Quote :

"what are they supposed to do walk up to everyone out there and nicely say sir/mam we need you to leave the area your causing a disturbance? They got on the megaphone and gave the orders. Not the officers fault the people couldn't hear because they were being so loud nor was it the officers fault that the people were so drunk that they decided to not comply...also just saying"

You can't always just leave. If you have been drinking the responsible thing to do is take a cab. On holidays it takes a while to get picked up. That's just how it is. What do you think these people should do? Leave the crowded public area with a police presence and just start drunkenly walking around the residential neighborhoods surrounding downtown? That's a good way to get fucked up or robbed.

These people were patrons of the downtown businesses and citizens of the US. The bars were no longer serving alcohol. They would have started to disburse on their own if the cops just gave it a little time. If the crowd busted a window or started a fire then I'd agree that it was volatile. Chanting "USA USA USA" is not a threat.

I wonder how many people in this crowd have served our country by spending time overseas only to come back to this fucking shit.

11/1/2010 11:14:18 PM

I get your distinction between "less-than-lethals" and "non-lethals" as being potentially fatal or highly damaging projectiles versus weapons that are supposed to cause great discomfort but no damage

however, I still think it is quibbling

CS is a chemical weapon and appropriate to use for riot control
NOT as an alternative to talking

11/1/2010 11:15:03 PM

^^You know that everyone in the army had to go into a gas chamber and huff tear gas in basic, right?

11/1/2010 11:16:09 PM

yeah I'm aware of that

that surely justifies using it on a crowd of civilians

11/1/2010 11:17:01 PM

^^ yes. What does that have to do with anything?

[Edited on November 1, 2010 at 11:18 PM. Reason : s]

11/1/2010 11:17:53 PM

its not exactly the terribly inhumane thing that you make it out to be if they have to go through it during job training.

11/1/2010 11:19:10 PM

so you won't mind if I douse you with a little CS gas next time you're leaving the bar?

I mean it isn't so terribly inhumane

11/1/2010 11:20:08 PM

no, i'm not a giant raging vagina that's going to hop online and cry about it when police use it to break up my drunken mob

11/1/2010 11:22:05 PM

Yo

The guy didn't just "walk out of the bar"

He headed over to the fucking mob that had been ordered to disperse

You do dumb shit like that, you run the risk of sucking down some pepper spray

11/1/2010 11:24:35 PM

I guess you haven't spent a lot of time in large groups of people
it is hard to get out

and like he said, a lot of folks were waiting on cabs or getting a little late night grub

nice try, troll

11/1/2010 11:26:35 PM

Waiting for cabs on a closed street?

Hard to get out? He was out of the crowd and then he walked into the crowd. Just don't walk into the crowd.

[Edited on November 1, 2010 at 11:27 PM. Reason : DURP DURP TROLL DURP DURP]

11/1/2010 11:27:34 PM

often i like to dance and chant while peacefully waiting for a cab in the middle of a mob on a closed street

11/1/2010 11:27:48 PM

Quote :

"its not exactly the terribly inhumane thing that you make it out to be if they have to go through it during job training."

I've done a shitload of stuff for my job--to include going to the gas chamber for some tasty CS on numerous occasions--that would not be OK for a cop to do in this scenario.

11/1/2010 11:27:49 PM

it is not illegal to join in a large scale celebration

11/1/2010 11:29:42 PM

But it's a good idea to gtfo when the cops tell you to

11/1/2010 11:30:21 PM

no arguments there
totally good idea

but if you don't hear them order you to disperse you're kind of getting fucked over

11/1/2010 11:31:44 PM

I'll defer here to the description of one of the youtube videos

Quote :

""My roommates and some bunny guy started dancing in the street when the police said go home.""

11/1/2010 11:33:01 PM

good ol wilmington

11/1/2010 11:34:09 PM

I don't know if you saw the video but you cant walk up and talk to everyone in a situation like that. In a perfect world sure and maybe in your world but not the real world. You people think you know so damn much. I don't see you putting your life on the line to save someones life. Either way you will never understand. You will never go through the training we have to, you will never make the sacrifices that we have to. The risk of this routine call (traffic) could very well be my EOW. You will sit at your computer being SO TUFF and talking great deals of shit about law enforcement and saying "fuck the police" but when someone is committing a crime towards you...well then you sing a different tune. Either way your entitled to your opinion just as I am entitled to mine and mine is from the law enforcement perspective.

and end rant I'm done defending my line of work as I feel I don't need to justify it to any of you anymore.

11/1/2010 11:34:27 PM

Quote :

"The guy didn't just "walk out of the bar" He headed over to the fucking mob that had been ordered to disperse"

I already stated that when I walked out of the bar the crowd was all around me. And I wasn't in the middle of it, just on the parking spaces on the side of the street. The crowd of people consumed all of Front St, sidewalks and all. And again, no orders were given to me or anyone around me to disperse. If a cop told me he was gonna gas me if I didn't leave, you bet your ass I would have been gone in a second.

The fact remains that that a non-violent crowd randomly gathered in a closed off street. A street that was set aside for them to gather in. Police officers used one megaphone to warn thousands of people. Obviously it didn't work. This crowd was shot at with chemical weapons because they didn't listen, not because they were being violent. That my friend is a police state.

11/1/2010 11:37:08 PM

I respect the work of LEOs and I understand that it is a dangerous and often thankless job

but the constitutional rights of citizens ALWAYS trumps the convenience and even the safety of law enforcement officers

otherwise what is the point of living in the USA! USA! USA! ??

11/1/2010 11:37:45 PM

Quote :

"You people think you know so damn much. I don't see you putting your life on the line to save someones life. Either way you will never understand. You will never go through the training we have to, you will never make the sacrifices that we have to. The risk of this routine call (traffic) could very well be my EOW. You will sit at your computer being SO TUFF"

Dude, I've been on 2 combat deployments. Just a few weeks ago, I was living in a plywood shack about 50' from the base perimeter in Afghanistan, getting mortared/rocketed probably once per week.

I don't expect any favors and admiration or whatever for that, and you shouldn't for being a cop. It's a job, and if the bads start outweighing the goods for you, you should get a different one.

Also, I'll spare you the dick-measuring contest when it comes to talking about training we've been through. The point is, nobody cares, nor should they. I say all that to say that I'm fully qualified to call all of that shit irrelevant. You volunteered for the job, for one thing. For another, the fact that there are unusual challenges specific to your job doesn't give you (speaking generally, not specifically describing you) license to do it poorly. If you can't handle a fucking block party that isn't hurting anything to begin with without tear gassing them, maybe you should find a different line of work. That's piss-poor headwork from a crowd control perspective, a big reason why people have a bad attitude towards LE, and morally/legally questionable, at best.

Quote :

"If a cop told me he was gonna gas me if I didn't leave, you bet your ass I would have been gone in a second."

I'd probably be more likely to stay than I otherwise would have. CS sucks, but I've been gassed plenty of times before and I'll be sure to get it again in the future...standing my ground and proving a point might be more valuable.

* This is assuming that I was in the right: minding my own business, not hurting anything, and a cop told me that I had to leave that particular public property or he was going to gas me.

also, I'm totally condemning this neanderthalic police conduct, but calling CS a "chemical weapon" is probably sensationalizing. I mean, strictly speaking, I guess it is, but it's kind of a loaded term.


[Edited on November 1, 2010 at 11:58 PM. Reason : ]

11/1/2010 11:38:45 PM

^ I assume that you aren't at me

I figured this would be something we would agree on

11/1/2010 11:39:40 PM

11/1/2010 11:40:31 PM

Quote :

" don't know if you saw the video but you cant walk up and talk to everyone in a situation like that. In a perfect world sure and maybe in your world but not the real world. You people think you know so damn much. I don't see you putting your life on the line to save someones life. Either way you will never understand. You will never go through the training we have to, you will never make the sacrifices that we have to. The risk of this routine call (traffic) could very well be my EOW. You will sit at your computer being SO TUFF and talking great deals of shit about law enforcement and saying "fuck the police" but when someone is committing a crime towards you...well then you sing a different tune."

Sounds like you're pretty bitter towards the people you're supposed to "Serve and protect". Maybe you should just gas us since we don't agree

And FWIW, there are several military servicemen engaged in this debate, along with the hundreds of marines and soldiers present in the crowd that got gassed. I myself am contracted to ship out for Coast Guard basic in February and will undergo much more intensive training and job dangers than you. So get off your high horse fucker.

11/1/2010 11:42:14 PM

I once took a law enforcement class at a community college
that's SOME of the training
...
I got an A

it was on search and seizure

11/1/2010 11:43:03 PM

Quote :

"The risk of this routine call (traffic) could very well be my EOW"

I can tell you that the police were in very little danger before they gassed the crowd. Everybody was fine and happy. After they were ordered to shoot gas and run a damn cavalry charge through the crowd, people were pissed and angry. I was seriously waiting on someone to attack an LEO. The horses were freaking out, the crowd was panicking and I could see the fear on the cops faces. They did not want to be there gassing people. Now, which situation was more dangerous for the police? Dance mob in the street or angry mob of thousand who were just attacked with chemical weapons?

11/1/2010 11:47:26 PM

surely the dance mob

someone could have caught the gay

11/1/2010 11:49:11 PM

Quote :

"I myself am contracted to ship out for Coast Guard basic in February and will undergo much more intensive training and job dangers than you. So get off your high horse fucker."

which one of you has the highest horse?

11/1/2010 11:50:11 PM

I was maced directly in the face twice by somebody who I didn't even know was a cop. And I know a lot of people who have been tear gassed in groups just for being in the wrong club at the wrong time. The point is that we weren't in some form of righteous protest...we was drunk. To compare this to what protestors in the Civil Rights movement endured is absurd.

I've never discussed the mace/tear gas situations on here, but I suppose I'm not shocking anybody when I share that those "wrong clubs at the wrong time" happened to be places with a majority of black people at the time.

So, I guess I'm not so wildly sympathetic here...seriously:

Quote :

"Tarpon: I never expected to get tear gassed, especially in Wilmington, NC. I've been in much larger, destructive and malicious crowds and never have I seen cops be this forceful and aggressive."

CONGRATULATIONS!!! WELCOME TO AMERICA AS MILLIONS OF MINORITIES KNOW IT...WE LOOK FORWARD TO IGNORING YOUR COMPLAINTS.

11/1/2010 11:50:49 PM

Man, does every Bridget post have to be about race relations

11/1/2010 11:52:01 PM

^^ I didn't come on here to seek pitty, I posted this so others would know what kind of bullshit went down in Wilmington. I'm sorry about your experiences, that's fucked up. But the more people publicize this type of stuff, the better.

[Edited on November 1, 2010 at 11:54 PM. Reason : ^]

11/1/2010 11:53:41 PM

I try to make it one out of ten.

11/1/2010 11:53:50 PM

Seriously though, y'all know what I'm talking about.

We posted about an incident just a few weeks ago...Athens Drive High School's school cafeteria got pepper sprayed cause three kids were fighting. And we seen the mug shots of the kids that were fighting....they weren't cut up or bruised or nothing.

So, yeah, I guess that kinda makes what Tarpon endured look like a joke. He wasn't 14 years old and tryna eat his square pizza in peace while he studied verb conjugations for his next period's test...he was drunk in the middle of a mob in the middle of the street.

If you guys are gonna protest this, then I expect every single one of you to go back to the ADHS thread and get your rage on.

[Edited on November 2, 2010 at 12:13 AM. Reason : sprayed, not gassed]

11/2/2010 12:03:20 AM

Quote :

"I don't see you putting your life on the line to save someones life. Either way you will never understand. You will never go through the training we have to, you will never make the sacrifices that we have to. The risk of this routine call (traffic) could very well be my EOW. You will sit at your computer being SO TUFF and talking great deals of shit about law enforcement and saying "fuck the police" but when someone is committing a crime towards you...well then you sing a different tune."

You just don't seem to understand that for those of us who are bitching we see no actual crime; or at least no crime worthy of the police force's action. We see a group of cops who assaulted American citizens without good cause and without properly notifying them that they needed to disburse. You're blinded to the possibility that your brothers may have overreacted. This was downtown Wilmington, a guy in a bunny suit, a guy in a sombrero, and an otherwise peaceful crowd chanting "USA USA USA". We're not talking about LA after the Rodney King incident here.

And while I may have chosen a relatively safe career, that does not mean I'm ignorant to the experiences of LEOs. Nor does it mean that I'm going to grant LEOs the right to assault me as they see fit.

[Edited on November 2, 2010 at 12:05 AM. Reason : s]

11/2/2010 12:04:00 AM

Wow, totally uncalled for!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&ob=av3e

11/2/2010 12:07:27 AM

I just got rickrolled by an Obama commercial followed by Rick Astley.

11/2/2010 12:12:42 AM

^^^^ Bridgett, that's fucked up. I never saw that thread, but it is indeed far worse than what happened in Wilmington. Again, I'm not looking for people to feel pitty. I just want to get the word out when shit like this happens so people are aware of abusive police forces.

[Edited on November 2, 2010 at 12:16 AM. Reason : .]

11/2/2010 12:15:47 AM

11/2/2010 1:04:21 AM

Dude, we get it. The cops gave you a runny nose and a horse stepped on your foot.

Take a note from Anne Frank and write a diary about it if you want to make an impact.

11/2/2010 2:33:00 AM

Quote :

"Athens Drive High School's school cafeteria got pepper sprayed cause three kids were fighting. And we seen the mug shots of the kids that were fighting....they weren't cut up or bruised or nothing."

you are one stupid liberal piece of shit.
you fail. go home and stay.

11/2/2010 8:20:13 AM

when I was in HS the whole library (that I was in) got pepper sprayed cause two kids were fighting

one kid broke a fucking chair over the other's back

I think THAT was an appropriate time to use chemical weapons
you know, when people go all wrestling federation

11/2/2010 10:22:28 AM

You wanna see some fucked up shit a cop did look up victoria snellgrove.

She was just standing in line to get a hot dog and got her head penetrated by a pepper spray bullet.

11/2/2010 10:24:30 AM

I've watched video of Miami-Dade police intentionally breaking a guys wrists with handcuffs and then dragging him by the broken appendage while horrified bystanders yell their objections to the behavior

the most vocal opponents to the brutality ALSO got arrested

11/2/2010 10:26:06 AM

Quote :

"You will never go through the training we have to"

BLET is pathetic; its academics and physical fitness standards are sub-par at best.

11/2/2010 10:52:04 AM

BLET sounds like a good sandwich though

bacon, lettuce, egg and tomato

I also like a BLAT

- avocado

11/2/2010 11:04:23 AM

Quote :

"BLET sounds like a good sandwich though"

Bacon, Lettuce, Ecstasy, Tomato?
lol

11/2/2010 12:17:39 PM

Quote :

"I myself am contracted to ship out for Coast Guard basic in February and will undergo much more intensive training and job dangers than you. "

coast guard? basic training? what is that, like 6 weeks? hell, even the Air Force has a more difficult basic training than the coast guard. LOL.

you go on with your bad self.

11/2/2010 12:37:15 PM

What job dangers?

getting wet?

11/2/2010 1:15:34 PM

yes, because the CG never runs into drug runners with multitudes of weapons or gets deployed to war zones throughout the world

11/2/2010 1:16:53 PM