Me: What do you do if you get pulled over by the police? YS: Slow down and pull over as soon as soon as you can. Me : What next? YS: Turn on your inside light so they can see inside, crack your window, put your hands on the steering wheel so they can be seen. Me: Why? YS: So they know you arent reaching for a gun. Me: What else? YS: Answer their questions respectfully. Me: Why? YS: Because theyre armed and they can throw you in jail or shoot you. Me: What if you have to reach for something in the car, like your license? YS: You always let them know youre about to move. Me: Why? YS: Because they might think youre reaching for a weapon. Me: You have to be predictable and make them feel like you arent hostile. Every time. What do you do if youre with friends who are doing stupid things in the car? YS: Get out. Me: But if you get pulled over, you do not get out of the car unless youre asked to. Thats a big mistake. If a cop has pulled you over, you getting out of the vehicle is going to look aggressive no matter what. You dont get out of the car. YS: Okay. Me: And you also have to choose your friends carefully. They may do stupid things when youre with them that can get you into dangerous situations. If they dont understand that the police are not to be messed with, it could end badly. In the end, you do not draw the attention of armed people, your life is more important than your dignity or your civil liberties. Until hes older and wiser, this is the best course of action for this child. Hes too young to make good decisions in snap, life-threatening situations. Period. In this situation, where life, limb, and liberty are at stake, its different. We treat this as we would an encounter with a moose or a bobcat. Your goal is survival. Because he has access to the internet and the radio he is well informed. NPR, Radley Balko, LRC, Stossel, local news. They all tell the tale. He harbors no fantasies about every policeman being his friend. He knows that statistically, hes more likely to be killed by a cop than by a terrorist. He knows innocent men go to jail and death row. He knows crime labs tamper with evidence. He knows the FBI crime labs are under investigation. He understands policing for profit. He knows most police brutality complaints are never investigated. He knows there are cops who have cameras that fail at inconvenient times. Hes seen the Department of Justice statistics on criminal activity and brutality in policing and understands that most cops dont report criminal activity or excessive force. He gets that if they did they would get a reputation as a snitch and they could put their lives in danger. Thats all reality and its not been hidden from him. It would be impossible. He pays attention. But hes also aware that when hes one on one with a cop, this is someone with a gun and a badge who may or may not have just dealt with violent people and might justifiably feel jumpy. Good cop or bad cop, this could go very badly if he makes a mistake. So he takes this seriously. Hes also aware that not all his friends will understand this. Hell have to make those decisions carefully. We give them as much reality as we can. We acknowledge that sometimes reality is awful. But then we pull them right back to reality. This is someone with a gun. If they shoot you dead and are later found guilty of wrongdoing and we get millions of dollars and they go to jail, it doesnt matter. Youll still be dead. So this is what you do. Every single time.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 02:33:07 +0000
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