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Wednesday, December 03, 2014

How To Not Get Shot By The Police

I’ve had a cop point a gun at me.

You can even see the picture of it – which, come to think of it, was probably a bad idea. Who puts his hands over his head and takes a snap of a police officer pointing a rifle at him? But, I was in full journalist mode covering 300 cops in riot gear running a bunch of dirty hippies from the Occupy Movement out of a park in Denver. Earlier, I had been up close to the line of cops taking pictures when they charged forward and they probably thought I was some kind of protest leader. Maybe I should have yelled, “Don’t shoot me, bro, I’m a Republican,” but I didn’t think of it.

I’ve also been pulled over quite a few times because of my lead foot, which always felt more like an annoyance than a threat. You get pulled over; you pay a lawyer; your ticket goes away. Repeat every 6-12 months.

Incidentally, that’s the first key to not getting shot by the police. Don’t think of the police as a threat. They’re really not going to randomly beat you, arrest you or shoot you for no reason whatsoever. It’s like a bee. Don’t start swatting at it and chances are, it’s not going to sting you.

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"I’ve also been pulled over quite a few times because of my lead foot"

You know your problem. Why don't you simply okay the law?

Anonymous said...

Yeah tell that to the deceased homeless guy from New Mexico a couple months ago. Tell that to the guy in the stairwell in Staten Island last week. Tell that to the son of a police officer in California from earlier this year. All on YouTube by the way. The root of the problem is the federalization and militarization of our police force. The training they receive is a far cry from the community policing of the 60's up through the early 80's.

Anonymous said...

You know your problem. Why don't you simply okay the law?

December 3, 2014 at 8:19 PM

Maybe the same reason kops do not 'simply obey the law'.

I bet you get yourself off while reading the codebook don't ya?

And then go out and do whatever the hell you want to.