn't shoot you.

if you assault a random person on the street and they think you might kill them, you definitely have the chance to get shot...
 
Because in the 40+ times I've had to deal with police, I either admit that I was doing wrong and I deserve what's coming, tell them I didn't know I was committing a crime but do whatever action you think is warranted, and maybe ask if I can call my attorney if it is one of those oh-shit situations where I might need one. I don't fight verbally or physically, ever.

But I guess I'm only alive because I'm not a black male.

White privilege I guess is the only reason I'm still alive
 
Dealing with police can get tricky when they are a nervous rookie and only speak Italian.

I was traveling through Italy and for a few nights I was in rome. I was traveling with a school group studying a course abroad during the summer. Basically we were partying all over europe while getting a really easy grade in whatever course they offered. I was taking grade 12 english but that doesn't matter. We were trying to get on the metro at night but we showed up just too late and the metro had just closed. We spoke with the manager of the station then turn around and leave. This girl traveling with us, lets call her Sophia, has to go to the bathroom. She asked me to walk with her. We are walking around rome at night and it's not the best idea to let a teenage girl wander alone, so I went. We go through the a doorway following the signs to the restroom. A few flights of stairs later we can't find the bathroom so we turn around and start walking down. Being a little drunk we weren't listening to anything and probably making some noise. We turn a corner and see a police officer running up the stairs. He looks up at us and starts yelling. He immediately draws his gun and points it directly at my face. Now, I'm staring directly down his black 9mm. Trying not to make sudden movements I put my hands up and try to speak extremely broken italian. He doesn't understand a word I'm saying and I don't understand him. Great. A minute goes by and the intensity only escalates. His hands begin shaking, I'm terrified that he would shoot. I dont remember much from the conversation but I kept trying to tell him we were lost and looking for a washroom. After what felt like an eternity of heated confusion he finally lowers his gun. He runs up the stairs and throws me against the wall. He pats me down and then Sophia. More yelling and we are being escorted down the stairs and to the metro office. We see the english speaking man we spoke with only minutes earlier and tell him what happened. He told the police officer what we told him and the officer let us go to catch up with our group.

In the end it was our fault for going somewhere we weren't allowed but I'm pretty happy neither of us got in trouble for it or shot. Pulling out a gun seemed like a bit of overkill but its understandable considering what the situation could have been.
 
13239951:CoreyTrevor said:
Because in the 40+ times I've had to deal with police, I either admit that I was doing wrong and I deserve what's coming, tell them I didn't know I was committing a crime but do whatever action you think is warranted, and maybe ask if I can call my attorney if it is one of those oh-shit situations where I might need one. I don't fight verbally or physically, ever.

But I guess I'm only alive because I'm not a black male.

White privilege I guess is the only reason I'm still alive

I'm mean, less the killing part, you would be ignorant to think that there isn't plenty of racial profiling in the police force...

African Americans make up just about 50% of the total prison population in America and are incarcerated nearly 6 times more than white people.

Here's some more racial disparities:

About 14 million Whites and 2.6 million African Americans report using an illicit drug.

5 times as many Whites are using drugs as African Americans, yet African Americans are sent to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of Whites.

African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months).

If you don't think our judicial system is at least slightly biased towards whites than bitch you be trippin.
 
why does everyone care so much about michael brown, he was a criminal and tried to take a cops gun, i dont really care that hes dead. what about all the innocent people who have been killed by police? dont see that shit on the news do ya?
 
13239856:Granite_State said:
If you punched another civilian or even an army vet, they certainly wouldn't shoot you.

If you tried to punch me I would not hesitate to draw my gun and aim it at you. If i think you are intending to hurt me I will shoot you.

Dont punch people if you dont want to get shot
 
13240134:SFB said:
why does everyone care so much about michael brown, he was a criminal and tried to take a cops gun, i dont really care that hes dead. what about all the innocent people who have been killed by police? dont see that shit on the news do ya?

well you do, but people seem to not really care about it that much.

and this is a pretty good take on things.


john stewart, though taking it to extremes (which is necessary because many people like to see the other extreme side of it)

but any way,

when i think of the insanity that is the US law enforcement system, i think of the time that in bringing one gunman down (at the empire state building i think?), police officers hit NINE innocent bystanders in the crossfire.

FUCKING NINE!!

nine random civilians were shot by police trying to bring one guy down. this is absolutely insane. yet, somehow it is tolerable.

when the fuck are you guys going to wake up and start training your police properly? this is a perfect example. profiling a black dude and killing him because he's black. so what if he has a history. he wasn't killed because the cop had his history as a criminal in the back of his mind, the cop was already on edge because holy shit, big black dude, i'm all fucking psyched out expecting him to be a criminal. and we all know the self-fulfilling prophecy. you expect a guy to be a criminal, so you are prepared to shoot him before you even figure out what the fuck is going on.

it's sickening.

recently some lady rammed her car into a whitehouse barricade in having some mental breakdown, so police chase her down and UNLOAD into her vehicle, killing her. oh, and by the way, THERE'S A FUCKING 1 YEAR OLD IN THE VEHICLE!! were they even aware? was there any real threat? fuck no. shoot first, figure out why we're shooting later.

and you guys think 'hey i need guns and protection from bad guys.' no you need guns and protection from yourselves. from your own law enforcement who is supposed to be protecting you.

oh but then lets march into other countries and promote the peace and prosperity that we are SO GOOD AT EXEMPLIFYING OURSELVES

fucking yanks are right out of it.
 
13240140:El_Barto. said:
If you tried to punch me I would not hesitate to draw my gun and aim it at you. If i think you are intending to hurt me I will shoot you.

Dont punch people if you dont want to get shot

This is the dumbest thing I've read all day.
 
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